The Raven Gang (Noble Animals Book 1)

by Brendan Walsh

“I have an identity for everyone else. Gary, Slate, Lindsey, Jane, and Johnny, but I don’t have anything for you. Who are you, Patrick?” Elder swirled his hand inside the bag of blades behind him. “Surely you can’t just be Gordon’s son. Tell me, what makes you angry?”

  He was confused. Out of all the things he thought Elder would pose to him, this was a curveball.

  “There’s no trick to it.” The doctor repeated. “What makes your blood boil?”

  He was taken aback. Patrick’s thoughts were instantly bolted back to the origins of the raven gang, to the time before the world even knew he name The Raven Gang. His thoughts zoomed across his entire academic life. From laughter, joy, anger, and depression. In his darkest times he would have loved someone to ask him that question, all so he could vent his philosophy out, and make himself feel superior.

  “What makes me angry?” he began slowly. “That humans are the only animals that pretend to be something they’re not. They think themselves to be unique, moral, and that the whole universe is there just for them.” He unknowingly took a few steps towards the doctor. “But above all their flaws, they can be such ignorant, cruel things. My friend, the whole gang’s friend, Edgar, is so kind, compassionate, and a bunch of other great qualities. But if people realized something like him exists they won’t think twice about killing him. Anything that makes them to not be afraid anymore, no matter who gets hurt, such children masquerading as rational and political! But they don’t know anything, so many of them can’t comprehend a perspective beyond the ignorant bubble they’ve locked themselves in. That, Doctor Elder, is what makes me angry.”

  The doctor had smiled throughout most of his monologue. It was as if he knew exactly what he was going to say, like he was an actor memorizing his lines.

  “Good. Good. You may not think so, but we’re not too different. You remind me a lot of my younger self.”

  “Maybe so. But I don’t want to be you. There may be something wrong with me but I have hope. I believe we’re becoming better as time goes on and that one day we’d make it to the point where something like Edgar would be welcomed.”

  As he finished a quick knocking came from the other side of the door. The bolted up wood was locked both ways.

  “Patrick?” Gary echoed through the other side. “Are you alright in there? What’s going on?”

  He didn’t know how whether to respond. Elder did it for him.

  “Well now is the chance for you to decide that. You could stand by, let me fulfill my plans, watch as the human race bows before me and gets the punishment that you and I know many of them deserve-” he sprung his hand out from inside the bag and tossed the blade over to him. It bounced several times, ending with a soft slide a few inches from his feet. “Or are you going to fight for them?”

  The muffled sound of Gary’s voice continued through the walls. “Just tell me, will you be okay? We can take care of ourselves out here.”

  Patrick wiped his shivering hands across his face. His body was too spiked with adrenaline to even remember the claw wounds on his shoulders. He turned his back on Elder, facing Gary through the door.

  “I’ll be okay. Gary, kick ass!”

  With that he heard his friend run away, preparing for the battle he most likely wouldn’t win. For all he knew he’d never see any of his friends alive again, but knowing they were all out there, fighting for the same thing he was, he knew there was no way he could back down.

  Elder watched him turn around to face him. Patrick picked the sword up, dramatically gripping it securely in his palm. He didn’t know much about fencing, or any sword arts, but he knew all you had to do was stab the other guy with the pointy end. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to let that happen to him.

  “En garde, Doctor!”

  “Well, go on-” Gary waved his blade furiously with an outstretched arm. “What are you guys waiting for?”

  Things were looking a bit down now that Patrick was trapped into fighting Elder. Even though they were inexperienced, another sword still would have been helpful. Now they were down to three, with four gryphons crouching lowly and carefully inching their way towards the three humans.

  Gary joined Lindsey and Slate. They stood tightly together in a horizontal form, blades pointed out, creating a small barricade in front of the exit.

  “You know we could really use your father’s help right about now?” he curtly muttered in Lindsey’s ear.

  “I’m not sure what he and his partner are up to.” she replied. “They wanted us to wait until 9.”

  Slate turned his head with surprise. “That’s like thirty minutes from now! What are they doing? Seeing the Jefferson Memorial?”

  “Why didn’t you tell us earlier?” Gary said. “We probably could have done more with the setup.”

  “Cut me some slack, guys. I’m the newest member of the gang. I had no idea biology was going to be screwed with this much.”

  A loud snarl coming from one of the gryphons reminded them that bickering wasn’t going to help anyone. Slate jumped forward in surprise, but quickly regained the small amount of composure he had before. He began to jump up and down, waving his sword around like a mad musketeer. Gary and Lindsey gave him uncomfortable glances.

  “Don’t try to be Patrick.” Lindsey warned.

  “But I think it’s working. Watch.” he defended.

  The four beasts took a few steps in retreat. But it was clear that their movements were not out of fear, as they all perched upright, and almost appeared to be smiling condescendingly at them.

  “What are they doing?” Gary wondered at loud.

  Their only motions were that they would look straight down at the three of them, and then look up at the sky through the glass dome-shaped roof of the building. Taking it as some kind of indication that it was something they were supposed to be looking at, the gang turned their heads to the sky. The only thing they could see was a series of dark, spooky clouds paving the way for the bright menacing light of a full moon that was now fully emerged for the whole city to see.

