The Wolves of London Book 2: The House of Striker

(Chapter song ‘Dark Depths' by Table Top RPG Music)

AVERY

Zander flips his head between Leon and the room. “No. You can’t have that.”

Leon lifts his chin. “If you want to stop what’s going on out there, you will step aside.”

Cora steps forward. “No. You can not release that. If Icarus gets it…”

“Stop talking.” Leon shoves her aside.

“Hey!” Nathaniel grabs him and Leon lands a punch to his chest. Nathaniel flies through us and lands on the floor.

Cora stands in between them with shadow balls in her hands and the shadows around us start to rise in whispers. “No. We won’t let you.”

He raises his dagger to her. “You will not live for another strike.”

Zen raises her gun to his head. “Drop the knife, or I splatter your brains all over the floor.” He side eyes her and she glares back. “Don’t test me.”

I step up behind her and grab her gun arm. “Zen…”

“Avery…” She glances at me and turns back to Leon. “Drop it.” She snarls.

The shifters behind him all shift to large cats. Nathaniel’s hands light up with angel magic and Dorian raises his gun and cocks it.

Demetri drops his fangs and Krestin’s eyes glow. “Dude. I can eat you.”

Leon looks to his shifters. “Stand down. Our fight isn’t with them.”

The shifters shift back and give us looks of death.

“Smart man.” Dorian safety his gun along with Zen.

Leon sheaths his dagger. “Step aside.”

Zander gets in his face. “You touch that thing and we'll have something much larger to worry about than Icarus.”

“I don’t want to raise the God. I want the stone.” Leon growls.

We all turn to the large cylinder tank in the middle of the room. The blue water bubbles and small fish swim in circles around it. In the center of the sandy bottom sits a rock covered in starfish, barnacles, and coral. At the top of the rock, buried almost to the bridge, the three prongs of a barnacle covered trident stands under the white light from the 20 foot ceiling. Its 6 foot handle gleams in the light. The tank itself is 10 feet wide, and 8 feet tall. The room smells of salt and small blacktip sharks circle the middle of the handle like the mast of a wreck.

Dorian walks up to the tank. “Who was taking care of this?” He asks as he looks it over. “It was locked up down here and it’s clean. The fish look healthy. Oliver?”

“Not me, or anyone else.” Oliver states. “There’s no one else in this place.”

“It’s the trident. Ever lasting life. As long as it’s close enough, you’ll never suffer from hunger, drought or violence.” Leon supplies.

“Like a portable fountain of life?” Krestin looks it over with confusion.

“That’s why it’s so tempting.” Zander joins the line around the tank.

“Yes. But we don’t want that. We want that.” Leon points to an aquamarine stone in the center of the trident. “Poseidon is the god of the sea to mythology. The reality of the cosmic being is that he’s Infinity.”

“Infinity?” Zander questions.

“Eternity’s twin, essentially. Eternity deals with creation of universes and planets. Infinity deals with space, time, and ages. He keeps the movement flowing. Hence, water. It’s changing constantly, but never destroyed or ending. Even in the most stagnate pools, water still moves. That stone is a conduit to his power.” Leon crosses his arms and eyes the tank.

“But isn’t he trapped?” Demetri asks. “That’s why we can’t touch it?”

“That's the myth.” Cora starts. “As punishment for waging war on the planet with Apollo, Poseidon was sentenced to imprisonment and his trident sunk deep into the ocean never be found. Although, this weapon could solve a lot of problems for the necromancers, it’s not worth the risk. That trident is the key to releasing Poseidon.”

“Ok.” Krestin steps in. “So, if he’s locked up, how is the stone getting his power?”

“His prison probably works the same as Eternity’s did.” Zander states.

“That's correct.” Leon arches a brow. “Much like his counterpart, his powers are still syphoned for the good of the cosmos… and us.” Leon explains. “But his prison isn’t the same.”

“How do you know all this?” Zander narrows his eyes.

“Infinity told me.” He blinks at Zander. “He’s my father.”

Zanders eyes widen and his jaw goes slack. “Your father is Poseidon.”

“I prefer his real name.” Leon shrugs. “He fathered all of us.” He motions to the other 5 Zetas.

Dorian crosses his arms. “Eternity was slacking.” He snorts.

“Quite.” Zander scowls. “What do you mean his prison is different?”

“The messages I get… some are like the painting. Pictures in my mind. I saw the world evolve.” Leon’s face fills with confusion. “Some are words, but mostly if feels like experience. Flowing around the world. Like eyes.”

Quaid steps up the Zeta as his jaw falls slack. “You’re talking about a person.”

“It’s hard to say.” Leon admits. “But it feels as though that’s what’s happening.”

“Are you saying Poseidon is stuck… in a person?” Zander questions.

“Yes.” Leon says.

“Well, who?” Zen asks. “If we can get to him, then we can protect him from Icarus.”

“And Cain.” Cora adds.

“I don’t know who. I only get small visions that seem to give me knowledge for this event. My father wanted to prepare me for this time and he did. He gave us all the current knowledge of this time and tactical skills to deal with its current enemies. He also made sure we saw the movements of Miranda and Alliance labs.” Leon informs.

“Why Alliance labs?” Avery asks.

“I can only assume he heard our distress in the painting. He prepared us for our release. I don’t know if he knew it would be now, but he kept us informed, so we could find that.” He motions to the stone.

“What do you need the stone for?” Zander questions.

“To destroy the woman that ruined our lives for over 100 years.” Leon responds. His disgust coats his face as his people agree.

“Ok. I understand that, but we can’t risk releasing Poseidon.” Zander stops him.

