12 Invasion

AN: It is past this point where everything that follows this part will be just freshly written by me, so it may take me a while to actually update this until it's "finished"

I shot up as I realized the full danger of the situation. "What do we do?!" I say, looking around, realizing we don't have any sort of weapons.

"We either make a run for it, to the armory, or we wait and see how bad things get... but that might get us all killed in this situation." Xan says, and I see the very evident panic in his eyes. Suddenly, Jaxx and Kor burst in from the other flap, seemingly out of nowhere, surprising both of us. Kor looks different. Kor stumbles and collapses, Jaxx notices but looks at Xan and I.

"I remember some of the... side effects of being in any sort of intimate relationship with my kind on humans. We need to keep the Gragzuls away from him, or we are all done for. But... they may try to take me as well if they get here. Being a Zulis in a time like this, in a place like this, it makes me more important to both sides than ever before. I can fight with you, but we have to be careful." Xan glances at Kor, whose hair is starting to turn a silver color from the roots up. He crouches and looks at Kor's eyes. They're slowly turning silver as well.

"You have got to be shitting me... fucking a Zulis makes you a Zulis?" Jaxx nods, and I see something faintly glowing through his shirt. He looks around and clenches his hands into fist a few times.

"This is not going to end well for anyone." He growls slightly.

Jaxx knew full well what was going to happen. He knew a long time ago. As soon as he got to the base. He felt stronger than he has in decades, and the prickling sensation going over his 'tattoos', as everyone called them, made that clear to him. He'd been born to either be a healer of sorts or a warrior. Being both comes in handy at times like this. He knew that using his abilities extensively enough will nearly kill him or everyone in the area, but that might be useful if things get too out of control. Worst case scenario: he ends up dying, finally, or he gets everyone else killed. His markings glow brighter and so does his hair and eyes. "You two best be prepared. We have to hold out here until Korax can at least walk by himself." He says, his voice a little deeper and more gravely than before. Adraxian and Xanthos both nod at him. They hear the sounds of fights breaking out all over the place.

Admittedly, Xanthos was definitely concerned. He could feel himself subconsciously fighting over becoming half Gragzul or just remaining human in case if a soldier ran by. Adraxian looked like he was just struggling to keep up with the situation, but Xanthos realized it was because his mind was going through the same thing. He had no idea what to think about Kor, who's still practically in a ball on the ground, his hair still turning silver.

Jaxx could hear more Gragzuls approaching as he felt his energy build up steadily. He grabbed Adraxian's shoulder and quietly said, "Move Kor. Now." He nodded hesitantly before picking up Kor with more ease than expected from someone his size, and told Xan, "We have to go."

Jaxx watched as the duo ran off, both looking back at him, and he could almost feel his markings burning, his vision was turning metallic color, and he slowly walked out of the tent, feeling pressure forming on his shoulder blades as he walked, he could almost hear his bones cracking as weapon-like shards of silver began forming at his fingertips. He couldn't have been any more terrified in his entire life, which was very long, but all he could think about was protecting the person he loved.

"I won't let anything happen to him..." he says quietly, watching a group of four Gragzuls charge at him, and he flicked his wrists slightly, the silver shards getting long enough so they're almost as long as his own arms, and his shoulders popped loudly and a set of silver wings appeared, a metallic noise echoing around him when they folded outward.

Little did many people know, Zulis and Gragzul are closely related, which scared many people when there were more Zulis around. That was all that went through Jaxx's mind as he walked calmly across the field.

I looked at the oncoming Gragzul, their weaknesses an almost black color from my silver colored sight. The four Gragzuls all stopped, surrounding me in a circle, but I don't seem at all phased. I look between the four and say, in almost completely fluent Gragzul, "I do not want to fight you. We can just talk things over. You could leave." The one in front of me huffs in a laughing sort of way.

"You Zulis think you're so clever, don't you?" I look at them, confused.

One of the ones behind me runs at me, but I drop to the ground and kick their legs out from under them, making sure they don't land on my wings, which are softer than the rest of the silver on me. After they're far enough away from me I stand up, and the two at my sides charge me, but I launch myself into the air, surprising them, causing them to almost run into each other face first. I decide it might be a good time to teach one or two of them a lesson, and I drop straight to the ground, curling my wings around me, forming an arrow-like shape. My wings are ten times stronger like this, and I hit the ground directly in between them, fanning my wings out just before the impact, the edges of my wings slicing deeply into their legs, making them fall over and cry out in pain.

