Forward Through the Shot and Shell
Twin World Crossover
Chapter Eight: Forward Through the Shot and Shell
Hannah walked at a quickened pace down the hall. Two days had passed since she had seen Mattheiu and the dragon-Marissa last. She was nervous. Today was the day she would go with the two for their return to their world. She had told her parent she was going on a weekend trip with Marissa and her parents. Little did they know, she packed enough clothes for a week. As well, she had her makeup kit that Marissa wanted.
Getting to Sarah's apartment, she nocked on it. The door opened a crack and a human hand roughly pulled her in. A hooded, feather-winged figure threw her on the floor, drew a pistol and pointed it at her.
"Stop! Don't shoot!" Hannah held up her hands in a futile effort to ward off a bullet.
The figure holstered the pistol and removed its hood.
It was Marissa.
"Holy shit. You look like an angel." Hannah pointed to thewings on her.
"Actually, I'm a harpy right now." Marissa flapped her wings once.
The gust they created was phenomenal. Papers flew in all directions and a glass slid off the table and shattered.
"HEY! I told you not to do that!" Vixen-Sarah emerged from her room. "Clean it up!" She snapped.
Laughing came from Mattheiu's room.
"Third time today, eh? Thought you'd learn!" The voice had a slight british accent
Hannah walked to the room. She looked inside and quickly withdrew, fear lancing through her veins. A jet black scaled lizard seven feet tall stood, straigtening a cloak on itself. She tried to calm her rushing heart. Suddenly it walked out of the room. It gave Hannah no notice. Hannah saw Marissa walk out and hug the lizard tightly, closing her wings gently around it.
"Oh, you look awesome Lacyus!"
"Is that you Mattheiu?"
The lizard smiled. "Lacyus is my real name."
"I thought you were a dragon. You don't have any wings."
"Half dragon right now. Normally I would have wings."
Hannah smiled. "Marissa's right You do look beautiful." Marissa released him, giving her an odd look.
Suddenly Hannah's human instincts kicked in and she shook her head. "Why did I say that?"
Lacyus frowned. "I don't know..."
***
Lacyus scanned Hannah. In her eyes, he saw a dragoness' spirit.
*Marissa. Do you you see it?*
*Yeah. But she's human. She can't have a dragoness spirit.*
*I can make sure we're right.*
Lacyus levitated a eraser behind Hannah and sent it flying at her.
"HANNAH! LOOK OUT"
Hannah whirled around and caught the eraser inches from her face between her pointer and middle finger.
*Holy. Shit.* Telepathically, Marissa was in shock.
*.1343 Seconds. Faster than my reaction time.*
"Nice catch." Phyiscaly, Marissa was smiling.
"It was nothing."
Lacyus switched to his commanding dragon side. "Did you bring enough clothes?'
Hannah nodded. "One weeks worth. But why one week? We're only going for a weekend."
Marissa wedged herself into the conversation. "The pathway between our world seems to have a really interesting time dillation effect. One day in our world is equal to one hour here. The same is also for the opposite way around. One day here is one hour there."
Suddenly, something drew Lacyus to the window.
***
Hannah noticed that Lacyus was standing in front of a window. He was scanning the world outside.
"What's wrong?"
Lacyus shook his head. "I dunno. It feels like we're being-"
CRACK!
The window shattered as a sniper rifle shot echoed through the street. Lacyus stumbled back clutching his shoulder, howling in pain.
"What's wrong?!?!?!" Marissa shoved Hannah away from the window.
Lacyus took his hand away. A ragged gash from a bullet grazing was seeping blood on his shoulder.
"AP round. Not good." He was visibly gritting his teeth.
"AP?" Hannah was scared and baffled.
"Armor Piercing. Very expensive. Used normaly to go up against APCs or Tanks. Dragon's hide has the strenghth of several layers of kevlar in one layer."
"Shit. They were planning on you being in dragon form." Marissa put her hand to Lacyus's shoulder wound. The scales around it began to glow. When she took her hand away, the wound was gone.
Hannah had a basic idea of how Marissa's healing spell worked, but wanted to get out of the apartment before she asked. Sarah in full vixen burst into the room. Her face was of complete horror.
"I just saw the news! Military teams are storming the building!"
***
Lacyus flexed his shoulder. Though Marissa's spell had healed his wound, the muscle still needed time to repair fully. For now it would do.
"We need to make them over confident." Sarah reasoned. "They'll over extend themselves."
An idea popped into Lacyus's head. "I'll take care of that.
Using mana and looping it over many times, he created a copy of himself. He got the copy to look out of the window, as if it were curious.
CRACK!
The copy took the bullet in it's head. It colapsed like a marrionette who's strings were cut.
"Problem solved."
Marissa grabbed her pack, transforming into dragoness form. "Sarah. Get Hannah out of here. Lacyus and I will try to crossover before they catch us."
Hannah's eyes suddenly lit up. "HEY! I though I was going with you!"
"Not in this situation, no!"
Hannah began to protest.
However, Lacyus' temper got the better of him. "SHUT IT!" Hannah stopped. "You are not going. End of story." Hannah began to protest. He cut her off. "SHUT IT! No more words from you or I'll slit your throat!" Hannah looked up at him in horror.
There was a knock at the door.
"OPEN UP IN THERE! NOW!"
Lacyus motioned to Sarah. She nodded and directed Hannah into his bedroom. The two of them flanked the door.
