During his time in the dungeon one of the undead rats must have been found out and destroyed. This was the only explanation as he couldn’t feel it anymore. The other one was practically screaming in its feeble little mind for his attention. Dean was too far away at this point to share images with it, but the message was clear. The ones it was placed there to look out for had arrived.

This presented a problem. Dean couldn’t really communicate or do much with his undead pet at this range. The warning had gotten through to him, but he needed to get closer to learn more. Frantic, Dean turns to Nadira and waves her forward. The other party was probably out of hearing range and into the dungeon by now, but there was no time. With urgency, Dean pushes the Neko woman forward. “Hurry up, there isn’t much time.”

Dean runs off toward the exit and Nadira follows a moment later. “What’s going on?” She shouts at him as they leave the warehouse.

“They’re at the guild. I got the signal from one of the rats I left behind. I can’t get much from this far away so we need to move, now!” Dean’s words galvanize Nadia and she shoots forward faster than he can keep up with.

Nadia jumps behind the wheel of the car and starts it up just as Dean is opening the door. As soon as he is in and even before he can close the door, she drops the shifter into gear and slams on the gas. The door closes on its own before Dean can pull it closed, jamming his fingers in the process. Dean shakes out his hand and makes sure to buckle in. At the rate Nadira is driving he is a little worried.

“Keep it reasonable. If you get pulled over for speeding or something we could lose them.” Dean’s worry was evident in his voice.

“We won’t be pulling over for anyone.” Despite her words, she did slow down a little. The cat woman was still speeding, but it was less reckless.

A few minutes passes like this as they make a beeline to the adventurers guild building. Each second of the drive Dean focuses on the bond between him and the undead he left behind. The link was slowly getting stronger but it took some time before he could get anything from it other than a sense that it was calling to him. The minutes stretched and he became impatient, anxious that they wouldn’t be in time to catch the lost sheep.

It was a long shot that they would come back to the guild hall tonight, but it paid off. The biggest worry he had now was that they had wasted the opportunity by running a dungeon instead of waiting. There was only so much he could do though, so he kept trying with his undead minion and the car remained silent except for the howl of the wind and the roar of the engine.

Almost crazy with the suspense, Dean finally got more from his link with the undead. The first thing he did was check on the lost sheep. To his relief, they were still in the building. Soon they were close enough that he was able to get images from the last rat left, the one on the top shelf behind the bar. The other one was probably stepped on or something while they were in the dungeon.

Dean continued to get information from the dead rat. After the initial confirmation that the lost sheep were still there he began to calm down and relay what he was getting from his minion to Nadira as she continued to drive. When he told her, Dean could see Nadira’s shoulders visibly relax. Her driving was better, less frantic as well. As he watched through the eyes of the undead, a man with a ram’s horns was talking to a skinny man with rabbit ears at the bar.

The rat was too far away to hear anything that they were saying, but they were huddled up like whatever they were talking about was a secret. The rest of the lost sheep team was also at the bar a couple stools away, but no sign of Sandy. He was still wary about directing the rat to move because he was too far away for fine control. It was hard enough to get a good image already.

Seconds ticked by and Dean was only able to observe for the moment. A woman with mouse ears walks up to the man the lost sheep are talking to. What follows is an argument. It was loud enough that Dean’s minion was also able to pick up a little of what it was about. The woman, maybe a girlfriend of the rabbit eared man, wasn’t happy with him hanging out with the lost sheep and wanted him to leave with her.

The whole time the argument was going on the wild fae sitting beside the bunny man only smirked. It ended with the wererabbit waving his friend away and turning back to the bar. It was a sad moment for Dean. Watching as he was, he could see tears well up in the woman’s eyes before she could turn away and run from the building. “What is going on with these people?” Dean muttered.

Nadira must have been able to hear it though since she turned to look at him for a moment. Realizing he had stopped talking about what he was seeing, he quickly relayed the scene he witnessed to her. “Something is very wrong with them.” She said when he was done. “It just seemed too good to be true with how eager they were for me and Sandy to join them. At first I just thought they were trying to get us to form a more permanent party with them, but I was definitely wrong.”

Closer now, Dean risked discovery of his remaining undead rat and started commanding it. He sent it down the shelves to the floor in an obscured corner. After that he sent it scurrying from one hiding spot to another. There was a close call when one patron moved a chair back and almost crushed the little undead, but a quick command had it rolling to the side and out of harm's way.

Dean stopped it at a dark corner under a table close to the door and had the undead minion look back to the bar area. It was hard to tell with all the people in the way but he thought the horned fae team was moving. Still focusing on the video he was getting he updated Nadira in the car. “I think they’re moving.”

“Damn. We are still too far out to catch them before they get away.” Nadira’s frustration is apparent in her voice.

