The Wolves

Earth

Spectre Base, Canadian Rockies

August 14, 2019

04:04 PDT (07:04 EDT)

Usually, I wake up to my alarm going off. Instead, I woke up to someone knocking. It took me a moment to remember where I was, but I got up and walked over to the door and opened it.

"Hah! For once I'm the one waking you up," Mason said loudly.

"What time is it? I forgot to set my alarm."

"Just past seven. Go get dressed, and let's get breakfast."

I nodded and entered my closet, grabbing a clean set of clothes and putting them on. I met back up with Mason and we walked towards the cafeteria, rather than teleporting.

"I figured you'd still be sleeping after spending half the night tinkering," I told him.

Mason chuckled. "Nah. I actually went home last night. I knew if I stayed here, I'd be doing exactly that. We all ended up going home since it's so easy. Even having to regen mana halfway home, it was very convenient."

I nodded, "Portals are just as convenient. Yesterday, Yuki opened up a portal from here to Hawaii allowing all of us to go through."

"Why wasn't Portal included in our little pouch of gems? Seems like it would be useful to us, since not all of us have been to the same places."

"You don't know the half of it. Yesterday I was sparring a little with my mom while in my Seotross form. I wound up for a punch and blinked behind her, only to find she wasn't there. Instead, there was a portal in front of me, and another one behind me. When I punched, my fist went through the first portal and came out of the second one. The punch hit me in the back and caused me to go through the portals."

Mason burst into laughter when I finished. "I wish I had seen that," he said after he recovered. "That makes it even more useful for all of us to have. Imagine if Sonja had that ability. She could open a portal with the entrance by her, and the exit behind an enemy, and then shoot arrows from another direction. Hell, all of us could do that when we use firearms."

I nodded. "It could be very useful. Apparently it's a difficult skill to learn so she didn't include it with the others. She said that if I really want it, she'll get me one. Maybe I'll be able to get a few more for the rest of the team."

"Hell, yeah! That'd be awesome!"

We arrived at the cafeteria to find it absolutely packed. Up to this point, I had never seen the amount of people that were currently enjoying their breakfast.

"A spot is being saved for us. Your mom sent me to go get you when she saw me, but didn't see you. C'mon, let's go get some coffee and breakfast, I'm starving."

We walked over and grabbed a plate and a mug, placing them on a tray. Our first stop was coffee, where there were a bunch of industrial coffee makers constantly making coffee. After filling our mugs, we continued down the line filling our plates. Afterwards, Mason directed me over to the table where my mom, dad, sisters, and friends were sitting.

"Good morning," I greeted, sitting down at one of the empty spots.

"Good morning, Jonathan," my dad said. "Forgot to set your alarm? You're usually up before Mason is."

"Yeah. My alarm is always set at home, and I didn't even think about setting one here."

"There is an alarm in your room, you just didn't see it. It's built into the room and is voice activated. Did you see the small booklet on the end table beside your bed?"

"Nope," I said, shaking my head.

"It has all the details about the room, including all the voice commands. Give it a read later," my dad finished.

"I will, thanks."

It was pretty quiet with everyone eating, myself included, so I took the opportunity to look at some things on my phone. Navigating to my profile, I saw that my stats got another small boost, meaning Abi leveled once more. That put her at level eighteen. After that, I navigated to 'The Wolves' profile page to check out some of my friends' new abilities.

Looking at Mason's page, I saw there was one skill that I missed when I looked the day before, Cleave. The description says that it strikes all enemies in front of the user for a moderate amount of damage. Between Whirling Leap, Tremor and Cleave, he was really racking up the area of effect damage.

Next up was Ben. He said he got a few new auras, as well as some fire spells, and I was curious to see what he got. When I scrolled down to his skills, I could see two more auras. Aura of Lifestealing, and Aura of Bloodlust. The first was self explanatory, but I had no idea what Aura of Bloodlust is. I tapped on it to read the description.

It appeared that Aura of Bloodlust would allow the people affected by it to attack and cast spells faster, as well as have the cooldown of spells reduced by a lesser amount. The mana cost to keep it active is quite high, but while active it would probably increase our damage output far more than Aura of Flame would.

