As I left and got into the car, I noticed the other groups selected for the task of finding the target... an apparent humanoid wolf, green eyes, green lines along its body, its face looks like a wolf's, its entire back has curious designs with its green part contrasting with its black hair, except for the entire front where the green lines divide the black with gray, it looks like an ordinary person... or well, in this world.
Then the sound of the motorcycles that once captivated me returns once more; I only manage to see the trio retreat on those machines that... believe it or not, helped me understand the world and my role a little better, even though I don't have all the information
On the other side, a crowd watches a giant war chariot; several beings and humans around it are admiring the sight of such an engineering feat, because how is it possible that so many weapons can fit in one place?
The windows are weapons, the exhaust pipe is a weapon, the tires are a weapon, even the steering wheel is a weapon... it has blades that look quite sharp at least.
One born resembling a bird said: "Relax, gentlemen, each of you will have the opportunity to board the hunters' ship. It's not that we can take everyone on the next mission, but this one is top secret." Then another, born resembling a crocodile, approached: "Don't be pretentious and get on board. The sisters have already left!"
The crocodile roars, then everyone makes space for the group to get into the car and they start driving; you can even hear a group of these beings following them with different signs referring to a horse that is apparently part of the group
In the corner furthest from the entrance, a group of snakes lurked in the shadows, checking a tablet and hissing things that were difficult to hear from the distance. Like the trio that captured me, they also had motorcycles, but these had a different design; one could say that only snakes could ride that kind of vehicle.
And in the end, he was with Nibal. "Are you ready?" he asked as he got into the convertible.
I looked around a bit more to see if I could find the bullfrog from yesterday; several did appear today, and one even resembled the bird I was looking for, but its red colors weren't the expected green that yesterday's bullfrog had.
"Everything's fine, let's go"
Once I got in, we set off towards what Nibal said was a workshop on the outskirts of the city, which, although it might not seem like it, is still part of Jeffrey's territory, where one friend might know another friend who could lead us to our true objective.
Nibal: "Don't focus too much on humans, I recommend it, their population has been declining lately," Nibal says to break the silence between us. It's not that we have anything better to talk about, really nothing. I literally met him a few hours ago.
"And... where exactly do newborns come from?"
Nibal: "Well, as far as I know, the so-called 'third generation' were responsible for combining both. At some point, several humans took up arms against beasts that appeared in the desert, but this group, instead of confronting them, imprisoned and studied them, until an awakened being discovered a way to combine the best of human and beast into one. The problem is that taking such power resulted in... that," he says, pointing to a group of beings with various characteristics, some wearing custom-made, quite expensive outfits, others quite simple, some with attire similar to military Mayans, more like Tauruses, but specifically...
"Come over there..." I say, shocked.
Nibal: "What?" - He momentarily loses control of the car as my weight almost makes us tip over due to my sudden action.
"It's him! It's him!" I say to Nibal to make him stop as quickly as possible. Among a group of rather strange hybrid offspring, part elephant and part reptile, is the avian taurus I had seen the day before, with its wings folded against its horse-like body, and some smaller ones sticking out from the sides of its almost human abdomen. The color of the green lines is impossible; it must be
Then Nibal nods, followed by a sigh. He probably thinks he won't need his friend to find the guy. Of course, this guy doesn't look anything like a Taurus. We're looking for a wolf, not that.
But my instinct tells me he could help me. He was the only one yesterday who ran away when he met my gaze. He might have been in a hurry for some reason, but when he saw me, I really felt something. Call it madness, but he knows something about me that, of course, he doesn't.
After we stopped, Nibal also got out with me, now walking along the city's pedestrian walkway, towards the group of elephant-reptile hybrids, who, with their size, could easily hit me and easily disarm me.
Nibal: "So... you found our..." - He takes the tablet from his belt. - "Dear wolf, don't you think that if he were nearby, the sisters would have caught him by now? Besides, there's no indication he's anywhere near here."
'The sisters? I suppose he means the trio that captured me, but only one sounded like a woman, the one who originally chased me all the way to the pyramid control head... and the other two didn't sound like women at all in our previous interactions'
"No... it's someone who's... running!" Upon noticing me, the bull runs away from the group of elephants, leaving them confused and alert. But before I can run after him, Nibal grabs my tail. Although his strength isn't enough to stop me, it does get my attention.