The car's speed increases once again, but Dean reaches over to put a hand on her arm. “It’s okay. I have a plan.” The car’s speed decreases again, but only by a little, Nadira’s nerves evident in her lead foot. With the man the one fae was talking to in tow, the lost sheep soon opened the door and left. Dean doesn’t sit by idly though. As soon as the door was open he sent the undead rat out to follow.

As late as it was the rat had no trouble sneaking itself right up to the car the group was getting into. Just before the back door is closed by the rabbit man Dean commands the rat to jump. It does and grabs onto the lip to pull itself into the Honda. It was just in time too, as the door closes a split second after getting in. It was so close in fact that the undead rat’s tail got clipped off.

Releasing the breath he didn’t know he was holding, Dean sighs in relief. “It worked. I got my little pet into their car. It’s a little squished between the door and the seat, but I just need it with them so we can track it.”

“Good,” Nadira says. “Let me know what direction they are going.”

An hour passes with minimal talking. Dean tells Nadira whenever the feeling of his minions' location varies off of the direction they are headed. The whole time he is concentrating on the feeling he gets from the undead rat. Not only which way they should be going, but also to hear if anything is said. Unfortunately everything is muffled due to the rat being squished between the car door and the seat.

Eventually the car stops and the door opens. The undead rat is damaged and only barely able to drop out of the vehicle before rolling below it. Now that it was free, Dean could hear a few things before the cars occupants could get out of earshot. “You’ll get what you want.” A male voice Dean is not familiar with. “It’s just inside. Just hold your horses.”

The only other sounds after that are the receding footsteps and clicking of the cooling engine. There wasn’t much else that the damaged minion could do but lay there. At least it could still be a beacon for him to pinpoint the location. It also allowed Dean to see which building his quarry had entered. The bones in its body prevented it from moving much, but he had it look around/ It was in a parking lot in the back of an old building. Perhaps it was a hospital at one point, but now it looked abandoned.

Dean didn't recognize the area. He decided that it wasn’t a part of town that he had ever visited before. Plus, he figured he would have remembered this place if he had seen it before. Mainly because the place looked like the perfect setting for a ghost hunter TV show episode. With Dean’s directions leading them it wasn’t long before they caught up with the lost sheep. As they pulled in front of the two story square building Nadira didn’t stop and kept going. Dean was able to read a faded sign staked in the front of the property though. Shaded Pines Mental Health Facility. Like that didn’t make it even creepier.

Nadira parked down the block from the place and the both of them carefully walked the rest of the way. “What do you think they are doing in there?” Nadira asks Dean.

“No idea. We’ll find out in a minute though.” After his response they stay quiet so as not to alert anyone to their presence. When they get near they go around to the side, staying covered from sight as much as possible. Dean takes a second to banish his undead pet since it was all but useless now. At the corner of the building Nadira looks around to make sure they are alone and then jumps. It wasn’t a normal jump though, sending her more than ten feet in the air only kicking off the wall once on the way up.

At the top of her jump the claws come out and she digs them into the windowsill on one of the frames missing the glass. With an effortless application of strength Nadira pulls herself into the building. Dean just looks up, knowing his physical stats were not up to the same task she had just demonstrated. He wasn’t left there long though. Nadira poked her head out of the window a moment later and a rope dropped down.

Dean felt like smacking himself in the face. Every adventurer needed rope in their collection. A fact he knew from any number of tabletop games or cult films. His favorite of which featured a couple of Irish brothers whose accidental use of the essential equipment always made him laugh. It took him a minute to shake off his surprise at the realization that he had hardly even looked at a video screen of any type, much less a movie screen, in a year.

Back in the present, Dean grabs a hold of the rope and puts his feet on the wall. Pulling himself up as his feet walk on the brick of the building swiftly brings him to the second floor. After he is through the window Nadira takes a moment to collect the rope as Dean looks around. The room they are in was a patient room, as evidenced by the bare metal bed frame and dry rotted dresser in the corner. Nothing here indicated to either of them what might be transpiring in this place.

With nothing for them in here Nadira opens the single door of the room and takes a peek into the hallway. When she nods to him, Dean follows the fluid movements of the cat woman into the hall. To the left it ends in a right turn, and the right stops at a door labeled “Stairs” with a faded placard. Nadira looks both ways and heads to the left. At the turn she peeks around the corner before leading the way again. They passed plenty of patient rooms and an elevator halfway through the hall. At the end of the next hallway, which was much longer than the first one they entered, there is another right turn and a hall leading to another stairwell.

The whole building was a big U shape. Not wanting to go down yet, Nadira leads Dean into a room on the inside of the building. Expecting something like a garden in the middle of the building, Dean was a little surprised to find another part of the building there, but only one story tall. This meant they were looking down on the flat roof of that section of the hospital. What drew their attention was the glass skylight in the middle. There was a strange light coming through, but the angle they were at didn’t give them any clue as to what was causing it.