I get up, ruffling my wings slightly, causing some of the sand-like ground to billow into the air. The one in front of me growls deeply, but holds up a weapon of some sort. I look confused, but before I can say anything, it emits a high pitched noise, startling me, but before I can move the second Gragzul, the one I haven't permanently hurt, comes up behind me, putting one hand between my wings and the other on my chest, and metal straps connect the two parts and shock me strongly enough to the point where all my energy suddenly goes out in a wave all around me, killing the Gragzul that was behind me instantly, burning the two on the ground enough to almost melt their skin, and the other just gets launched back for several yards and I fall down, my vision becoming colored, but it gets dark a few moments after.

Korax shuffles in my arms slightly as Xan and I keep running, heading for the Med Center, which is the most reinforced building our base has, and it has a secret tunnel into the armory in one of the back corners.

"J-Jaxx.." he mumbles, a pained expression on his face, and I flinch as the mark on my hand starts burning, and I realize it's not a mark, but similar to a crystal they managed to put in my hand without damaging anything. Xan notices me flinching.

"You okay back there?" He was a little ways ahead of me but has been looking back every now and then.

"My hand... b-but we can worry about it later. How far are we?" I say as my hand gets warmer, and suddenly Kor wakes up, his hair half silver, and he pushes on me hard enough to make me almost drop him but I fall over instead, and he gets up, panicked.

"W-where's Jaxx?"

Xan skids to a stop and looks back at Kor and Adraxian, one of which is on the ground, struggling to get up, and the other is visibly tense beyond a point Xan originally thought possible. "Kor we have to move!" Xan yells, and he sees Kor hesitate before sighing frustratedly and helps Adraxian to his feet, and he starts running alongside the two.

I look at Kor. "Jaxx told us to take you and go, I'm not sure where he is." I flinch again as my hand burns more and Kor looks worried. He seems more concerned about Jaxx than he is himself. But I can't say I blame him. If I was in his shoes, I'd be more worried about whoever was in Jaxx's place than I would be for myself.

Kor knows something is wrong with Jaxx. He could feel it. He felt the energy surge, but he knew that Jaxx was alive. Mostly. He notices that they're going toward the Med Center, momentarily confused. Then he remembers hearing a rumor about a tunnel in the Med Center.

By the time we reached the Med Center, my hand was starting to turn red slightly, but I noticed a bucket of almost completely frozen water and I grabbed it, putting my hand in the part where it's not frozen, making steam billow everywhere. I hesitate a little, noticing that the water is getting warmer. The communicator in my pocket sort of dings, but only I hear it. I take it out with my free hand and look at it. All it says is:

'Use your power'

I don't even know what that means. I shake my head and put it back. Out of nowhere, a Gragzul charges into the Med Center, and I instinctively reach my hand out toward it. A fireball forms and launches itself into the Gragzul's chest at full force, making it fly backwards out of the building. I look at my hand, which is cooling down a little.

I look at Xan and Kor, who are both staring at me.

"How the HELL did you do that?" Kor says, putting his hands on his head.

"I-I don't know..." I look at my hand, and then Jaxx bursts through the door. The three of us barely recognize him. His markings, hair, and eyes are all glowing brightly, he has large silver wings that look like the feathers could cut you into thousands of pieces, and large, shard-like pieces of silver overlapping his fingers. He looks slightly like a Gragzul, but silver and also somewhat human.

"I would like to... l-leave now." He says, sounding tired and he almost collapses on the spot, but Kor runs over and keeps him upright. The silver around Jaxx's body starts to sort of sink back into him, and his wings fold up.

"You did good, Jaxx. You did good." Kor says to him softly. Xan pops open a trapdoor in a corner.

"Alright everyone, in here. This will lead us about two miles out of the base, where we can contact other forces for backup. Now, get a move on!" We all go down into the tunnel, having to help Jaxx due to the fact that he's exhausted, and we run down the tunnel.

This is one time I won't regret conditioning drills in base camp.

It took us about half an hour to get to the end of the tunnel, but when we got there, we struggled to get the opposite trapdoor open. Xan has to basically throw himself at it to pop the damn thing open. Climbing up, we see that it was because it was covered with tiles.

"Hey, we need backup at the CCFF camp two miles south of here." Xan says to a person at a computer. The person nods and types furiously at their computer, and an alarm goes off, the whole place changing almost instantly into a military base.

"What's the situation?" The person says.

"We've been invaded by the Gragzuls." The person looks at Xan.

"You're gonna need a lot of backup."