Nibal: "Turn around" - What? - "JUST TURN AROUND"
Then I looked at the group of snakes behind us, the same ones that had been analyzing the tablet earlier; they continued hissing in a language I couldn't understand.
'Why did he want me to turn around and look at them?'
Then we are separated, pushed to opposite sides by the born elephants, I turn to look at Nibal and he just has a smug smile
Born a snake: "What are you doing? What's your problem?" says the snake, naturally spreading out words that require an 's' to be mentioned in the sentence.
Born elephant: "Yessss, snake, you know that intimidating the mice in the pond ends badly for those who dare to get in their way," says one of the elephants as the others gradually arrive, also imitating the elongated way snakes pronounce the "s," but not sounding exactly the same.
The snake glances at him sideways and prepares its fists
Nibal: "Whatever you want to do, you'd better do it now," Nibal says, taking my hand and leading me towards the now distant Taurus. "I may not have the strength, but you'd better hold on."
Then his armor, especially his boots, began to glow with a soft blue light, and then he leaned much closer to my hand, so before I could respond, we were launched towards the full speed of light, or at least it felt that way; we were already going very fast.
I'm being pulled directly by him; my legs don't move with the same speed or agility as him, because I probably look like a flag flying through the air. Now everyone looks like a blur, but the blur that interests me, the green one, is getting bigger and bigger.
'we are closing the gap'
A sound like a crash interrupts Nibal, and he feels a jolt in the strength of his grip.
Nibal exclaims, "Shit!", then stops abruptly. I crash through a wall, dust rises, and my head throbs. I can feel that I might have lost a couple of scales, but thanks to the suit, they stay inside. As I stand up, I sound like a maraca as the remnants of these scales rub against each other.
I look around for Nibal, but he's kissing the ground in front of me, and further back there's a food stall with the vendor shouting at us, plus the bull takes a corner and disappears from sight, but because of the previous run, I can smell the bull's scent in the air, and a green mark appears
When I get up, my whole body aches and vibrates with pain from what happened earlier, but it soon disappears. I take Nibal by a corner of his neck and lift him up.
"This isn't over." - I said as I helped Nibal recover, and after a moment he came to his senses and continued running after me, but this time at my pace, since his legs apparently took most of the damage when he tripped.
The bull keeps running while I follow the scent trail he leaves behind. Why is he running? I just want to ask him a couple of questions.
We went through another alley, then another, and another, oh! An avenue, well, another alley.
As time passes, the essence becomes stronger.
"We're close!"
Nibal: "You'd better have a good excuse, my legs are killing me."
Another shred and the smell now rises up a fire escape staircase
'How can a Taurus climb these stairs without getting too close or feeling completely uncomfortable?'
At the top of the climb, we found ourselves in front of a small cabin; the door was open and there were some feathers around it.
Nibal: "I guess you owe me one, anyway, why did we run, buddy?" - Nibal says after a long time of catching his breath before heading towards the cabin in front of us
Nibal: "Whatever you're chasing, it's not a wolf because of those feathers, so why are you wasting our time?"—he's interrupted by me before he can say anything else.
"Relax, you'll scare him."
Nibal: "I think that after the chase our friend is more than scared," after looking around we began to watch our steps much more carefully, now being careful not to step on anything that might trigger an alarm, it's not that there's anything in the hut that can't be seen from the outside
Upon entering through the open door, we spotted some kind of armor support hanging on it
Nibal: "A bullfighting suit?"
It's strange enough to see a Taurus in general, but seeing one is even rarer; inside, a series of devices begin to glow, as if waiting for the next person to enter.
Nibal: "Watch out!"
He says, then proceeds to avoid a blaster class firing in my direction.
Unknown person: "Don't you dare continue! Or you'll pay dearly!"
He said, then fired again, and again, fortunately aiming for anything but our position.
I grab a nearby table and turn it over, looking at Nibal who is much more scared than I am
Nibal: "It wasn't supposed to get this bad, what did you get us into!?"
"I had a feeling about the person
Unknown person: "Are you going to continue your love talk? Or are you going to go out and die!"
"We don't want to hurt you!"
