AST:TR Chapter 2

As we were lowered into the building, we noticed lots of different paintings of children crying over their parents' bodies, with captions on them. One even read:
Victim 502: Redtiir, Age 2 1/2, parents killed by illness, died beside bodies due to infection.
For a second I thought they weren't going to be nice people, recording childrens' deaths, but I was shocked when I noticed a familiar Shaman's face on one of the pictures, the sign saying:
Victim 800: Derpaderpy, Age 4, parents lost to Dark Shaman, rescued and raised by Brightleia, missing for 3 years.
Brightleia was the name of the Shaman that raised me, who taught me how to defend myself. How to walljump, how to control the Shaman power, how to be one with the Deity. I haven't seen her for at least 6 years, so they may have thought I would never be found. A sudden stabbing pain went through my head and I dropped on my knees, clutching it. Killer looked down to me curiously, folding his arms.
'Is everything alright?' he asked as he knelt down. I rose to my feet, shaking off the pain before nodding.
'Yeah... I'm fine,' I responded, 'Though I think we're here. Trasforfreedom HQ...' Kagerou was too busy looking at the pictures on the walls with a light hearted frown, shedding a tear or two.

We stopped descending with a sudden jolt, which knocked Kagerou and I to the ground, but Killer thought fast enough to grab hold of one of the steel bars, keeping his balance and staying on his feet. Getting back up, we were met with a strange silhouette of a female figure, holding a weapon at her side. I stepped back against the bars of the cage and started to tremble, looking down at said weapon in case she tried to use it.
'You must be Derp,' the silhouette spoke in a melodramatic tone, 'Trans has been waiting for you for a while now.' She turned away and proceeded forward into the shadows. 'Come with me, please...'
'Who are you?' I asked, remaining where I was until I got an answer.
'You'll know in good time,' she answered, stopping in her tracks. 'Come with me.' I swallowed my fear and worry and finally stepped out of the cage, Kagerou and Killer followed me without a word. It was rather odd that I was the only one talking, though Killer is naturally the type who only talks when talked to. As for Kagerou... I don't know why she wasn't answering. Maybe she was as nervous as me, maybe even more. The figure guided us through a straight corridor, two mice with spears watched us approach. They readied their weapons in case we tried to attack, which I really couldn't blame them for because they have most likely been attacked by Ellie and her dieties before. On one of the mice were a scar on his side that looked like a Shaman marking- On the second one was a bandage wrapped around his head, a small drop of blood was leaking through and stopped at the tip of his nose. I shook my head and placed a paw on my chest peacefully, gesturing that I meant no harm. One shook their head as well, not budging. The female that was guiding us bowed her head.
'Please let us through, these are the ones Trans told us to find.' The guards lowered their weapons but gave us all a strange look, what did we do to upset them? Disregarding that, the female guided us through the door where there was a little more light. Inside the room was a large bookshelf lined to the brim with historic novels, state-of-the-art antiques and beside it was a large line of pictures and portraits. Several newspaper articles were found pinned to frames, torn up and singed. In the portraits were several paintings of Shaman apprentices, landscapes and a map of the building. Behind a large desk was another female whom had grey fur, round glasses, a ribbon tied to her ear and a necklace with a Shaman tassel tied to it. She was looking to us with a smile, bowing her head.
'Welcome! You must be the three our boss was talking about,' she lifted her paw up and pulled it back twice, 'Come, let me see what you look like, so I can remember your faces.' We stepped forward and stood on a small wooden platform, which the female stood from her seat and proceeded over to us, she examined us extremely closely, even checking for any injuries we may had sustained on our head and torso. I kinda felt a little uneven during it, but we were suddenly met with shattering glass and screams all over the building. Another mouse with a panda fur burst into the room, pointing behind him and shouting,
'It's the BAC! They're attacking the base in search for the--!' He was interrupted by a figure wrapping some kind of spiked whip around his neck and got thrown back into the darkness, not a word was heard from him afterwards. A black mouse with a blue blindfold walked through the door, an emblem was plastered to her chest as she pointed to us.
'You there,' she snarled, 'Come with us...' I shook my head and stepped away, the female who had guided us here stood in front of us and readied her knife.
'They won't be going anywhere...'
Now that I had time to get a good look at who this mysterious mouse was, I noticed that attached to her tail was a black star, as well as that she had white fur, black hair with red streaks which flowed down to the middle of her back, her knife she was holding was huge, like a sword, but the hilt was very thin and was wrapped in some kind of bandage, and around her neck was a pair of headphones with rock music blaring through the speakers. She looked back at us and I saw she had a black blindfold on, she shouted to us,
'Get out of here, quick! I'll take care of these guys, you just get to safety!' She didn't have to tell me twice, so I darted out of the room like a bullet leaving a gun, with Kagerou following behind. I felt something sharp wrap around my ankle, knocking me to the ground and lifting me into the air, I screamed in agony as the grip tightened on my ankle. Looking up to what was holding me, I noticed it was the black mouse's tail that had gotten much more slender and longer, and had grown spikes around it. This was no ordinary mouse, this was a mutant. I could feel my blood trailing down to my head as I tried breaking free, but at the same time I began to feel a little dizzy. My vision had started to blur and my stomach started to go sore, as if I were being injected with some kind of venom. Taking a deep breath, I tried to wriggle my foot free but the razor sharp spikes remained keeping a firm grip on my ankle.
'Let him go, mutant,' Killer snarled as he readies an attack, 'Or you'll face the consequences.'
'B-Be careful, you two...' I stuttered, 'Her tail has some kind of strange venom.' I cried in agony when the mutant squeezed my foot, I could feel my blood fly out of my ankle in an instant.
'Silence, fool,' she hissed, throwing me into the wall. Killer charged at the mutant, ducking under a jab from her tail and taking a swing which she stepped backwards to dodge, the female ally smirked as she stabbed her from behind. All the time she had been sneaking up on her from behind while Killer distracted her, as I rose to what was left of my feet a doctor had already run to the scene to witness what was happening. He offered to patch up my wound but I shook my head and charged at the mutant, who was on her knees and clinging to her gut from the savage stab, I took some of the blood from my foot and growled.
'Heads up.' I shouted at her, when she raised her head- using my injured foot- I kicked her in the jaw to knock her to the ground and nodded at Killer, who finished her off with a single slice- decapatation.