Soon they were on the move again. Having already been through these halls before, their pace was faster, Nadira practically running to the middle hall. There she started sticking her head into rooms as they went. Three doors down she found one that she liked and she pushed her way in. Dean got a look around and found the single window there broken out.

Nadira didn’t wait for him, and quickly tied off another rope to the metal bed frame by the window, any mattress or sheets that were left behind now tattered and crumbling on the floor. Waving him to follow, Dean watches as Nadira steps out of the window. Rushing to see her fall, he catches a glimpse of her sliding down the rope, barely slowing herself at all. With a shake of his head, Dean follows along, though at a much more reasonable speed.

A little shaky from the unfamiliar activity, he staggers toward his furry companion on unsteady legs. Dean quickly gains control of his faculties and joins the woman as she looks down through the skylight. It looks down on a cafeteria. People can be seen below. One of the panels of glass for the skylight is open where Nadira is kneeling, allowing them to hear some of what is being said too. Dean was surprised to see so many people below.

That isn’t the most interesting thing of note though. The strange light filtering up through the glass was from some sort of rift. It looked like the one they had entered through to the dungeon earlier. It was like a strange gray light was being reflected off of a disco ball. Swirling shards of light floated all over the large, open room. Once Dean pulled his eyes away from the flashy portal to another dimension he noticed the state of the people.

The lost sheep are there and they look fine but there are many others that there is something wrong with. All of them are chained together, but they don’t look like they care to fight either. Most of them are glassy eyed, just staring ahead at nothing. Even the bunny guy that Dean’s rat saw from the guild was unresponsive now, ignoring the shackles that were being clapped on his wrists. He had a smile on his face but the eyes didn’t really have anyone home behind them. All the people that weren’t part of the lost sheep stood in a long line between opened cages that lined the walls of the cafeteria.

“In you go people.” This is from the only female member of the lost sheep. “If you want more then come along.” The horned woman waves her hand and the line of chained people start walking forward into the strange portal. None of them were human though. There were people with animal features, dwarves, elves and others. Watching as the people disappear, one by one into the portal, Dean and Nadira search for their friend.

“There,” comes the excited whisper yell of Nadira. She is pointing a short way down the line of captives. Dean didn’t need any help though, since he had found her at about the same time as Nadira had said something. There was no time though. Within seconds, with no time to make a plan or enact any rescue attempt, a glassy eyed Sandy walked through the portal.

The woman next to Dean started to move forward, whether to smash the window in or slide through the open section Dean didn’t know, but he put a hand out to stop her. “That won’t help much right now. Let’s watch and follow. The lost sheep are alert and cautious right now. Better to wait and watch for a good opportunity.” His words were confident, but he was really worried about the fate of those that entered the portal. Were the lost sheep feeding people to the dungeon as energy or something?

Nadira glares back at him for a moment. He meets her stare without flinching. The fear and frustration was reflected back to her in his eyes, and her expression softened. Dean could tell that she wanted to say more but was restraining herself. They settled in to watch a little longer as the rest of the prisoners walked through, followed shortly by the lost sheep. That was at least a little relief to Dean. If the lost sheep were following along then it meant Sandy wasn’t going to die immediately.

“Time to see where they are taking them.” Without any other warning, Nadira crawls through the open window and drops to the floor below. Dean just shakes his head and sighs in defeat before following her lead. His physical stats weren’t much higher than when he was first inducted into the system except for agility. This barely allowed him to hit the floor ten feet below and roll with the impact and not suffer any injury. He could feel the strain on his knees and back upon impact, but the roll kept him from breaking anything. It still hurt though.

Coming up to his feet again, Dean takes a moment to let the pain subside. Nadira doesn’t even pause after her impressive landing. The cat woman stands from her crouch and walks directly toward the portal. Before Dean can recover there is a loud thump and he looks up in time to see Nadira flying into the cages to their left. Her attacker? A freaking minotaur!

Stunned for a moment, the only thing that comes out is an astonished “What...the...hell?”

Turning to Dean, the seven foot tall man of rippling muscles and a bulls head just snorts. Dismissing him as a threat, the minotaur turns its baleful gaze back on Nadira. It was a little slow, but she pulled herself from the twisted metal of the cages to glare right back at the hulking creature of myth. Not to be left out, and thoroughly insulted by the blatant disregard the minotaur showed him, Dean raised a palm in its direction and made himself known.

Electricity jumps between Dean’s fingers and up his arm. A second of building energy draws the attention of the horned menace back to Dean. By then it’s too late though. A bolt of electricity shoots forward faster than the eye could see. A split second and the spell is over. Unfortunately, it didn’t have as much of an effect on the bull-man than Dean had hoped. It flinched, and a black patch of skin formed where the spell struck it in the side. That was it.