Then Nibal pulls something out of his suit, almost instantly, a weapon begins to appear, and then he continues to pull out a series of strange things to build the weapon. I must continue to buy time. I look around and notice that some cables connect to a fuse box that fortunately was next to us.
'Perhaps an overload will activate the suit somehow'
Unknown person: "Well, then why are you coming to my house? If you're not here to buy armor and you're following me, then you want something from me that I'm very likely not going to give you!"
More shots are fired; Nibal is almost finished building the weapon.
"Why pretend to be a Taurus?"
The unknown person stops shooting and I manage to hear a sob... He was shooting at us and now he's crying? Seriously, this guy must be out of his mind to do something like that.
Unknown person: "I..."
But before he could continue with whatever he was about to say, he took the initiative, taking advantage of his distraction, to hit the fuse box with a nearby chair, which of course caused a massive power outage that left us in the dark.
'That sounded better in my mind'
Then the person, now without makeup, gets up, with doubtful eyes, prepares to pull the trigger. Fearing the worst, I close my eyes.
'I gave myself a gift super easily'
But before he could fire his weapon, Nibal appeared from the other side of the table and his gun fired a net that automatically trapped the man, who, fortunately for both of them, did not expect such an action and was quickly disarmed by him.
"Well, I guess we can talk now."
Then one of the lights flickered and exploded... I guess that wasn't a very good idea, it's getting dark and we don't have much time left.
Nibal: "You'd better speak up. That net is expensive, and I suppose your suit can cover the damage to mine from when you knocked over that cart."
Stranger: "As if I were going to say anything!"
Then he took his gun and pointed it at his head,
Unknown person: "I suppose I can say something, only if you ask properly." Then Nibal takes my arm and makes the nozzle touch his black pants, which I assume are part of the suit, since they burn quite easily. "Very well, I'll talk! But don't do anything to my suit, I built it myself!"
Nibal: "Who are you and why is my partner chasing you?!" he said, with a hint of annoyance in his tone. Perhaps that network is more valuable or important to him than I realize?
Unknown person: "I'm Duck, Duck Mitauro, and you'd better leave! I have a delivery and my client doesn't like to wait. As for your partner, I don't know."
"You recognized me when we met for the first time yesterday, literally!"
Duck, Duck Mitauro: "Dude, I don't remember my customers after selling them their stuff, I'm not going to recognize you, first time I've seen you literally? Now then, can you let me go?"
Nibal: "Well, my friend, you owe me some good badges for the internet, about you, Duck. You can keep it, I didn't need it anyway."
Duck: "But my client..." - Then the stairs were heard again, but the footsteps were heavy... perhaps the elephants came? - "Okay, I know you, but you'd better free me or we're all dead!"
I look at Nibal and we both nod, but Nibal seems more hesitant about what he's about to do than I'd like to admit; he breaks the rope and Duck is free.
Duck: "Well, hide behind my bull suit, they know about my... condition..."
that?
Nibal looks at me with a face that says, "Are you sure you want to trust him?"
But time is running out and the footsteps are getting louder, so I show the weapon to Duck and hide behind another suit of armor near the door. Then the elephants from before enter, surprising Duck who was hiding Nibal inside his Taurus armor.
With unusual ease, he gets up and wipes off a little nonexistent dust as if he had worked hard on something
Duck: "Well? Such a dramatic entrance from you, to be honest, I expected you to be faster," he says, turning to look at the same group of elephants as before.
Elephant 1: "Well, we took care of that group that was harassing you as soon as you ran away, I hope they give us a discount for the job this time."
Elephant 2: "Yesss," he said in a somewhat silly voice. "They left me with some scratches, so I broke their tusks!"
Then the third elephant also nods, so that someone also broke something on him.
Duck: "Thanks guys, I don't know what I would have done without you a few moments ago." - Is this guy planning to betray us? He's turning around too much in our hiding places.
Then I hear a fourth voice, an elephant from outside the room... so they weren't alone?
Then, a final figure enters the room—it's a horse! The same one from the group with the weapon-laden cart we encountered earlier!
'What are you doing here?'
Horse... I think Juan is calling because of the signs: "Okay Duck, is my mount ready?"
Duck smiles and pulls a lever near him, but nothing happens. Oh... right, the fuses. Then Duck turns in my direction and says something to me with his eyes...
