Xander vol.1 Transmutation (19 page)

“
Theo?” she called out.
“Theodore!”

From within the solitary
vault, Theodore, chained and bolted to the vault’s bare floor,
heard the muted calling of his name. His head slightly turned in
the door’s direction, his eyes full of both hope and caution. His
body shifted, rustling the chains that held him. Hearing his name
again, the voice registered with him, making his heart thud against
his ribcage with sudden adrenaline.

“
Nora?” he croaked, just
above a whisper.

“
Theo, you in there?” Nora
shouted, banging against the vault’s door repeatedly.

Theodore shifted again,
rising to his feet – the chains connecting his collar to the floor
straining and testing its length. He grunted, shuffling about to
comfortably use the length of the chains.

“
I’m here!” he said after
clearing his throat. “I’m here!” he called desperately.

Hearing a response,
however low it was from inside the dense walls of the vault, Nora
sighed, her hands shifting on the door’s surface with
hope.

“
Hey, Theo,” she said with
somewhat of a relieved laugh. “We’re here to bust you
out.”

Theodore’s brows furrowed,
his eyes bouncing around the inside of the vault in
wonder.

“
We?”

********

“What
are
you?” Halyn spat at Xander, her
body constantly twitching from the several volts of electricity she
had been made to endure. Xander was still bouncing lightly from
foot to foot.

“
Not a Chimera,” Xander
taunted.

Halyn growled, her eyes
narrowing at the avoidance of her question. She was stumped as to
how Xander was doing what he was doing. She had only one idea, and
he had insisted on shooting it down, which was proving to cause
irritation. The doctor hadn’t said anything about another run-away
Chimera, which she was almost certain Xander was.

“
Lies.”

“
Truth,” Xander
insisted.

Halyn stomped her paw into
the ground, as a means to appear threatening. But Xander merely
stood, looking at her, waiting for something to happen. And indeed,
it did. Her body began to morph again, this time taking a bigger
form – one of a black bull. Xander’s brows rose, almost in shock as
Halyn huffed, the golden nose ring she had been sporting now
fashioning as a thick bullring. Her hoof dug into the ground,
grinding against it as her head shook, her tail whipping behind
her. Xander gave a slow nod.

“
Very
fascinating. I don’t think Loni can do that.”

Halyn huffed, beginning to
charge. Xander winced in anticipation, his confidence wavered ever
so slightly.

“
Don’t think her fangs are
that long, either,” he added, glancing at the size of her
horns.

He ran to the side, being
followed by the clearly enraged Halyn, who had come accustomed to
easy prey. She swerved with his movements, trying to impale him in
the process and failing.

He couldn’t help but to
laugh off his nerves as the bull constantly charged after him,
leaving him little to no time to come up with a counter attack, or
aim for one, for that matter. And just as he had set up a stance
when sparing with Sven and his spears, Xander came up with the idea
to head for a wall – in this case, a tree.

And Halyn, being so
focused on impaling Xander’s body, didn’t even notice. Not until
Xander ran up the thick trunk of the tree, leaving Halyn to pierce
her horns into its bark, stabbing clear through to the other side.
Xander, holding on to a branch above, watched as Halyn huffed and
roared in rage as she tried to jerk her horns from the
tree.

Xander dropped down on
Halyn’s head, his hands lowering to her bullring and taking hold to
send another volt of electricity. Again her body spazzed about,
letting out a whine of pain as Xander leap from her back onto the
ground. And when he turned around, he was looking into her eyes,
now held by the body of a black bear, the nose ring now fashioning
as a golden fang.

Again, Xander looked on in
amazement at yet another change.

“
It’s really a shame
you’re on the wrong side,” he said with genuine
disappointment.

Halyn gave a roaring growl
as she ran at Xander again. Xander frowned, both amazed and
troubled at her resiliency. He couldn’t up his voltage, less he
risk killing her as Nora feared. But with the levels he was
currently dishing out, it would take several hours to properly ware
her down enough to contain her.

And so, he thought of
killing two birds with one stone, so to speak. Seeing as though
Nora had not yet returned with her friend, he figured that she too
was in need of some assistance. He sighed, quick stepping to the
side with a bounce, rocking back and forth between his feet before
leaping up over Halyn’s attack.

“
Come on, you overgrown
teddy bear,” he mocked, stepping down on her head and using it to
push off of to sprint into the thick of the woods.

Halyn snarled, whipping
around and charging after him. He lead her into the direction Nora
had taken off in, hoping that the vault was close.

********

“I don’t know if I can do
that,” Theodore regrettably called to Nora, who was working on a
way to get him out of the vault.

She had suggested that
Theodore change into a machine big enough to break the walls of the
vault, but Theodore was second-guessing his abilities.

“
You’ve got to try, Theo.
We’ve got to get you out of here.”

“
Who’s
we
? Is Eleanor out there with
you?”

“
No, we’re going to get
her next. I’ve found someone to help. To help us.”

“
Who? What makes you think
they can help us?”

“
Well … He’s –“

“
Come on! Is that the
biggest you’ve got?” hollered the voice of Xander. “I’ve seen
bigger
turtles
!”

Nora turned in the
direction of his shouting, her brows furrowed as she squinted into
the distance. Her eyes drifted around the area before widening, as
her feet felt the sudden trembling within the ground. She stepped
back against the door of the vault, her eyes now glued to the
ground as she watched the bouncing of small rocks. Her head snapped
back up when hearing the screeching of what sounded like an
elephant, her eyes widening further as the trembling grew more
violent.

“
Nora? What is that?
What’s going on?” Theodore called from the inside, also feeling the
tremble in the floor of the vault.

