Episode 21: Auction House (Patreon)

Vroom*

Stop*

Madeline steps out of the car with Peter holding the door open for her

"You look beautiful" Peter grins and extends his arm to escort her.

Madeline wears a sleek dark green wig swinging just past her chin line, a beautiful long slit black and purple velvety dress, which drags behind her revealing her smooth freckled skin. To hide her oran eye, she put on a brown contact lense.

"You don't look bad yourself" Madeline smiles and wraps her arm around his

"Would you two keep the chit chat for later, it's suffocating in here" Evan lets out squeaky noises. 

Evan had shifted into his red squirrel form to avoid getting caught and hid under Peter's suit jacket, which rests on Madeline's shoulders. 

"What is he saying now.." Peter frowns "He's obviously complaining without me understanding his squeaking"

"I will shove my fist so far up your ass you'll have to finish an entire bottle of lube to fish it out__" The squeaks continue 

"Quiet you two"

Madeline breaths in to calm herself; being in this city again after so long has stirred many unpleasant memories 'To think I would find myself in this city again after what had happened to Evan and I' Madeline reaches under the suit jacket to pet Evan's little head. 'Knowing Evan, he probably joined me in this mission to comfort me, it must be harder on him'

"Hm? What's wrong?" Evan asks

"Nothing"

"Hm" Evan smiles as Madeline continues to pet his head

"Good evening Miss, Sir, may I take a look at your invitations?" two armed guards greet the couple in front of the Auction House.

"Right here" Peter hands him the invites

"For everyone's safety, we are to check the participants thoroughly before entering" After putting the invitations down the guard begins to pat Peter down to check for any weapons

pat*

pat*

But before the other guard tries to get to Madeline, Peter blocks his way and pushes him back "Hey hey, easy there tiger, if you could do me a favor? Keep your hands away from my girl" Peter warns the guard with a smile "She's quite the shy one, you see" 

"Apologies, it is protocol to check everyone, otherwise, she cannot go any further"

"Now that's not what I wanted to hear" Peter punches the guard in the gut forcing him to puke out.

"WHY YO__" the other man attempts to point his gun at Peter, but Peter grabs the sick man on the floor's gun and tosses it at his head, knocking him out cold. Peter turns to the man idling on the floor after puking, grabs his arm and twists it behind his back.

"UGH!" The man grunts in pain. Holding the man's arm with force, Peter's biceps tear through his expensive shirt.

Tear*

"Shit! Look what you did man. And here I was planning to wear this shirt when I go see my little brother, now it's all ruined" Peter grips on the man's neck 

"Sigh, don't go breaking another man now, I already told you that shirt was too tight on you" Maddie reaches to her thigh and takes out a potion from a harness wrapped around her covered leg

pop*

The potion puts the man to sleep as soon as he breathes it in.

"Besides, I could've taken care of them myself" Madeline steps on top of the sleeping man

"I know, it just got a little personal" Peter holds her hand and they both continue to walk into the auction house. 

Soon as they entered through the large doors, Madeline checks for anyone passing by before sending out Evan.

"Don't disappoint me now"

"When have I ever?" Evan hops off and runs in ahead of them. 

"Here" Madeline helps Peter put his suit jacket back on covering the tears on his shirt, and fixes his hair from the commotion "Good as new"

"I guess this works for now" he kisses her on the hand

The two approach a lady behind a desk

"You two are just in time. The show will begin in 15 minutes. Here are your numbers" She hands them each a pin and a board with their assigned numbers "Enjoy the show and drinks!" 

"Oh, we will" Peter replies

The luxury, the drinks and well served buffet. Everyone dressing up in expensive gowns and tuxedos for the occasion. Drinking and chattering while armed men walk amongst them with earphones to keep watch. 

Madeline grabs a drink from one of the hosts walking around with trays, and heads towards the guard guarding the back entrance to the confined Givers.

"Ah!" she fake stumbles and spills her drink on him pretending she had lost her footing "Oh no, I'm so sorry." She reaches to wipe the spilt wine off his suit "I had a bit too much to drink" She looks at him straight in the eyes with a seductive smile.

"It's alright ma'am, just... be careful next time" He replies while checking her out. It's no question that Madeline has all the right curves in all the right places, and a beautiful face embellished with dark colored makeup to refine her beautiful cheekbones and full lips. She knows her beauty is no match when it comes to the majority of the people around her and knows how to use it as a weapon.

After noticing how easily he's following her lead, she continues to bait him. "I'm afraid the wine won't be cleaned so easily. Is there somewhere quiet we can go to for me to help you clean it up?" She reaches to touch him again but more playfully with a while pressing her chest against him revealing her cleavage.

"I... ah... I can't leave the gate"

"Who said anything about leaving? We could just go inside, I'd love to see who I'll be buying next, maybe we could even show them that humans can turn into beasts too." The man could no longer resist the temptations, and without question, he opens the door with a key.

Soon as the two walk in to close the door behind them, the man falls to the ground. Madeline had stabbed his neck with a drugged needle putting him to sleep.

"Works every time".

"Uhm, testing testing" Peter's voice echos in the auction house

"Looks like they already started" Madeline looks up to the speakers

"Ladies and gentlemen, apologies for the wait, we had some minor technical difficulties" Peter had beat the crap out of the auctioneers waiting to start the show. 

He stands on a large stage with a large red curtain behind him, almost the size of the auction house which could easily reach 40 ft high "I bet you guys are dying to see our collection tonight" The crowd cheers "Well then, I shouldn't keep you guys waiting any longer"

The curtains fall revealing a figure standing on all fours, and the crowd gasps in admiration. The rare and beautiful creature that stood in front of them left them in shock. They've only ever heard stories of this creature with majestic wings and fierce lion claws. The purple eyes of an eagle glisten gold with the light's reflection, its ears covered in red fur attached to an eagle's head and its lion tail swings to the side with feathers at its tips. Three large scars remain visible on its feathered chest. Evan has taken his beast form.