  The side doors of the central room burst open, and their other enemies revealed themselves. Large canine creatures charged themselves in a military-like fashion, quickly settling in front of the four gryphons. Their fur colors ranged from pure black to a light grey. The size of the smallest one was easily twice the size of a great dane, and their claws were surely going to be hard to fight with their single blades.

  “Okay,” Slate said with defeat. “I think we’ve seen just about everything now.”

  The gang all retreated close to the wall; their enemies were now eight in total. The odds were heavily stacked against them, but they were not going to surrender. In unison they readied their swords, scanned the room for any possible defense, and slowly began to spread out.

  Lindsey, who was still in the middle, spoke out. “We need to separate as much as possible. And keep in mind that we are comparatively small targets.”

  That was the last time any of them spoke. The large, overbearing beasts sprang from their inert positions. The battle had begun.

  Outside the building the gang’s two musical members were having the time of their lives. After about two weeks of being separated from his guitar Johnny got to play again, and in front of hundreds of people. Not just that, but his opera-like voice range gave him the appropriate tenor style sounding similar to Vince Neil himself. And Jane with her several years of bass lessons to make her look more well-rounded for grad school, was able to show what she learned during all those years. The scientists around them enjoyed the music, without the slightest knowledge that the band of young, well-dressed rockers was only there to prevent them all from being killed.

  Chairman Hullway thought that the concert was a pleasant surprise. He danced around classily like everyone else and lifted a glass of wine to his lips for a vibe. What set him apart from the other academics of the cr
owd was that he found himself, halfway through the song, taking a good hard look at the singer/guitarist and bass player. He lifted his horn-rimmed glasses and squinted at the figures on the stage. They looked just like faces he’d seen on many news programs earlier.

  “Is that...the raven gang?” he murmured to himself.

  To be sure he migrated far to the right, disassociating himself from the crowd. With fewer people clouding his line of view he could be surer of the identities of the rockers. However, he didn’t get that chance. His attention was promptly taken by a couple dark figures moving through the shady woods nearby. Amidst the nightly glow of the moon he could make out that one was a woman, and the other was an older man. They were both gripping large objects tightly against their stomachs.

  “I can’t believe it was that easy for us to get these.” he heard the man say. “I mean, I know this is America, but it’s still pretty ridiculous.”

  “Yeah, and they didn’t even ask us to prove we we’re cops.” the woman replied.

  Hullway made his way over to them. Once he was in range both figures took notice of him and raised the objects they were holding threateningly, aimed right at him. It immediately dawned on him what the long, pointy objects were.

  “Good God!” the scientist cried out. “Are those guns?”

  Upon realizing the man wasn’t a threat both figures quickly drew down their arms. For several moments they were both silent. Neither of them knew what to say, so the woman blurted out the first combination of words that fell into her mouth.

  “We’re concert security.” she said plainly, and nudged her partner on the side with the firearm.

  “Uh... yeah.” the man began, coughing. “Things can get pretty wild at these events. Heh, you never know.”

  Dr. Hullway simply blinked a few times, seeming to not be sure what to believe.

  After a moment’s consideration, he slowly spoke. “Well, alright I guess.”

  To his silent delight, they didn’t say any more, and quickly moved through the side of the building. Dr. Hullway turned around to head back to the central concert area. After what had just happened he needed to have his wine glass topped off to calm his nerves.

  As all the stage lights were illuminating back into view he was nearly forced onto the ground by what felt to him like a giant bullet. The near-impact caused his glasses to fall on the grass, landing just at his feet. He was able to recover quickly and put them back on.

  As soon as he regained his vision again, he thought he was going to have another heart attack. The giant bullet that almost slashed his head off was not at all a slice of metal fired from a gun, but a giant, all black creature with a wing span that was about the height of four people. It began circling the building, appearing to be looking for the best entryway. Moments afterwards, it flew out of sight.

  “What the-?” he whispered to himself. He took several subconscious steps closer, hoping to see where the weird creature was going.

  The three of them were now at completely different poles of the room. So far Lindsey’s plan of spreading out was not working out too poorly. Most of their time had thus far been spent running or getting a secure place to defend themselves, such as under a thick, round dining table or temporarily by some of the podiums scattered off view from the center of the hall.

  “Gah!” Gary cried out while making a leaping slash at a gryphon from behind a table. “Back, all of you!”

  It edged itself out of the way just in time. As Gary was still recovering from his failed attack the beast swung a claw, but it didn’t even graze the human’s shoulder. On the other side of the room Slate and Lindsey had gathered side by side and were fending off a gryphon and two werewolves. Making an expert parry to his left side, Slate lunged forward, slashing one of the wolves straight through the shoulder, causing it to roar out in pain.

  “I really hope the music is loud enough outside.” he said to her. “Things could get loud in here.”