“Uh, bad news. This thing is tough. What now.” Nadira doesn’t answer at first, just jumps at the huge man, leading with a punch to its bull snout.

When the minotaur backhanded her in retaliation she rolled with it. It didn’t take but a moment for her to return to her feet. “I’ll tell you if I think of anything. Otherwise, just follow my lead” She says as she gets back to her feet. At this point Dean was really wishing he had a minion to blow up. Nadira rushed in again, but this time she ducked low, cutting into the tendons and muscle behind its knee as she passed by. It roared with the pain and lashed out at her with a meaty fist. It didn’t connect, but Nadira had to leap back and away.

Dean saw her plan though. If they could do enough damage to the limb and immobilize the beast it would be far less dangerous. The clock was ticking though. Every minute spent here with this thing was just more time for the lost sheep and their prisoners to get away. As a distraction, Dean sent a Spark into the face of their foe and it burst in his eyes. It worked perfectly as the minotaur swiped at his own face to try and clear the burning embers left behind.

If roared in annoyance. “You’ll pay for that human.” Of course it talks, Dean thought. Probably another kind of wild fae or something. The lost sheep must have left him behind to protect the portal and their prisoners when they weren’t around.

Taking advantage of his assistance, Nadira ignored the outburst and charged before dropping to her knees. Sliding between the monster’s legs, she delivered another slice to the vulnerable section behind the same knee as before. Dean uses something new, hoping to weaken the knee even further. A ball of dark purple energy forms in front of his outstretched palm before shooting forward. It wasn’t very fast, but the minotaur was too distracted by the pain from Nadira’s cut to dodge it.

The concentrated essence impacts it on the side of its huge knee just as it is trying to gore Nadira. She jumped back to avoid the wild swinging of its head and the fae creature faltered. The damage to its muscles and knee joint finally showed its impact as the minotaur turns and the knee buckles. This opens it up for some real punishment. Nadira steps in faster than anything Dean could do and starts slashing away at the burly, hairy man.

The cat woman is quickly whittling away at the man-bull’s health as it swings ineffectively at her. Unable to move as quickly as before, it has no way to fend off Nadira’s lightning quick attacks. It was...brutal to watch. After a moment of shock at the ferocity of the attack by his partner, Dean starts charging mana. Nadira was winning but it was taking too long, so Dean knew he needed to help. Without a clear shot at the humanoid bovine he falters for a moment as he tries to think.

Determination filling his eyes, Dean sprints forward to help. Narrowly avoiding a long horn that swings by, he ducks under it and comes up in front of its head. Knowing that any delay, despite Nadira’s distraction, would leave him wrecked by the behemoth, Dean slams both hands on either side of its bull face. The power built up in his arms flows down and into the hands before entering his attacker. The reaction to Shocker was instant. Seizing and shaking takes over the minotaur’s whole body.

It took him almost a whole minute of pumping more and more power through his body, converting it to electricity, and pumping it into the brain of his now helpless foe before it was over. The whole time a war was waged in Dean’s mind. Does he keep it up or does he stop? How long could he even do this without killing the creature/man in his grasp? Could he afford to let up though? If he released it too early it could mean the death of not only him, but Nadira too.

All those thoughts churn around in his head over and over again. The truth of it was, he was afraid to take a life of something sentient. It would have been one thing in the heat of battle, but his current situation felt more like an execution, since the fae man was currently helpless in his grasp. Though he had to admit to himself, it was more of a grey area instead of murder. In the end he had to be honest with himself. He had absolutely no idea how much power this thing could take before dying, or even if he had enough to accomplish the task. It kind of felt like a weird game of chicken. Would Dean’s mana give out before the fae man’s body did?

In the end his indecision was a decision in and of itself. Before he came to a solution in his mind, Dean felt the body of the minotaur go limp in his hands. Cutting his mana flow and stepping back from it, the corpse of their enemy falls to the ground before Dean. He felt little for the murderous man, but checked for a pulse anyway. There was none.

Feeling lost at the outcome and a little worried about himself, Dean looks over to Nadira who stands next to him, panting with exertion. Seeing the conflict warring in his eyes, she frowns. Shaking her head just a little, she then speaks up to bring his mind to task. “Have an existential crisis some other time. Right now we have to follow them before the portal closes or they get too far away to track down. You don’t have one of your undead following them now do you?”

His worry for Sandy comes roaring back, nearly smothering the conflict swirling in his heart. It isn’t gone though, and Dean knew he would have to address this soon or he would be useless in a fight. When he gets to his feet Nadira nods in approval. A moment later he follows her through the breach in reality as she sprints ahead of him.