Closing the Aura of Bloodlust window, I scrolled down a bit further. He also received two additional fire spells to go along with Scorch, those being Meteor Shower and Fireball. I was more interested in Meteor Shower, so I tapped on that. The description for the spell said that the spell does a lot of damage, but comes with two pretty sizeable downsides. The first was a ten second cast time, which would leave him vulnerable, and the second was a ten minute cooldown between uses. It would be really interesting to see how much damage it actually does, though.

The last four abilities were some of the ones that Mason and myself had received. Mana Shield, Blink, Teleport, and the Legendary Insight perk. I wondered if a movement skill that didn't cost mana would be better for him, since he didn't appear to get the Legendary Mana Regeneration perk. If he was at low mana, it would take him a couple of seconds to regenerate enough mana to use the spell.

My attention was drawn away from my phone by people getting up to get started on their day.

"...meeting with Tich to finalize a list of suitable planets. We also need to finish setting up the simulators. We figured we would have another two months to get everything ready. If they agree, then we'll be able to start training people in a week or so," my dad said.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Siobhan just told us that Selalea called. The council wants to meet you at noon. She'll meet you at ten on Lehua, and then escort you to the meeting place. Tich and I would like to have a list of suitable planets for you to show them," my dad said.

"I assume that is going by EDT? That's not a lot of time."

"It should be enough. I'll see you all later," he said, giving my mom a kiss and teleporting away.

"So what are all your plans today?" my mom asked us, sitting back down.

"Anja and I are doing the same thing we were doing yesterday. She'll be working on leveling up Precognition, and I'll be working on using Ride the Lightning. It's an interesting ability," Sonja answered.

"Alright, what about you, Ben? Mason?"

"I spent a few hours yesterday trying out Seismic Shove. I think I've got it down, and my other abilities are pretty straight forward. I think I'll spend the day tinkering with the firearm parts in my room," Mason replied.

"That's fine. Just make sure to head to the firing range if you want to test out a weapon," she warned.

"I'm not sure what I'm going to do," Ben said. "Teleporting is pretty easy, and I can level my auras just by activating them periodically. I'll have to come up with something."

"If you don't find anything to do, it is fine to take a day off. You could also do what Mason is doing. You'll need a firearm sooner or later. Why not use the kit and make one?"

"I don't know a lot about guns. I wouldn't even know where to start."

"How about you go to the firing range and learn from one of the instructors there. I'm sure Mason can show you where it is."

Mason nodded. "I can do that before getting started."

"Works for me," Ben replied.

"Perfect," my mom said. "Jonathan, your sisters and I are going to practice flying in our dragon forms. Care to join us for a few hours before you meet with Selalea?"

I was nodding before she even finished. "I told Vixa I'd be down this morning, but after that, I'll definitely be up for practicing flying. Where are we going to do it?"

"Anywhere we want," she said while disappearing from view completely. "We can practice anywhere and won't be seen."

"I forgot all about that! I guess I'll have to practice that before we practice flying."

"It's very easy, you'll pick it up in no time," she replied, becoming visible once more.

"Uhh, what just happened?" Mason asked.

"Dragons have a few abilities. One of those is the ability to blend into their surroundings, becoming practically invisible to the eye. It's the primary reason dragons are thought to be myths," I explained. "After scanning Ilnod yesterday, we now have the same ability."

"That's pretty cool. It looks like it would work even better than my Stealth skill," Anja said.

"The ability dragons have is probably closer to the Invisibility skill, than Stealth. Stealth makes you harder to perceive, but you're visible the entire time. Invisibility makes it seem like you're not even there."

We continued chatting while I finished the rest of my food. When I was done, we all separated to go about our day. I was on my way down to see Vixa when my mom sent to me.

[Jonathan, when you're done spending time with Vixa, let me know and I'll meet you at your room. We'll probably start practicing flying in thirty minutes or so, so plan on being back up here in twenty minutes.]

[Okay,] I said, speeding up a little bit.

