~Raven~

The gold-painted stone lamp under my feet was cold. I lifted my wings slightly in anticipation as I saw Leo tense, then leap out into the open, making a run for the hostages.

Then my wings went limp in shock.

He disappeared.

One second, he was a blur in mid-air, then that blur seemed to blend into the background until it vanished entirely.

My head snapped around as the guard standing over the hostages suddenly fell, crying out. He hit the ground and lay still, apparently knocked out. It appears Leo can become invisible. He's a shadowtamer!

From what little I knew of Changeling history, Shadowtamers were creatures of stealth, able to become invisible, and control shadows to a limited degree. It had something to do with the ability to bend light... This is not the time to be thinking about this. I need to act!

I took off from the lamp and soared over to the clock, while the men were occupied trying to figure out what took one of their own down. While I was in the air, another suddenly took a tumble, then a third as I landed. When I was sure they were distracted, I fluttered down to the base of the timepiece and eyed the mass of wires and computer parts, all attached to a case, which I assumed contained the explosives. The case itself looked like it had a secondary timer, and I was willing to bet that it would start up if anyone tried to tamper with the first mechanism. I groaned internally, fluttering back up to the top of the clock. There's got to be some other way of deactivating this thing!

The last guard stood in the middle of an open space, surrounded by his mysteriously collapsed brethren. I chuckled a little as he spun around wildly, trying to see the shadowy assailant. Suddenly, a loud clunk sounded from the back of his helmet, and he folded awkwardly to the ground, his gun clattering across the slick marble floor.

The air behind were he had been standing seemed to ripple, and a rather confused-looking Leo stood staring at all the fallen men. The hostages in the corner gasped and murmered, while I fluttered down to the ground in front of him. "Nice work Leo! I'm guessing you didn't know you were a Shadowtamer."

He blinked at me, bright gold eyes flickering. "A what?"

"A Shadowtamer. A Changeling who... well, basically you can bend light around yourself to become 'invisible' to most. Only another Shadowtamer would be able to see you in that state."

He sat down, tail twitching. "Oh. I see."

He's really not the talkative type, is he? "Well, don't relax yet. We've still got a bomb to deal with." I turned to the hostages. "You should all get out of here as fast as you can. This place could blow any minute!"

That got them moving pretty quick. I saw several boys helping an elderly lady, and a pair of young black men assisting a young woman with carrying her children. I smiled inwardly, then turned back to the tangle of wire and colored plastic that threatened all our lives. "Leo? Any ideas?" I explained about the secondary timer, and nervously eyed the command keyboard, not sure what sort of command it needed to deactivate. "Don't they have a manual for this thing?"

Leo's ear flicked, and he sat up, sniffing the air. "You know, we haven't heard from the others in awhile. There's been no noise."

Suddenly, the silence in the cavernous room seemed oppressive. "Yeah... you're right. Maybe we should get them to help us."

"But how? The comms are out. There's too much stone in here, I guess."

"Or they're too deep underground." I ruffled my wings in thought. "How loud can you roar? Maybe they'll hear it." He gave me an odd look, but I shrugged my wings. "Worth a shot."

He stood up, growled a little to clear his throat, took a deep breath, and let out a blast of sound so loud, it blew me backwards. It was like standing behind a jet engine. I could feel the ground vibrate.

He snapped his jaws closed a moment later, cutting off the noise and looking very surprised. That surprise turned to relief as an answering, and equally loud roar came from somewhere beneath our feet.

After a worryingly long minute, during which I kept an eye on the clock that now said we had about two minutes 'till fiery death and destruction, they came sprinting up the ramp and into the room, skidding to a halt in front of us. Kerata was the first to reach us of course, while Fiona and Duncan, who were about the same size at the moment, came fluttering in after her.

I explained again about the bomb while they were catching their breath. Kerata volunteered to take it out onto the lake, where it could detonate harmlessly, but I vetoed that. We didn't know how long it would take to get it securely on her back, and I was willing to bet that once we tampered with a wire, we would have only seconds to avoid an explosion.

Duncan next said that he could just dissolve the whole thing harmlessly with acid, and I briefly considered this, until I remembered that acid could just as easily set it off.

"We're running out of time. We have to risk something!" Kerata said.

Fiona nodded in agreement. "I have a plan. I need you guys to stand back."

"But-!" I stopped, then closed my beak. I thought I knew what she was going to do, and I couldn't see another option. We made room as she Changed, becoming bigger, until she was twice the size of an elephant. She raised her wings, grabbed the case of explosives in her claws, and leaped straight up, crashing through the glass ceiling, and flapping frantically to gain height.

One.

Shards of glass rained around us as we peered upward through the breach.

Two.

I counted silently in my head as she gained height.

Three.

Her reflection danced on the nearby skyscrapers as she shot towards the sun.

Four.

She reached the open sky, curling her wings and body around the tiny package she carried.

BOOM.