  Lindsey took a leap backwards as the nearest lion-bird flapped its wings and tackled itself forward. She and Slate were just a few paces away from the center of the room, so they had a lot of space to work with. At that point the rest of the unnatural animals who had yet to attack sprang up into position, pummeling through the tables and chairs that had taken so long to make fancy.

  While they were all nearly in a mid-air strike on the gang a hail of suppressed gunfire sliced across the monsters’ side of the room. A few small spatters of blood hovered in the air before landing on the snow white table cloths. Despite being hit by a few fast moving pieces of hot metal, it was obvious it didn’t hurt either species fatally.

  “Sorry we’re late.” Detective Hunter yelled over his shooting.

  The three glanced over at the two shooting detective’s gratefully. Their lives had most likely just been saved.

  “What took you so long?” his daughter demanded, while fending off a wolf.

  “An annoying scientist.” Guajardo shouted. She doubled her assault, keeping them all at bay.

  The attacks went on for several more moments. The humans were struggling to get rid of their first opponent. Another silent series of gunfire along with an athletic jab straight through the chest by Gary made the first gryphon collapse onto the floor, unmoving. They were relieved, but none of them showed any pride. The next one came about thirty seconds afterward. Lindsey and Slate charged an isolated wolf that had been injured by the bullets and stabbed it evenly though both of its sides. It lay quietly, jaw down against the bloody carpet.

  Slate wiped his forehead and rubbed the sweat off along the side of his suit. “There must be an easier way to do this.”

  Over to the side of the room the two detective’s hastily worked to reload their weapons, and Gary, through a quick succession of slicing, nearly cut a gryphon’s claw off. The battle seemed to be getting much easier now that they had two submachine guns and a couple enemies that were longer fighting.

  Just as things were looking up, a dark dressed figure rose into view. It was Patane. He stood up on the elevated stage platform behind the central podium; the very place Elder had been just before the gang’s concert began. He smiled at the brawl before him, like a proud parent happy to see his children succeed.

  He crossed his arms, intrigued by the gang’s success. “You kids have lasted much longer than I thought.”

  A gryphon reared over preparing a full force strike on Gary, but he slashed at its neck, causing it to recoil in pained surprise. “You’ve had your fun. Stop all this now!”

  “You seem like you’re handling yourselves well.” Elder’s right hand said, and he extracted a small electronic device from his breast pocket. “Let’s turn up the difficulty level a notch.”

  At the push of a button on his wireless gadget, all the creatures paused. Their pupils grew so large they took up their entire eyes, and then switched to a bright, seething red. Gary watched as the gryphon closest to him slowly gained longer and sharper claws. It didn’t hesitate to put them to use. It swiped him quickly across the chest, slicing through his white shirt as cleanly as string cheese.

  He cried out in pain and clutched his chest warmly. To his relief the cuts were superficial and didn’t provide much sacrificed blood.

  Lindsey and Slate moved to the end of the room. After the two wolves and gryphons in front of them briefly paused for the slight metamorphoses, she called out to everyone. “I think it’s their heads! That’s how we can stop them.”

  Gary recalled earlier when he and the rest of the gang we’re locked behind bars and Elder told them his plan. He remembered the part about tiny computer chips in his creatures’ brains. “That’s right! They all have computers that regulate their bodies for them. Head-shots everyone!”

  Gary charged forward mildly and unleashed several slashes to the beast’s head, but it had easily prepared for it and almost carelessly clawed them all out
of the way. Lindsey and Slate did the same but had a bit more luck. The latter lunged a steady jab across one of the wolves’ forehead, setting it angrily snarling on the floor, unable to get back up.

  As Patane was about to vanish back into the darkness Lindsey’s father paused his splattered assault. He aimed the gun straight at the man’s back, and his voice erupted.

  “Freeze, jackass!” the detective took a few steps forward and extracted his S.F.P.D badge from the interior of his coat. “You’re under arrest. Don’t move another step!”

  Patane obeyed, his sly smile not fleeting from his face. It was clear he didn’t think the middle aged man was a threat. From the officer’s view he couldn’t tell the scientist had reached into his front pocket, clicking yet another button on his doom device. The effect was instantaneous this time, and a gryphon that was easily twice the size of the others pummeled through the floor right under the detective’s feet. The blast trampolined him into the air several feet before roughly collapsing onto a toppling table.

  The gang stared in awe as the giant being settled by the central podium. Lindsey didn’t hesitate to rush out from her battle to her father, laying silently supinated on the floor.

  “The Time Keeper has arrived.” Patane grinned with delight. “How will “Our Heroes” get out of this?”

  They paid no attention to him, as Lindsey and the other’s made it to her father. His eyes were open, and he was struggling to keep in a half-sitting position. “Are you okay, dad?” she asked tugging hard on his arm. “Please tell me you are!”

  He cringed in pain as his back was arched in almost on obtuse angle. “Y… yeah, I am. I’ll be fine. Stay back, someone needs to fend them off!”

  There wasn’t anything anyone could have done at that point. Since they had momentarily ceased fighting the monsters were ready to spring into action. The largest gryphon was already raising a claw for a lethal slash. The remaining werewolves were in a steady position, seconds away from pouncing.