The Raid

From Emura's house in Phoenix they flew out into the desert for several hours. Now they were deep in the wilderness and the city was only a faint glow on the horizon. John had settled into the copilot's seat next to Kristen while Emura was in back.

"The stars are bright," Emura said, "That's not a great sign."

"How's that?" John asked.

"Gentler, more subtle kinds of magic originate from starlight," Emura explained, "Where do think wishing on a star originated?"

"Uh huh," he said, "What kinds of magic?"

"The kind that I'm not very good at," Emura said, "There's the staging area."

"I see it, boss," Kristen said and began her descent.

The staging area was more like a couple of jeeps and a black van, but further ahead John noticed a large, brightly-lit facility.

"Is that where we're going?" he asked.

"Yep," Emura confirmed, "That facility belong to Latran Corporation."

"Latran?" he had never heard of them before, "Wait a minute, I thought you said it was abandoned."

"We did abandon it," Emura said, "Then Latran swooped in and stole it."

"You didn't say anything about raiding an active facility!" John said, "What is this, a heist?"

"Of sorts," Emura said as the helicopter touched down.

"This is illegal! I knew it!" he said as she hopped out of the helicopter.

"Relax, John," Kristen groaned, "Latran isn't squeaky clean either, and besides they stole from us first." Then she jumped of the helicopter as well. John waited until he was alone and yelled in utter frustration. She lied to him, sort of. It was more like a lie of omission, but... okay he admitted he really should have seen this coming. He kicked open the door of the helicopter and slowly walked into the light of one of the jeeps. Clancy and Aaron were already there, both of them holding what looked like a map of the Latran facility.

"It's midnight already!" Emura was almost shouting, "And there's been absolutely no word from Woods?"

"He got held up at the Mexican border," Aaron explained, "The Americans wanted to know why a privately owned, European fighter jet was entering US airspace."

"Damn," Emura hissed, "Tell me you're here, Jean."

"I see you," John heard over his headset and looked around for any sign of the man. Emura though turned to the nearest mountain and nodded.

"We can't wait for Woods," Emura said and took one of the maps, "The flame is most likely in this building here. In fifteen minutes they'll change shifts and this entrance won't be as heavily guarded.

Armed guards? John grimaced at the sound of that. Presumably Emura has a sniper, and something about a fighter jet? What the hell did I sign up for?

"Are there any last questions?" Emura asked.

No one spoke so she clapped once and ordered everyone into one of the vehicles. John hopped back into the helicopter, Clancy took the van, and Aaron and Emura each took one of the jeeps.

"Three people plus a a sniper," John said, "Doesn't seem like like enough for a facility that big."

"Trust me, they'll be fine," Kristen said, but before she climbed into the helicopter, they heard the mournful howl of a coyote. Kristen reached for her gun and pointed it toward the night, but nothing else stirred.

"It's just a coyote," John said, "Right?"

"It's probably nothing," she said then climbed into the pilot's seat. As the ground vehicles sped away, the chopper took to the air circled around the nearest mountain.

"So what exactly is our- I mean your role in all of this?" he asked.

"Recon," Kristen said and turned on a blindingly bright spotlight. The light shown over the van as it accelerated toward the front gate, then she lit up said gate to blind the guards. A couple men covered their eyes right before Clancy smashed through followed by the jeeps.

Emura jumped out of the vehicle before it even stopped and seemed to teleport to the guards. In the blink of an eye, the two men were lying on the ground squirming, then she seemed to blur out of sight of the spotlight.

Kristen maneuvered the spotlight to look for her and they spotted a trail of writhing bodies like she had mowed them down. These must have been the guards who were changing shifts, hence why they were all caught outside. At least she hadn't killed anyone.

They had lost sight of her though since she had probably gone inside, and Clancy requested some light so Kristen circled back to the entrance. The two men were unloading a large metal crate from the back of the van, the same one John had seen in Seattle which Kristen had yelled at an employee for mentioning. Maybe it was even the same one which agent Marquez had detected radiation from.

Whatever it was, the men placed it on the ground and Aaron flipped open the lid. John couldn't tell what was inside from the altitude they were at, but then Clancy waved to Kristen and told her to circle the facility on patrol.

"What exactly are we trying to accomplish tonight," John asked, "It looks like the boss is just mowing down guards while the other two twiddle their thumbs. Kristen sighed but otherwise remained silent.

"Guess I'm not in the know," he said.

"I really wish I could tell you," Kristen said, "But after what you said on the flight over here, the boss gave me strict orders not to say anything."

"Uh huh," he said. He heard gunfire over his headset and looked toward the facility. He could see a few faint muzzle flashes through the windows, but all the action was happening inside, so he wondered what Kristen was even supposed to be looking for.

Then he thought of Marquez's offer and wondered if all this was even admissible, considering how little he knew or could even see. Unsure what else to do, he leaned against the window of the cockpit and looked out toward the desert.

That's when he spotted a dark vortex forming against the night sky. It seemed to swallow up the stars, or rather blocked them, as it grew ever larger.

"What the hell is that?" he said out loud.

"What is wha- OH FUCK!" Kristen said.

Next, red lightning began to crackle around the edges of the vortex, and something emerged from deep within. First emerged a gigantic canine skull emerged which was painted red, black, and yellow. It appeared to sniff the air a few times and disappeared back into the portal. Not a moment later, the enormous, fifty-foot tall skeletal dog leapt out. It's bones were all dusty, dull red, but around hung a necklace or collar of turquoise beads and electrically charged feathers. It tilted it's head back and yipped just like the coyote they had heard earlier then dashed toward the facility. Towards John and Kristen as it were.

"What the fuck is that?!" John yelled, "A giant coyote?"

"Not a coyote!" Kristen corrected him, "The Coyote!" Kristen's evasive maneuver only just saved them from the huge snapping jaws as they ascended. It howled at them again then flinched as Aaron and Clancy opened fire.

"Jean, your turn!" Aaron shouted through over their headsets.

"He's in my sights..." the unseen knight replied. Suddenly a rocket shot out from the mountainside and hit the Coyote right in its empty eye socket. It stumbled sideways then snarled at the direction of the shot, but looked unharmed.

"Oh dear," Jean whimpered. The coyote braced its paws and threw its head back in a howl that seemed everywhere at once, then it looked to the helicopter and started speaking, but its voice came in over their headsets. John guessed the language was Navajo, but whatever it was saying, the warning lights in the cockpit all lit up at once. And just like that, they went into an uncontrollable spin.

"NO! NO! NO!" Kristen shouted as she fought to regain control, but it was like they were swept away by high wind, or a powerful current. John braced himself against the window and awful memories of his last helicopter crash came back. They were being blown far away from the facility now, and Kristen wasn't able to retake control.

"SHIT!" she said, "We're going to have to jump! John. John!"

But it was too late. The last thing he remembered was the side of the mountain barreling towards them.