When I got down to Vixa's room, the light was still off inside. I opened the door and flicked the switch. Before the lights came on, I felt paws on my leg. I looked down, and Vixa was standing on her back legs, while leaning on me with her front and middle legs.

"Hey, Vixa! Have a good sleep?"

It sounded like she yipped in affirmation. After checking her food and water, I shifted into my Scyftan fox form and played around until it was time to go. I shifted back into my human form and told her I would be back later.

Exiting the room, I sent to my mom. [I'm on my way up now. I'll be at my room in two minutes or so.]

[Okay, I'll be waiting.]

When the elevator reached the top, I teleported to the hallway outside my room where my mom was waiting. I pulsed mana at the lock and walked in, with my mom following, and moving to sit in a chair.

"Go change into the armor you were in the other day, and then I want to show you some things."

I did as she asked and walked into my closet. I undressed down to my underwear and then put the armor on, leaving off the helmet, for now. When I was done, I called her in and she opened one of the chests. She bent down and picked something up. It turned out to be a vest.

"I would have shown you this yesterday, but I was busy at the time. It provides additional protection, but that isn't the most important feature."

She opened up a compartment directly over where my heart would be and pulled out a canister of some sort.

"The suit you're wearing, as well as all of the other ones, are able to keep track of your vitals at all times. If a major injury or foreign substance is detected in your bloodstream, this canister will be activated. The contents will be injected directly into your heart, and begin healing your body."

"So it's a healing potion built into the suit?"

She shook her head. "It's much more advanced than that, and much more potent. This canister contains millions of nanites that are capable of self-replication if necessary to keep you alive. As soon as they enter your bloodstream, they navigate to problem areas and immediately start repairs. If a toxin is detected, they will quickly destroy it. When repairs are done, and they are no longer needed, they deactivate. At that point, they will be absorbed by the body."

She put the canister back, and then handed it to me so I could put it on. As I was putting it on, she went on about its other features.

"There are four dimensional storages built into the vest. One of them is dedicated to carrying additional nanite canisters, and the other three are up to the person wearing the vest. I, personally, dedicate one to carry ammunition, and another to carry grenades. The last one is used for an assortment of things."

"Is there a belt or something so I can holster my spear or other weapons? Speaking of which, is there a sword that works on the same premise as my new spears?"

"Oh, right!" she said, turning and reaching into the same chest she pulled the vest out of. When she removed her hands from the chest, she had a belt in one hand. "Here is the belt. You'll find some holsters, as well as a couple of swords in the same chest the spears are in. You may want to attach two holsters for spears, and two holsters for swords. I would also recommend carrying a few more spears, shields and swords in your dimensional storage, in case you ever lose a weapon for one reason or another."

"I was thinking about carrying four swords in case I want to use that many in my hybrid form, one in each hand."

"If you can master wielding that many weapons, it will make you quite formidable. It will be very difficult, though. Even dual wielding is tough."

"I guess I'll just have to master it then, huh?" I asked, turning to open the chest with my spears. Underneath them, I found a bunch of swords, sheaths and holsters. The swords were just the handle and pommel. I picked up one of the swords and channeled my mana into it, which caused a blade nearly identical to my original xiphos to appear. I stopped channeling mana, and it retracted again. I attached the sheaths and holsters to my belt, and then put it on, while turning towards my mom. "Am I missing anything else?"

"Nope, looking good. I'll go change into my armor and then meet you and your sisters in the lobby. Practice blending in with your surroundings while you wait."

"Got it," I replied. She teleported to her room, while I grabbed my helmet and teleported into the lobby. My sisters weren't there yet, so I closed my eyes focused on blending in with my surroundings. After a moment, I opened my eyes and looked down at my hands, which remained visible. Frowning, I closed my eyes and tried again. While I was doing that, I heard the pops signifying people were teleporting in.

"Where is Jonathan? I told him to meet us here," I heard my mom say.

That caused my eyes to open again. I looked down at my still-visible hands.

"I don't see him," Aleena said.

"I'm over here," I said, waving a hand.

They all looked in my direction.

"Ah, you've gotten the hang of it already then, Jonathan. Good job," my mom congratulated.

"Wait, you're saying you can't see me? Why can I still see my hands and the rest of my body?"

