Chapter 3

Setsuna collapsed onto a small wooden chair with an exhausted sigh, she was relieved to be back in her own world again. The giant beast that had almost killed that girl had been returned to this world also and had been released in the secluded and almost inaccessible area of the inhabitabilis mountains. Tiger flopped down next to her and smiled, "Thanks for your help everyone, that was a tough monster, its good that we caught it almost immediately after it got through that otherworldly portal, otherwise it could have caused a lot more damage than it did. Mission Successful!"
Kitsune glared at Tiger, "It destroyed fifteen square miles of forest before we got it under control, we had to erase the memories of twenty seven humans, destroy three cameras and perform one healing."
Setsuna banged her head on the table once and didn't lift her head again, it was hard to tell if she was comatose, asleep or simply making a display of the fatigue she was feeling. A groan was heard and it was decided to be the latter, "we came this close- this close to an emergency situation, one of the humans in that forest had actually been in the act of pressing a button on her portable telephone to send a photograph of that beast to the newspapers when we knocked her out."
Yalana looked up from the drink she was making at the small counter behind the table at which they sat and shuddered. "Imagine if we hadn't reached her when we did, the humans might have found out about the existence of this world, the exact event that we're trying to prevent from happening with all this work. Oh and Setsuna, its called a mobile, remember?"
"I don't care" was the grumbled reply.
Tiger looked at her friends, crowded around the small coffee table at which, just two years ago once would have sat thirty assorted deisha, spectrumosi, hybrids, familiars and winged wolves all at once. Now that this strange group had managed to find acceptance, not just for them but for all future deisha-spectrumosa hybrids they had finally been able to leave the hideout in which they now sat and join civilization once again, their supporting family and friends had also happily left to find new dreams now that this one had been accomplished.
It was the four hybrids and their familiars for whom the fight for acceptance had all been for that sat gathered around the table now. Kitsune and her familiar Kumori the shadow hound had joined their friends Taka and Valkyrie on their travels all over the land as mercenaries while Yalana had decided to teach, being a hybrid and therefore one of the four most powerful magical creatures in this world she had decided that she was best suited to teach magic to others; with the help of her blue dragon Gensan of course. Tiger herself was the one who had joined the organization that had sent them on this mission, the others had come only because she felt that some backup was necessary, and it was wonderful to be able to fight alongside her friends once again. However even with them gone the hideout was not completely empty, after finding acceptance Setsuna had chosen to remain there. She been raised by the Midnight Sky winged wolf pack and as they were aware of her mixed blood and had vowed to keep her safe they had kept her well away from deisha/spectumosi settlements while the law against hybrids had existed and she had learned to avoid civilization and the inhabitants of the settlements as much as possible. Her feelings towards them had not been helped when, on the discovery of her existence guards, scouts, warriors and mercenaries from these settlements had set out to bring her into solitary confinement where she would have her magic sealed against use, preventing her from creating the havoc that they believed hybrids would cause. Of course they had reacted similarly to Kitsune, Yalana and Tiger but the fact that they were hybrids had not been discovered until a few years later in life and so they had memories of living in the settlements, they knew how to live and function in civilization, Setsuna had never learned. Even now that she knew she had acceptance, she couldn't help but tense up when she came anywhere close to civilization or passed others on a casual stroll in the forest. However, having being raised by the wolves Setsuna had gained a greater affinity with nature and its animals and of course, she had the constant company of her familiar Amber at her side. While the others lived among settlements of deisha and spectrumosa, she had the animals of the forest. Since everyone else had left she had become a vet of sorts, she would find injured animals and bring them back to the hideout where she would treat them and then release them, it was through this that her healing magics had gradually developed to actually surpass her other skills including the fighting skills which had been needed among all else to survive, not too long ago.
Tiger smiled, happy to be among her best friends again; Setsuna raised her head from the table and caught the smile and returned an affable but fatigued grin; "Sorry everyone, but I'm going to go to bed before I fall asleep at the table" she laughed before going upstairs, followed by Amber. It was not much later that her friends did the same.