Nora shook her head in
denial as she saw the trees within the denser area of the forest
shake violently as they approached, some of the trees even falling.
She let out a shaky breath, her own body mimicking the trembling of
the forest floor as Xander came running through the opening of the
trees.

She stared in disbelief at
the wide smile on his face as he rushed towards her. She shook her
head, backing up further into the vault’s door as his arms opened.
Her eyes drifted away from Xander, moving up to the large black
elephant, one tusk of ivory and one tusk of gold, that came
charging through the trees towards them. Again, Halyn screeched as
she reared her head to the side, aiming her tusks for an
attack.

Nora whimpered as she
stood frozen, until Xander used the magnetic property on her belt
to fling her into his arms. He adjusted her properly before
throwing her into the air, running up the wall of the vault and
launching himself into the air after her with its magnetic
repel.

The now screaming Nora
landed in his arms as they flew higher, out of reach of the
stampeding elephant. She flailed as he wrapped his arms around her,
hitting against his chest, damn near in tears.

“
N – Wh – You’re
crazy
!” she screamed at
him over the sound of crunching metal. He merely smiled at her as
they swayed in the air.

“
Got the box open, didn’t
I?” Xander chuckled as they began their freefall back down, causing
another scream from Nora as she was adjusted once again in his arms
to be slung over his shoulder.

She shut her eyes from the
fall as Xander carefully landed on the head of the now grudging
Halyn. In her blinding rage, she had charged right into – and
through the vault, leaving Theodore standing in shock and terror.
Xander knelt on Halyn’s head, flattening his palm against the crown
and sending one final, significantly larger volt of electricity to
her skull. Presuming the mass of her current form, he figured she
would be able to withstand it. And he was right. Her body,
remaining in the form of an elephant fell limp against the ground,
but sustained its pulse.

Sensing the stillness of
Halyn’s body, Xander gently set Nora down beside him as he looked
around at the damage and the man standing in the middle of the
exposed vault. He sighed, smiling as he nudged the trembling Nora
against her shoulder before waving to Theodore.

“
Hello,” Xander called to
him. Theodore gave a hesitant wave, hands still shackled. “I’m
Xander.”

Chapter 17

“
Alien
, huh?” Theodore asked again,
his southern twang smothering his words.

He, Xander, and Nora were
making their way over to Eleanor’s vault, and making good time.
They had gotten Theodore ahead of schedule, landing them around
noon. Xander, though injured, insisted on continuing the retrieval
instead of wasting another day. Xander had offered Theodore to go
back to the base when they came for Halyn, but he insisted on
coming along, wanting to repay them for rescuing him. Nora had
explained to Theodore what they’d intended to do, and he was all
too happy to participate in stopping Lupin from ruining more
lives.

“
Is it really so hard to
believe?” Xander asked with a bit of a chuckle as they hiked
through the forest.

“
Almost as hard as
believing we’re mutants.”

“
Well, see – I don’t have
a hard time believing that at all.” Theodore paused at the
response. “So what’s your story? What brought you into the doctor’s
office?” Xander asked, granting Theodore his curiosity. Theodore
frowned, averting his eyes.

“
Trauma,” he said
bluntly.

“
What kind of trauma?”
Xander asked shamelessly.

Nora stopped ahead of
them, looking back at Xander and catching his attention. She held a
scolding stare, making Xander bounce his eyes between them.
Theodore kept walking, passing Nora as she continued to
stare.

“
What?” Xander asked as he
would his mother. Nora shook her head.

“
Let’s just focus on
getting Eleanor, okay?” she suggested.

Xander walked up to Nora’s
side.

“
But I was just
–“

“
They’ll both tell us
their stories when they’re ready to. Don’t pressure them about it.
I’m sure they’re all very personal.”

“
But shouldn’t we
know?”

“
We will. It doesn’t have
to be right this minute.”

“
I was just making
conversation.”

“
Well, choose a different
topic.”

“
Guys,” came the grim
voice of Theodore, who had stopped several yards ahead.

Both Nora and Xander
looked in his direction – Nora’s anxiety immediately kicking up a
notch.

Just in front of Theodore,
lay the evidence of the two Chimera that were guarding Eleanor’s
vault. What was once a lush field of various plant-life, was now
scattered with snow and thin sheets of ice – the areas spreading.
The wind picked up as Nora and Xander made their way to Theodore’s
side. His frown was prominent as he looked on at the two Chimera
that were smiling in response.

One, Yang, identified by
his silver hair and black eyes, was standing directed in front of
the vault, arms crossed as he leaned on its door. While the other,
Yin, identified by his raven black hair and silver eyes, was off to
Yang’s left, somewhat in the foreground. He was responsible for the
abrupt change in weather.

“
Shit,” Nora breathed as
her eyes met Yin’s.

Xander glanced at them
both, not particularly bothered by either. Though he would have
preferred to stay in the nice temperature. He felt the subtle sting
of his wound protesting the cold.

“
You owe me twenty,” Yang
said to his other half. Yin scoffed, stepping to his right, more in
front of Yang.

“
Halyn can never do
anything right,” Yin scowled with a slight shake of his head.
“Hello, Theodore.” His eyes bounced to Nora with a devilish smile.
“Nora.”

“
And Xander,” Xander
brazenly added.

Yin raised a brow, giving
a fraction of a nod as he looked over Xander’s features.

“
And you, oddly-coloured
individual.”

Xander’s face twisted, his
mouth flopping open in silent protest.

“
Oddly –“ Xander’s index
figure jabbed in Theodore’s direction. “We are the
same
complexion!”