"Nope, we can't see you. I thought it wasn't working either, but apparently you're able to see your own body while remaining hidden to everyone else. I guess it would be quite disorienting if you couldn't see where your hands are while interacting with stuff."

"Oh."

I focused on becoming visible again. I didn't feel different, but instead of my mom and my sisters looking in my general direction, they snapped to me.

"Alright, follow me. I figure we'll take the elevator up to the surface, and practice flying around the mountains," she said.

She led us to an elevator I hadn't seen before. We all filed in, and she pressed a button labeled S.

"S for surface?" I asked, looking at her.

"Yes. If you ever use this elevator to come back down, you'll need to go through the security process and then hit the L button to be taken back to the lobby."

The ride up to the surface was the longest elevator ride I had ever been in. It must have taken at least five minutes for us to finally reach the top. When it stopped, and the doors opened, I could see why. We were very high up, affording us a good view of the forested surroundings. Exiting the elevator, I could see we were on a somewhat flat ledge. It would be barely big enough for one of us to shift into our dragon forms at a time.

"I think this is a good spot for us to practice," my mom said. "We'll take turns shifting into our dragon forms and jumping off this ledge. You should have an understanding of how to fly after scanning Ilnod, so it will just be a matter of trial and error. If you end up falling, just teleport back up here, and try again. Make sure to blend in with your surroundings before shapeshifting. Jonathan, why don't you go first."

"Alright. You may want to step back a bit since this ledge isn't very big."

When they did so, I made myself hidden and started shapeshifting into my dragon form. When I was done, I turned to face away from the mountain, while making sure not to hit anyone with my tail. Rather than try to fly right away by flapping my large wings, I decided to try to glide first.

I tucked my wings in as tightly as I could, and jumped off the ledge. After a few seconds, I judged my speed was fast enough and extended my wings. There was a loud noise when they caught the wind, and I was soon gaining altitude. I was able to glide around for a while before needing to flap my wings. As soon as I did, rather than speed up and gain more altitude, I started plummeting towards the forest below. Instead of teleporting onto the ledge itself, I teleported a few hundred feet above it instead.

I immediately tucked my wings back in and dove down before extending them to glide once more. This time I proceeded to glide for a few seconds before flapping my wings. It was a little rough, but I was maintaining altitude, this time. I took the opportunity to look around and actually spotted one of my sisters. I got the sense that it was Alexis, so I sent to her.

[Did you not activate your camouflage? Why am I able to see you?] I asked.

[It's active,] she sent back. [When activated, it also allows you to see other people who are camouflaged as well.]

[Ah, that's cool. At least there won't be any risk of us running into one another.]

Before long, there were five dragons flying around the mountains, not that anyone would be able to see us. There were some initial difficulties, but soon all of us had some proficiency. We had about an hour and a half before I needed to head to Lehua island, so we decided to see how far we could fly in the time we had left.

I found out that the base is located deep under the Kakwa Provincial Park and Protected Area, where the borders of British Columbia and Alberta meet. From there, it took us nearly the entire ninety minutes we had to reach Kamloops, British Columbia. It was an order of magnitude faster than driving in a car, but a bit slower than a commercial jet. It would have been much faster if we decided to teleport, but we were enjoying the scenery.

[It's almost 10:00,] my mom said. [I'm going to open a portal about a kilometer ahead of us that will be big enough to fly through. Girls, line up behind Jonathan and follow him through. I'll be following behind you to hold it open and make sure we all get through.]

Initially, it was hard to see the portal, but as I got closer, it became easier. It didn't take long at all to cover the kilometer to the portal, and soon I was flying through it, with my sisters right on my tail. Upon arriving on the other side, I saw that we were high over Lehua, where I could see a few large dragons, and one smaller one, waiting. When my mom was through, we all slowly glided in circles until we landed in front of them, and became visible.

Shortly after we landed, Selalea switched to her human form, so we did the same. My mom was actually faster at shapeshifting than Selalea, but the rest of us were a lot slower.

"I see you've been practicing," she said. "I thought you would need practice before we take flight, but I'm happy to see that isn't the case."