The doctor insisted he patch up my wound but I kept refusing and said I was gonna walk it off, but it was already difficult when my vision was blurred and I was stumbling to begin with. Noticing someone bleeding, I ran to them and checked their pulse, thankfully they were still alive so I told the medic he could treat this victim's injuries. A mouse with a fox-like fur, messy brown hair, a red bow, what looked like a black beret and two rings on each ear- one red, one black- ran past us, holding some kind of message in her mouth. I was wondering where she was taking the message in such a hurry, and proceeded to chase her. It didn't last long for two reasons; One, she was way too fast and already dove into the shadows, and two, I had lost consciousness from the venom's effects.
The second I regained consciousness, I realized there was someone knelt down in front of me, when I looked up I realized it was the female who guided us through the building trying to wake me up. I got to my feet without a word and held my head- My vision was still a little impaired however I wasn't feeling nauseous anymore. After looking at her for a few seconds I began to feel a little heavy-hearted, I began to blush and I soon looked away to hide it, walking to the door and heading out.
'Leaving so soon?' a familiar voice asked, when I turned around I noticed the scientist who had revived me- When I looked around a little more I noticed Killer and Kagerou had gone missing.
'You seem to be a little anxious. Don't worry, we won't bring any harm. I see you've already met Swirlfire, she was the one who guided you through here before we were abruptly attacked by those assassins...'
'Wait...' I hesitated for a moment before pointing to him and tilting my head. 'Are you Transforfreedom?' He nodded his head and gave a small smile.
'That's correct. It seems your mind works faster than your body heals. You claimed it healed faster than Western medicine, I believe?' I nod. 'Well, your body hasn't healed your foot injury, which our medics tended to while you were unconscious. You're welcome.' I looked down to my ankle and noticed there were bandages wrapped around it.
'And the venom?'
'All taken care of.'
I gave a sigh of relief and knelt down, pressing deeply on the bandage. 'Nice and tight. It won't be falling off any time soon.'
'Anyway, we should introduce you to your new allies- While your friends are in hiding and recovery, we will be supplying you with several missions with your teammates and in order to succeed, you need to be careful with your actions. They all have very special personalities and hidden histories. We would rather not exploit them for we care for our team's privacy.'

He guided me through another long corridor, Swirlfire followed behind us.
'I have a question...' I asked, 'Where's Killer and Kagerou?'
'We escorted them to the Briefing Room, where we will inform you of your mission and introduce you to everyone.'
'Our mission...'
Swirl looked to me curiously for a brief moment, my ears were lowered and I was deep in thought.
'I wonder what it is...' I asked myself out loud.
Pushing a large door open, Trans gave a small smile and points to a large table. 'There are your allies, but there's one person who isn't there.'
'Is that me?' I asked, in which Trans shook his head in response.
'No, but that was a nice guess. Swirl will be assisting you, too.'
'What?!' I looked to Swirl whom nodded to me without a word. 'I-- uh... uhh....' I continued to stammer and hesitate for several second before shutting up. 'Nevermind...'
'Now then, let us introduce you to your allies.' Trans pulled me to the table where the team was, and introduced them one by one. He pointed to the first mouse, whom was the fox-furred mouse that I had tried to catch up to before.
'This is Estefix,' he started off, 'She's been with us for at least a week, and she's spent that time delivering several messages. I'm sure you've seen her pass by at least once.' I modestly shook my head.
'I don't think I have, sir.' I was already becoming very shy around everyone and every time I spoke I hesitated for a split second.
'I see. Well, we also have Boxiebox,' he resumed, pointing to another female whom had a kind of Neapolitan-ice-cream-like appearance. Her hair was a very bright pink and flowed down her head, with a chocolate brown bow near her ear. She has a kind of cat bell necklace which was striped pink and brown, and shone a distinct silvery-white colour. Her fur was brown with white all around her stomach and striped on both legs and her ears. 'She's been here for 2 days and we don't really know much about her, so we can't really inform you with anything else.'
A mouse with a red and pink cap, burgundy earmuffs and a red tie burst through the door. She also had grey fur with white on her stomach and around her muzzle with pale blue hair that reached her shoulders. Gasping for breath, she opened her purple, reptile-like eyes and chuckled.
'Sorry I'm late, is this the whole team?' she asked, walking to the group nervously.
'That was a, uh, interesting, entrance.' Trans looked at her with a frown, of which she shamefully sat down.
'I did say I was sorry...'
Trans sighed and looked to us again. 'This is Carthekitty, or Car for short. She's also new to the team, we found her crying in fear after she was attacked by vampires. Thankfully they didn't bite her, but it was a bother getting her back to the HQ.'
'So another one of us were attacked by those vamps before we got here...' I pondered, as the team had finally assembled I followed everyone to a large table with a holographic map. On this map were several red X's, yellow squares and solid purple blobs which slowly moved around.
'Is everyone here? Let me explain to you your mission...'