“We won’t. SARI!” He orders.

“HEY! STOP!” Zen yells just as the lady in black drops her covering and leaps up with the growl of a puma. She lands her feet on the edge of the glass and dives in the water.

“DAMN IT! GET HER OUT OF THERE!’ Oliver gets in Leon’s face and points to the tank.

“WAIT!” Leon shoves him aside.

The tank fills with gold light and the woman turns into a black haired, top less, mermaid with a blue tail covered in white fins. She rights herself, adjusts her breathing and begins to assess the trident as she swims around it.

“Ok. That’s hot.” Krestin smirks.

“Agreed.” Dorian joins.

“I wonder what her blood tastes like.” Demetri rubs his chin.

Dorian furrows his brow. “That’s not the game we wish to play.”

“Oh, I know. I just like a little snack after. It’s a lot of energy to replace.” Demetri says nonchalantly.

“Gross.” Dorian gags.

“I should not be seeing this.” Darius' eyes widen.

Krestin wraps and arm around his shoulders. “Yes. Yes, you should.” He smiles.

“Really, you boys. That’s enough.” Cora scolds. She does a double take on Nathanial. “You, too.”

“Ow!” He flinches as she slaps his arm. “I wasn’t… I mean… “

“Stop talking.” She glares.

Zander flicks his head to Leon. “Where did you get that DNA?”

Leon’s face turns serious. “You’ll have to ask Miranda. That’s not all that hasn’t been seen.”

Sari swims slowly down around the handle. She spirals around the trident to the rock as the sharks inspect her, then move out of the way. Once on the bottom, we practically pin ourselves to the glass. She produces a small knife from a band around her arm. After cleaning off the sea life, she sticks her knife in the behind the stone and pries it off. It pops off the trident and we collectively hold our breath. We back off in sync waiting for an explosion or something. When nothing happens we let our air go.

Sari swims to the top of the tank, surfaces, then throws the stone to Leon.

He catches it, holds it up, and picks the barnacles off. The stone itself is black with a white light pulsing in the center.

“What is that?” Zander asks.

Leon meets his eyes. “The other half of the universe.”

Zander cinches his brows. “Ok. So what next…”

“SHIFT!” Leon commands.

The tank water glows gold and Sati bursts out of the water as a large black raven.

“WHAT? NO!” Zander tries to grab Leon's hand.

Leon throws it up and Sari catches it in her beak. She flies out the door and up.

“YOU CAN'T. YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT THING COULD DO?!” Zen yells.

Krestin, Dorian and I lunge for Leon, but he shifts along with the others. They caw and squawk as the flap their wings and take to the air. The invasion of black feathers confuses us all.

“WAIT!” Nathaniel yells as he runs out the door and flies after them.

We run out and watch Nathaniel chase the ravens up the column and into the door where we entered. A second later, Nathenial comes flying out backwards, hits the railing on the other side of the room and crashes to the floor.

“ANGEL!” Cora runs to him as he groans.

“He shifted to a rhino and rammed me. I’m really hate getting hit.” He scowls.

“You want to be the hero.” Dorian shrugs. “We land on our asses a lot.”

“I can see that.” He says then flops on his back.

“Damn it.” Oliver growls as he places his hands on his hips. “I’m not hearing the end of this, am I?”

“No. I’m pretty sure you’re facing the council.” Zander nods. “I suggest you remove your dires and prepare for a massive inquiry.”

“Fuck.” He lowers his head. “They aren’t the only thing I have to remove.” He grumbles as he walks away.

“What else do you have to remove?” Zander calls to his back.

Oliver raises two fingers without looking back. “Nothing that concerns you! Find your own way out!” And he starts up the stairs.

“Uh… should we search for what else he has in here?” Zen asks.

“No. We'll let Falcon handle it. We need to deal with that.”

We all turn to the trident sitting in the rock. We all put hands on hips, rub lips and cross arms.

“Well, we can’t leave it here.” Cora says.

“I have friend who can help.” Quaid offers. “She has an island that moves between time. I can see if she'll hold it for us. She holds a lot items we Sorcerers want to keep from the world.”

“Like what?” Zen asks.

“Oh, scrolls. Dark omens. Hamsters…” He waves his hand as he lists.

“Hamsters?” Zen arches a brow.

“Why would you keep hamsters from the world?” Dorian snickers.

“Have you seen those things?! With there beady eyes and furry buts… Ugh.” He shudders. “Creepy… and annoying.”

The huddle snickers.

“Alright. Contact your friend and get this out of here today. I don’t need this getting out.” Zander barks.

“I will.” Quaid agrees.

“So what do we do about the safari team?” Zen asks

“We keep watch.” Zander shrugs. “Until they surface again, we can’t do much.”

“They’re after Miranda and the labs. They won’t stay quiet for long.” Avery suggests.

“Hopefully, we can stop them before they hurt someone, but I won’t lie and say having Miranda out of the picture wouldn’t be a benefit.” Zen states.

“Miranda won’t be without protection.” Zander starts for the stairs. “I have a feeling this is going to be a Striker vs. Williams battle.”

We all follow behind him. “You think she’ll unleash her monsters.” Zen replies.

“I know she will and she’ll go to them. Miranda doesn’t take threats sitting down.” He walks up the stairs and I meet Zen’s eyes.

This is going to get messy and I don’t know if being in the middle is a good idea. I’ll protect Zen if I need to, but my gut is telling to let this play out. There’s a really good chance our problems could cancel each other out.

All we need to do is make sure no one gets hurt in the process.