Fallen Age: Golden Age Sparks 1.6

Never go out after dark. You never knew what might be there. Maybe muggers, maybe worse. STay in the lit parts of the city and go right home. Even the college had that rule.

Now, Claire was standing in the little park by the school as the sun went down, with Michael. She'd told grandma that she was staying home, and she'd told Mom and Dad that she was at Grandma's and she was so grounded if anyone found out.

But the school… She'd been there for after school events, parties but now…

There was something wrong about it. Something… the empty windows looked hungry.

"It is worse now, yes?" Kyoko said, and the student wasn't dressed to go into some place, she was carrying… a pink parasol? "In the day there are others there, not all corrupted, they disguise it. Now…

"Um, okay," Michael said. "We're here. So what do we do?"

"We go inside!"

"The doors are locked. And they have alarms."

'Yes, very good alarms, technological alarms." Kyoko said. "But I am clever and you are lucky!"

"Doesn't feel like it…" Michael said. He handed Claire a bat.

"What's this—"

"Just in case we run into any monsters."

"Oh, the monsters we could see will not fear a bat," Kyoko said. Then she was strolling across the street, where anyone could see her.

"Is our classmate a little off?"

"She has tails," Claire mutterd. "Let's go." They followed Kyoko to a side door and the girl just touched the lock and the expensive auto-lock just suddenly… fizzled and clicked, the door swinging open. The three walked in and…

Claire shivered. Sure the school had been off and getting worse, but there were always kids there, people chatting, some teachers nice but now…

"You can feel it, yes?" Kyoko asked.

"Yeah. What is it?"

"The Wyrm. Uncloaked by others. I think that is why it was put here, in a school. To hide it…and defend it."

"Defend it?"

"The Garou seldom come by schools."

"Great, another name we need to learn," Claire said. Still… She shook her head. "Let's go. This place is creepy."

"Yes." Kyoko said. "The basement." They followed her, the dark corridor looking like the halls of some ancient tomb, the cheerful posters twisted and strange in the dim light. Just a few night lights were on, but…

The basement was off-limits. Had been for a while, but as Claire walked towards it she felt…

She looked and now, without the other kids, that strange sense came to her, seeing paths of corruption, a swirling whirlpool… Pulling everything down to the basement.

"Let's go." But the first problem was the fact that the door was locked… And not by an electric system.

"The lock is—"

Kyoko turned as Michael tripped on something. "The hell?" he asked. "I guess someone dropped… a keychain? Try this?"

Kyoko stared at it, then at Michael, shrugged, and tried it.

The first key opened the lock and when the door was open, Claire gagged. It wasn't real, not a material smell but her new senses…

"What's down there?"

"The Wyrm," Kyoko said. "But hurry. Such places are not always unguarded…"

"Yeah."

The basement was clear, in fact there were cheerful signs—at least to the eye. But they were crawling with Corruption…

DANCE THE SPIRAL WITH ME! One read, and on the floor ws a complex spiral design, one that seemed to pull Glori—

"Do not look at it!" Kyoko said. She hissed. "I didn't expect this."

"What is it?"

"Once there was a tribe of garou, great warriors, great defenders of Gaia… well,to hear them talk. They conceived a mighty plan. They would go down into the earth, into the realms of the Wyrm and defeat it… They danced the spiral and what returned were only slaves of the wyrm. This is a… ritual?" She knelt down. "Not the true spiral, but…"

"Enough to do what happened up above?" Claire asked.

"That and more. The spiral grows, reaches out, first the school then the houses around it…"

"Than let's break it." Claire stared at it, and she felt the same power come into her when she'd created a ritual from scratch to save Michael. "It's power is dependent on its unity, break it, and it dies."

"Or disperses into the school," Kyoko said. "It would be a terrible thing."

Claire smiled. "And fire purifies."

"Oh, I can't allow that…"

Suddenly at the center of the spiral Principal Meuller had just appeared. "Little fox girl, ferreting out secrets that weren't hers, but I have rites as well, and you never scented me, not here within the spiral. I had hopes for you, after all, I don't believe one of your kind has ever danced the spiral, but now…"

"Mockery Breed," Kyoko said. "A poor copy."

"You dare say that to me. Look at these children. I'm making them mine and when I am done, they will make this city mine. Little minions speaking to me, obeying me, learning to serve me like good little students… " He paused. "But not you two. You know too much, so… I'll do things to you. Such lovely things and…"

"You talk too much." Claire stared at him. There was something about him that should scare her. But she had memories… Standing against Octavian…

No. She wasn't scared of this thing. "So here's what we're going to do. You're going to surrender, we're going to wreck this spiral and purge the school, and then you tell me everything I want."

"You little slut—You talk to me like—" The principal started to slaver and his body started to bulk up, fur growing, muscles twisting as bones broke and reformed. In seconds they were facing a hulking ape and—

And Claire still didn't care. She held up her bat and suddenly golden light, the bright light of noonday sun, the light that banished evil, spilled from it. The monster, there was no other word for it, flinched back.

"What is that—"

"I am Claire Teresa Aguilar," She said, and Claire felt her body grow stronger, as she stared at the… thing. Corrupt, creature of darkness, unworthy of the mercy of the Unconquered Sun… "And you… You are not going to leave this place!" And then Claire leaped for the hulking creature, which seemed surprised that she had dared to attack it.