Chapter 47: Rescue Mission

Chapter 47: Rescue Mission
Nora's Point of View

The echoing alarms through the deep room grew sharp as I toiled hard to get more people out of crystal beds. Each wolf waking up was not just life back, but a friend in the fight to destroy tales.

"Faster," Alpha Thornwick spoke, his voice calm after fifteen years locked up. "We need these wolves up before the scary thing arrives soon."

I put more power into waking folks up, my cool powers making fast work of the locks. Each bed drained, and I felt how tricky Elena had been with us all here.

"You said we'd be awake during saving," a young Beta said as she left her bed, voice angry. "You said we'd know, help with the plans. But we were stuck."

"The saving had to be still," Elena replied back at them with great care. "I could not risk breaking all of the magic lock."

"So you chose for us," a freed person said without emotion at all. "Fifteen years hurt in our minds, and you felt we could all handle the pain."

More beds opened, showing wolves from all lands. Alphas, Betas, healers, fighters - all with a shine that meant they were Moon touched, all staring mad at Elena.

"I know you're mad," Elena said, but her words were stopped by a sound that made the room shake.

The editors had found every last one of us.

"Weapons," Alpha Thornwick ordered, his leader sensing his anger. "We fight after we get away with Elena Silverback and all her strange lies."

"We don't have guns," I said out loud in space. "But we may use powers that they cannot guess."

I sensed our top wolves react to danger via the group link. Yet here, among many new Moon-touched inmates, we had strange power combos foes couldn't guess.

"Join us," I told loose wolves. "Fast team link, only for this clash."

"Why believe you now?" one asked with great doubt.

"I'm the wolf who set you loose," was my easy reply. "If they win, we can't argue about future justice."

Head Wolf Thornwick chose for all his clan. "Make quick team links. Live first, then get even."

Links came fast - not deep, real pack bonds, but swift pacts wolves make when things get bad. As each link grew, I felt power from near one hundred Moon-blessed ones fill the cave.

"Oh, Moon Lady," Elena puffed. "This is what I wished to save. I knew this is what we might crave."

"Got through tricks and jail," Head Wolf Thornwick spoke, cold. "We will talk about methods later. Now we brawl."

The cave roof burst open as the editors came down. These weren't the stiff suits from before. These were odd forms - beings of blank tale force that turned things to dust.

"Hold real," Head Wolf Thornwick yelled. "Don't let them wipe the cave away."

The Moon wolves moved like a smart squad. Joined force ran through our quick links, making bright silver webs that kept the cave safe from the editor wipe tries.

"Can't be," the lead editor growled as its blank tale force met our real hold. "Folks can't keep up real when faced with full no."

"We're not just doodles anymore," I said back, sensing the joined soul of many alive folks going through me. "We're people picking to be alive."

The fight felt like nothing I knew. Not a normal fight, but a fight to stay real. Each time a writer tried to wipe one of us out, the rest helped them stay alive with soul and might.

"The locked up," Elena said fast. "They are not just strong alone. Being locked up together made them fight back as one to be bossed around."

She was right on point. The wolves Elena saved for fifteen years made something new - a straight up no to being bossed around or deleted by anyone. Their pain made them strong.

"We won't be unmade," Alpha Thornwick yelled, his voice like someone who fought fifteen years to keep who he was. "We won't be bossed. We won't be hushed."

The other free folks yelled too, their voices mixing into something that made the writers step back weirdly.

"We pick to be here. We pick to bloom. We choose to be free."

The bad story vibe started to die as it hit the strong souls who lived through the worst already.

"Pull back," the main writer said. "Meet up above. Get the Idea Killer ready."

"What's an Idea Killer?" Kai asked as the writers ran off.

"Not just something that wipes out single tales," Elena said scared. "Something that wipes out the idea of tales can even be."

With our soul links, I felt folks in many worlds react to the new danger. But now, worry mixed in with their will.

"We have to get to the top now," I spoke. "Link with pals, make some forts."

"Nope," Alpha Thornwick told us straight. "We must go on attack."

"Come again now?"

"The guys' strength comes from how they boss stories. But we're not stuck in their tales anymore." He pointed to the free folks near us. "We showed folks can live outside their made-up plots already."

"You want to fight them on their turf," Elena figured out.

"I want this done for good. Not just get by their hit now, but kill their power to scare any tale ever again."

It was a wild, past belief. A band of folks, no matter how strong, trying to wreck the top dogs who ran all the tales.

"How can we do this?" I asked.

"By going to where it starts," Alpha Thornwick said back. "The Story Place. The spot where all table choices are made."

"That's death," Elena yelled. "Folks can't make it in the Story Place. It's pure fairy tale air."

"Folks can't," Alpha Thornwick agreed. "But those who won't just be folks might do it."

Near us, the free folks were nodding okay. Fifteen years locked up had burned off their want to take limits from others.

"We're in," one of them said.

"All of us too," another chimed in.

"Then we should go now," I said, feeling in our links that the big guys were using their Story Killer already. "To save all tales, we need to move before they wipe out what tales are."

But as we got set to try the trip to the Story Place, Elena grabbed my arm tight.

"Nora," she told me quickly. "There's one more thing you should know about safe rooms."

"Now what is it?"

The wolves around, not grabbed at whim. They came from first Editors, right. The ones who built the system we now fight.

I looked on, kind of stunned now. "Did we just free their kids, wow?"

"Great-grandkids, yeah. Creatures with coded memories of the System's early days." Elena's face looked kind of tight. "Maybe how to wreck it, if we are bright."

Alpha Thornwick heard and he grinned, first joy since he woke within.

"Well," he said, in a happy tone. "This is like family, back at home."