Duck: "Technical details, gentlemen, please. Soon you'll have quality bull armor. Your group won't have to..." He was interrupted by an annoyed whinny from the horse. Now he could bet elephants get bigger with every step Duck takes.
One last time, he looks at the fuse box and then at me, fuse box, me, fuse box, me
Then I hit the fuse box again and everything comes back on once more, so taking advantage of this, Duck pulls the lever once more, some knocking sounds are heard throughout the place and it begins to vibrate
Duck: "As I was saying, your high-quality Taurus armor is about to appear. You'll be able to run as fast as, or even faster than, in the tests when we were analyzing your capabilities, fly in a way, and everyone will believe you're a natural Taurus, evolved as God intended!"
Another whinny from the horse, who keeps his eyes fixed on the multiple drawers in front of him, each displaying a different design. Some resemble scaly bulls, others are avian, like Duck's. Of course, his suit must be made of a better material, because selling such things and not keeping a few tricks for personal use would be a waste of talent.
Many more suits pass by and it seems the horse has calmed down.
Juan: "Then you have quite a bit of work."
Duck: "You have no idea"
Juan: "I told you guys, this man here is the best fursuiter that can exist in the world, he can make you into a completely different person in a flash, you should take charge immediately."
Then Duck takes a couple of bottle caps from a nearby table and throws them at the elephants, then heads towards the boxes that are still moving to pull them again, and they stop immediately with a thick and... horrible! sound! I've never heard such a whistling sound in my life, my damn ears hurt!
Then Duck pulls out another lever from under the floorboards and the box heads towards the center of the room, taking some things with it.
Juan: "Well, maybe he's not the most professional, but his work is worthwhile."
Now he stands in front of the box wearing what I assume is his suit, then he takes some kind of blade and cuts a piece of hair from his mane, then puts it into a kind of box in front of him that emits a series of beeps until it finally turns green
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well, in case you didn't know, a horse's coat color is like a fingerprint in horses, according to abc.com.py. I hope you find it interesting!
Juan: "When you said your technology would only recognize me, I was skeptical, but oh well, why was I so distrustful of you and your tests when we started this business? But thanks also to that chip you gave me, it has allowed me to enter... different places."
Then one of the elephants came in, the biggest of them all, carrying a chest, which when opened, revealed too many bottle caps.
I can hear some moans coming from Duck's armor... is Nibal laughing? Or crying?
Duck: "Hehehe, please, before we finalize the deal, try it, I insist."
Juan: "No thanks, this is more than..." - he said, pointing to the entire suit, which featured red and green lines, legs as large as its frame near the connection where the operator was supposed to be, and its most distinctive detail was a reptile tail, not the typical ponytail... wait... this suit is actually for a reptile!
Juan: "It will really be a great help to us, we require your services."
Duck looked confused when he heard this, even more so when he saw the larger elephant close the chest and take it away, followed by some crocodile-like creatures entering and glaring murderously at Duck.
Duck: "Wait, this wasn't part of the deal."
Juan: "It's just business, sir, business... take him away!" - he says, only to be immediately captured by the elephants. As a human, he doesn't really stand a chance against them in terms of strength, but nothing a tap on their heels can't fix.
He tries to run to grab another lever, but a crocodile grabs his leg and drags him to the ground while hurling insults at everyone present. The fear is palpable in his words; he really didn't expect that.
I peeked my head out a little further to begin the rescue, but Nibal got there first, gesturing in the darkness behind Duck's armor. Obviously, he shouldn't do anything, but when we both heard the badges, his eyes changed automatically and he literally disappeared.
Elephant 2: "Well done, boss, now... when does our reward come?" said the elephant in a silly, childish tone.
Then the horse pulls out a bag of peanuts and they literally stick to him, then everything comes out
About half an hour has passed since everyone left, and I'm basically here alone, until of course, Nibal shows up with a bag of bottle caps that God knows where he got it from.
Nibal: "Well, debt paid, partner. With this, I can buy several nets for a while..." He stops and looks at me, somewhat compassionately. Did I really just lose a source of information? Wait... why do I believe his words? I literally met him a few minutes ago, and I saw him on the street yesterday! "Well, if you'll allow me to say something, and not that I care, but we should go. The reward is still up, and even though no one has claimed it, a day has already passed, so we'd better get rolling."