*On three.* Lacyus flashed his plan to her over their link. *One. Two. Three.*
He twisted the doorknob and a fully armed squad of raid infantry ran in. Lacyus snapped his hand up and pressed one of his claws against the back of one of the soldiers neck. He extended it to it's full length, severing the man spinal cord. Grabbing the man's MP5 submachinegun, he swept the crowd with it, aiming for the neck.
Soldiers dropped, twitching. Others screamed. Some simply colapsed. The squad neutralized, Lacyus and Sunset policed weapons and ammo.
"Be sure to bring a few grenades." Sunset hefted a flashbang.
Lacyus had found himself a pair of Desert Eagles and a pair of XM8 CCs (Compact Carbines). Sunset hefted an XM8 AR (Automatic Rifle) with one hand and a M32 Grenade launcher in the other.
Lacyus smiled. "I thought you said a few grenades."
Sunset spun the launcher once. "When brains fail, brute force prevails." She turned to Mattheiu's room. "Come out!"
Sarah emerged holding a pistol in one hand. Behind her, Hannah was shuffling, eyes full of almost panicky fear.
"It's too late. You two will have to come with us." Sunset said, irked. "This room isn't big enough for a portal array. We need to fight our way to the rec room downstairs.
Sarah nodded. "The quickest way is through Hallway B67, down Stairs B67, then it's just a short run from there."
Lacyus smiled. "This is where you come in Hannah. You'll be our 'hostage'."
Hannah nodded, understanding. There was another knocking at the door.
"OPEN UP OR WE'LL FORCE OUR WAY IN!"
Lacyus cycled the bolt on one of the CCs. "DON'T MOVE OR I'LL SHOOT HER!"
Hannah tried her best to act. "HELP!!! HELP!!!"
"SHUT UP BITCH!" Lacyus leaned down to by her ear. "Good job." He whispered.
Sunset opened the door and Lacyus and Hannah walked through, a gun to her head.
"Just keep moving bitch and I'll let you live." He hissed.
The infantry parted for the two. Sunset and Sarah followed, weapons raised. Hannah was acting flawlessly, tears streaming down her face.
"Please... Please don't hurt me...." She whimpered.
"I said shut up. Now move!" Lacyus pushed her roughly.
The four got to the stairwell without a fight. Entering the stairwell, Sunset closed the door and shot the knob to jam it. Lacyus lowered his weapons, smiling.
"You did really good Hannah."
Hannah smiled at him, eyes still brimming with forced tears. "Dammit. Now I can't stop crying." She wiped the tears away, dropping the act. "Where to now?"
Sarah piped in. "Those soldiers weren't scared of you two." She pointed towards Sunset and Lacyus. "They should have been running for their lives."
"Yeah. It's almost like they knew we were there." Sunset sighed. "They'll be ready for us when we go down."
Lacyus ejected the current magazines in his XM8s. "Then we fight-" He slammed fresh mags home, cycling the bolts. "-and kill every one of them."
The four ran down the stairs at breakneck speed. Reaching the bottom Lacyus already had his plan formed.
"Sunset. I'm gonna cut across the hall. Give me some supression fire. Sarah and Hannah. You two stay out of sight until Sunset and I are done."
Lacyus and Sunset flanked the door.
*Ready?*
Sunset nodded. *On your call.*
*FLASH AND CLEAR!* Lacyus barked telepathically.
Sunset opened the door a crack, tossing in a primed flashbang. After three seconds ., The two charged in.
***
Sunset brought her XM8 AR to bear on the group of blinded soldiers. The light machine gun burped, mowing down the first row of seven soldiers. Switching to her other hand, she fired two grenades into the front and center of the group. Twenty soldiers collapsed in bloody heaps.
*GO!* She shouted telepathically.
Lacyus bounded from cover, running into the rec room. There were shouts and gunshots inside. Motion in the corner of her eye caught her eye. A dying soldier raised a pistol at her.
'Hah! Like that's going to hurt me!' She laughed silently.
The soldier pulled the trigger. Suddenly something shattered. Sunset looked down. The bullet hit her pendant, destroying it instantly. A flash of light lit the hallway. Sunset looked at her hands. They were human.
Lacyus' head poked out from the rec room. His eyes fixed on Marissa for a moment. She gave a meek smile. Lacyus blew her a kiss. "CLEAR!"
Sarah, Hannah and Marissa darted into the room. Lacyus already had drawn the portal array using the soldiers' blood.
"Good job Lacyus." She surveyed the array. Suddenly, the array began to glow. Whirling around, she saw Lacyus activating the portal. "WAIT! You don't have enough-" The world around her melted to white. "-power...."
Marissa felt that burning sensation again. Her limbs were disappearing. Unafraid, she closed her eyes and passed out.
***
Hannah looked around. This must be the crossover zone that Marissa mentioned. Suddenly pain shot up her arm. She looked down and her left hand was being pulled apart. She screamed as she could feel every fiber of her being was ripped apart.
***
Lacyus stood alone in the crossover zone. He felt objects sprouting from his back. Wings. Parts of his scales discolored and took on their normal blood red hue. Tears began to roll down his face.
'I'm going home.'
He felt spears being jammed into his body, but he could care less. Images of his friends and family ran through his mind, stirring more tears.
'Rykuu (best friend). Sunset. Mira. Mom. Dad. I'm coming home.'