"It's a Griffon!" One man yells

"It's truly the beast of the decade!"

"I never thought I would set eyes on such a creature in my lifetime" An old man begins to clap and the crowd follows in cheers

"But why isn't it chained?" someone asks

"Alright! Alright. Now that you've gotten a good look at this masterpiece, who will start us off from $1.5 million?" Peter begins to entertain the crowd while Madeline checks on the caged Givers, but the guards already felt something off from the unfamiliar auctioneer, and went to the back to check what was going on. 

"Someone is here! Freeze!" the guard points his gun at Madeline

"Hello to you too, could you lower your gun, I lost my way looking for the bathroom"

They look behind her and notice a fallen guard "HANDS UP RIGHT NOW!" The man continues to point his gun at her, and more guards show up

"Sight, I guess I have no choice" Maddie takes off her wig revealing her long wavy red white hair, and before her hair bounces back from momentum, she reaches to touch the ground

"It's a Giver! Put your guns away! She can't use her magic if we don't attack!" 

"Aww, you sure about that?" The ground begins to shake

DOOM! 

Vines shoot out from the floor in all different directions. 

Though humans have figured out the trick behind the Givers magic, and all they have to do is avoid harming them, Madeline can trick her magic by clearing her head from all harmful intensions. Instead, she focuses on just the magic itself. The swinging vines hitting aimlessly with no rhythm, is bound to affect its surroundings, the men included. 

"SHIT! How is she doing this! Just shoot!" 

"Now you've done it" Madeline grins in excitement and uses their harmful intentions against them, now that she's free to use her magic, she wraps the vines around their necks and lifts them off the ground. The guards let go of their weapons to grab hold of the vines in order to avoid chocking. Madeline brings out her crow wings and flies to the guards' eye level.

"Which one of you has the keys to these cages?" She asks

 Peter on the other hand is building up cold sweat as the price reaches 45 million "Going once, going twice. Sold!" But as soon as the bidding ended, Evan screeches at the top of his lungs alarming the attendees, and spreads his wings to scare them away. Flying on top of them and pushing one by one out of the way.

Madeline managed to get the guards attention leaving the attendees defenseless for Evan to have his fun.

"I can't believe it... He's worth 45 million?" The two had discussed a bet before the bidding, where Peter was sure Evan would be no more than 20 mil and Evan bet that he's worth more than 40 mil.

The screams echo through the entire building. And while the two chase out the guests, Madeline guards the caged Givers. 

One of the men hanging off the ground begins to laugh "kekkeeke"

"What's so funny?" Madeline asks with a grim expression

"This is only half of them"

"Half of what?" 

Madeline looks to the cages and notices many of them are empty

"WHERE'D YOU PUT THE OTHERS?!" She enhances the vines in anger, gripping tighter around the guards necks, her eye flares red burning the brown contact lense she has on, veins emerge on her skin around the oran eye slowly running down her cheek like red flames. 

"Ah! The human. Ugh. Giver works for the Takers now, I can't wait until Axl hears about this" Madeline shivers at the name spoken out of the man's gritted teeth.

GRIP!* 

The vines tighten "You... Really thought... we would sell them all together? I guess The Taker's information... circulates through the Darin branch"

'They purposefully gave different branches different information to find our source! Such a silly trick and we fell for it!' Madeline could no longer contain her aggression, but she knows, she knows that she shouldn't kill anymore. She grips her arm, and a presence reaches to hold it. Two small gentle hands. As soon as the men passed out she let go of them. The red veins spreed to her neck, weakened, she lands to the ground.

"Maddie!" Peter comes in running as soon as he spots her.

"Wh... Where's Evan?" She asks looking around for him as she shakes uncontrollably from the oran eye's side effects.

"He's keeping watch outside. Look at you, I told you not to over do it" Peter caresses her cheek and holds her shaken hand.

"I'm fine, we need to get them out of here" Madeline pointes to the caged Givers

"Ok, you stay here, I'll search for the keys"

'How will we find another source? We've been working with the Darin branch since the Takers were created. I made a mistake' Maddie chews on her finger 'No, I can't lose hope. Though it'll be risky, we can still spy on other branches' Maddie felt the loss of all the Givers she may never be able to save. She punches the floor again and again.

"Boss!" Evan runs in, wearing one of the guards pants "A messenger is looking for__What happened?!" Evan spots the damage on her face from the Oran eye and rushes to her aid. He immediately attempts to absorb some of her pain away, but she pushes him away

"I told you not to do that without asking, this is the consequence of my own actions"

"B..but" he expresses his concern

"A little rest is enough for this__"  

Caw*

Caw*

The sight of the crow flying towards Madeline gave her quite the shock, it flaps its way to land on her extended arm.

"Buso?" Madeline calls out its name

"I found this messenger lurking around while I was keeping watch"

"Amelia!" The crow spoke

"Oh did you send this crow after the white haired girl Plum talked about? Did it find her?" Evan asks as he assists Madeline.

But Madeline couldn't reply, though this crow truly was sent to find Amelia, it's been assigned to the log house many years ago. 'I didn't think the day would come...' Evan isn't able to understand what's on her mind, but she seems worried.

'She's alive.. She's only a few hrs away. But that would mean she's been all alone for all those years..' 

"Shouldn't you send it back to pursue her until we're done here?"

"Huh?" Madeline zones out "Oh, r-right" She brings Buso the crow closer and whispers to it then pushes it with enough momentum to take flight. 'Wait for me Amelia, I will find you'.