***

Tiger was the first to wake, very early in the morning; she slipped out of bed, dressed and ran down stairs to make herself some breakfast. She felt ravenous and only now recalled that she had not eaten after returning from the mission, she walked into the kitchen and rummaged around in the cupboards before finding where Setsuna had put the bowls, cereal, milk and spoons. She was beginning to think that Setsuna purposefully changed where she kept everything each time her friends came to visit, for the fun of watching them search the various cupboards to find a spoon at snack time. It was only after a good few minutes of searching and a short fight with something small and furry that had apparently set up home in one of the lesser use cupboards without Setsuna realising that Tiger finally produced breakfast for her and Nightshade, who had been waiting patiently behind her. She sat at the table and ate her breakfast drearily, she'd woken up too early again and was already starting to feel tired again. It was then that a small and irritating buzzing started in her head, she sighed. The buzzing had become too common during these past two years, she was getting a telepathic message from the organization. Yet another mission she thought, before allowing her mind to open up to hear the voice of whoever was sending the message in her mind. When she had finished listening she groaned inwardly, she had imagined some time off to relax with her friends, unfortunately it seemed that the organization had other plans for her day.
"Is something wrong?" asked a voice behind her. The rest of the hideout was stood behind her, hybrids and familiars alike.
"What are all of you doing up at this time?" Tiger asked incredulously.
"You clattering around in the cupboards is enough to wake anybody up" replied Kitsune grumpily, she didn't appreciate being woken up early after a late night. Tiger quickly decided that it would be a good idea to make her a coffee before somebody ended up half- dead.
"Sorry" Tiger grinned sheepishly, "so, everyone. You know you're all such good friends, don't you?"
Tiger was treated to six suspicious looks but decided to continue anyway. "Well wouldn't all my good friends like to come help me on another mission?"
All six suspicious instantly changed to the kind of look that said something along the lines of- "Well, what do you think?" before their owners reluctantly agreed to help.

***

"So what kind of creature did you say this was?" asked Yalana cautiously, as the group stood aimlessly in the middle of the forest.
"I'm not sure" replied Tiger, wondering how on earth they were supposed to find an unknown, unidentified creature from another world that could apparently run faster than a deisha using super speed.
"Do you know where this thing might be?" asked Kitsune.
"Nope" came the answer. A loud growl sounded behind them, "but I'm thinking that it's behind us" said Tiger, suddenly revising her previous answer.
Setsuna turned around only to find a huge black shape was already in the act of pouncing on her, she leapt out of the way only just in time to avoid its scything claws, her friends leapt well away from it as well so that they now formed a semicircle around it. The animal tossed its head from side to side and released a howl like roar from between glistening yellowed teeth, and pounded the ground with large paws, small fissures formed on the earth from its power.
The rag-tag group knew what to do without asking each other. Setsuna unsheathed two long, double sided swords with crescent moon hilts from a belt on her waist. They glowed with a brilliant white light as she pulsed her own ketan through them to make them more powerful, next to her a static noise sounded as Amber collected her energy and formed into electricity, which became visible as it crackled through her fur.
A few feet away Kitsune held up her staff, it was long and wooden, with a circular black, onyx ball on top- engraved with a star but as she pulled on the end of it a blade was revealed. The shadowy aura around Kumori strengthened and darkened as her prepared to attack while around the area, trees began to bristle and shake as though tormented by a strong wind when Nightshade's power took hold of them. Tiger took hold of her double-sided scythe and twirled it in her fingers, two suns engraved on the blades shining when they caught the sun.
Plumes of fire and smoke escaped from Gensan's mouth and nostrils as Yalana drew a sword that was almost as big as her, the red symbol of mars, hardly noticeable it was so small compared to the sword it was carved into.
As one the entire group ran at the creature fiercely, at their approach it stopped shaking its head and roared horribly focusing on them with blood red eyes. The ground shook horribly as darkness shot out from its body, hitting all its opponents at once in one solid wall. They were thrown backwards, landing hard and sent sliding across wet grass and mud with the force of the impact, their clothes quickly becoming sodden. Setsuna was thrown straight towards a rock, her head hit its surface and she fell down and didn't get up, a trickle of blood stained her white hair. "Setsuna!" shouted Kitsune, she recovered the fastest and scrambled to get up and reach her friend only to find the animal blocking her way. It leered at her, Kitsune growled with frustration, it almost seemed to be grinning.
The creature flipped backwards, head over paws until it was once again in the middle of the group and bent low to the ground, out from under it blossomed a strange substance, its surface shining, translucent and ever changing like oil. Through it strange things could be glimpsed fleetingly, like a mirror that had a bird's eye view of the world. Tiger was the first to realise what was happening, "Everyone run, its opening an otherworldly portal!" she shouted.
Kitsune shouted frantically back "but Setsuna's injured!" It was now that Tiger first saw her friend lying by the boulder, the blood was starting to drip onto the ground now. She snarled in frustration and panic, it was too late to do anything now, they couldn't escape; they were being sent to another world whether they liked it or not. She noticed that as the portal came towards them it was splitting off into four sections, one heading for each hybrid and corresponding familiar pair. 'We're being separated' was the last thing Tiger realised before the portal caught hold of her and sent her plummeting into another world.