"It just went to voicemail again," Shirley sighed as she tapped her new phone's screen to drop the call. Her ears were folded back and her tail swished back and forth in irritation as she added, "Mom wouldn't do that. Not three times in a row. Something has to be wrong."
She and Wes and I had all activated our new phones, and sure enough they worked exactly like Gaia said. It was equal parts strange and cool, we just had to focus some of our magic into them and they powered right up. And touching them to our old phones was all it took to transfer all the data and everything else.
My ears drooped as I replied, "I haven't got any replies to my texts either. I tried both her and dad, but there's no response."
Wes sounded hopeful as he suggested, "Maybe they're just busy with breakfast? They might have gone out for brunch or something."
"Mom would still pick up," Shirl stated firmly. "Especially when I called three times in a row, she wouldn't ignore me like that. Or if they were somewhere they couldn't talk on the phone, she or dad would have answered Aster's texts."
She added, "What about your family Wes? When was the last time you spoke with your parents?"
Our dog-kin maid shook his head, "I've only talked to them once since the whole mountains thing happened. You know my family's not very close, not like yours. Anyways my parents aren't even in the country, they left for Majorca at the start of September and they won't be back until March."
Shirley frowned but nodded once, then the tall anxious wolf girl turned her attention back to our boss again. "Is there anything you can do ma'am? Can you use your magic or something, at least to find out if our parents are alright?"
Gaia was still there with us in our little farmhouse kitchen, which surprised both Yuki and I. The planet's avatar usually seemed to be in much more of a hurry, normally she'd have rushed away again as soon as she delivered her message.
Rather than answering my sister directly, Mother Nature sort of glanced around our kitchen as she asked, "Sally? Are you about? What can you tell us about Mr. and Mrs. Davies?"
"Who's Sally?" Yuki asked, but the answer came a moment later.
Everyone except Gaia and perhaps Cara was startled when a small bird flew into the kitchen from the hallway. I was positive the front door was closed, Gaia definitely didn't open it when she appeared in our front hall earlier. And as far as I knew we hadn't left any windows open either.
With its reddish-brown, black, and grey feathers I was positive it had to be a sparrow, and it flew a couple circles around our kitchen before landing on Gaia's shoulder. Then the little bird made a bunch of 'chirp chirp chirrup' noises like it was talking to our boss. And it seemed like Gaia she was about to translate for us, when Wes cut her off.
The little dog-kin's ears were angled up while his tail wagged excitedly behind him as he asked, "Sally's a sparrow, right? As in, Sally Sparrow?! That can't be a coincidence!"
Sure enough the bird responded with another lengthy round of chirps and chirrups, which I doubted Wes understood any better than Yuki or myself. Fortunately Cara seemed to know what the sparrow was saying.
Our raven friend sounded very disinterested as she translated, "She said of course it's not a coincidence. There was more, but I'm not going to be dragged into all that nonsense about some obscure Welsh science fiction programme."
That led to a bunch of angry-sounding chirps from the small bird, and whatever she said it definitely got a rise out of our raven.
"Absolutely not!" Cara cawed. Then she ruffled her feathers and sniffed, "Anyways Eccleston was the best."
The sparrow launched into another tirade of chirping noises, while at the same time Wes's ears drooped down and his curly tail stopped wagging.
He pouted at our bird friend, "Aww c'mon Cara! You can't leave me out of this conversation!"
"I can in fact," the haughty black bird stated. "If you two want to continue your silly fangirling then you'll just have to learn to speak bird. Or Sally can learn English."
Any further bickering was cut off by Shirley as she practically growled, "What about our parents, are they alright?!"
Sally the sparrow responded with another series of chirps and chirrups, and this time nobody interrupted when Gaia provided the translation.
"Unfortunately it seems that Mr. and Mrs. Davies are currently on their way to London," the planet's teenage avatar sighed. "According to Sally they were taken into custody for 'questioning' this morning, by three armed men who identified themselves as counter-terrorism agents working for the Security Service."
Our ears folded back as I frowned, "I'll bet that's the same three guys who were here for us yesterday, before Cara chased them away."
"So they've gone after our parents instead?!" Shirley demanded, and this time the tall strong wolf-girl really did growl.
Our raven commented in a matter-of-fact tone, "It's fairly common practice, or at least it used to be. The king or queen would take family members of foreign rulers and hold them hostage in the Tower, as a guarantee against attack. I imagine they plan on keeping your parents in the city as a form of insurance. They probably think Gaia won't level the place as long as Mr. and Mrs. Davies are there."
"I don't care if it's common practice Cara!" my sister half shouted. "We have to get mom and dad out of there! We can't let those goons throw our parents in jail because of us!"
Yuki pointed out, "They won't be going to the Tower, but I'll bet they're taking them to MI5 headquarters. That's at Thames House, in Millbank."
Shirley glared at us, "It doesn't matter where they're going, we have to stop them!"
"Is there anything you can do about this?" my sister added as she looked back at Gaia again. "You're Mother Nature, you must be able to stop them! You come and go like magic, can you teleport our parents here or something?"
Unfortunately I had a feeling our boss wouldn't be able to help, and sure enough she confirmed it a moment later.
She gave all of us an apologetic look as she shook her head, "I'm sorry Shirley, but that's not how I work. I've already explained this to Aster Yuki and Cara, but I operate in broad strokes. I could destroy London with another of my mountains, or wipe humanity from the British Isles entirely, but I'd rather not do either of those things. That's why I hired your siblings in the first place, as they can act in a much more precise and targeted fashion."
"I'm sure you can already guess what I'm going to suggest," Gaia added as she looked at Yuki and I. "I've already told you that humans cannot harm you. You've got your magic, and those phones I just provided cannot be traced or tracked or interfered with."
I gulped then took a deep breath, while Yuki set her shoulders and nodded resolutely. With her ears folded back and her tails all standing out behind her the little arctic kitsune stated firmly, "We're going to London, and we're going to free our parents."
"We'll bring them back here afterwards," I added. "They'll be safe with us."
Shirley's tail swished a couple times then her ears angled forward as she decided, "I'm going with you. I have my own magic, I can help."
"Then I have to go too!" Wes insisted, while his curly little tail started wagging. "I don't know if my water magic will be any use, but I'll bet it can't hurt!"
That just left our raven, who was still perched on the kitchen counter. We all turned to look her way, and the large blackbird seemed to shrug her wings. "Well of course I'm going with you. Someone needs to look after you lot, and keep you all pointed in the right direction."
Sally suddenly leapt from her perch on Gaia's shoulder, then after a quick lap of the kitchen the little bird landed ontop of Wes's head, right between his canine ears. Then she let loose with another chorus of chirps, which Cara grudgingly translated.
"Little Miss Sparrow offers her services as well," our bird friend grumbled. "Apparently she knows how to find Mr. and Mrs. Davies."
Gaia looked around at the rest of us before announcing, "In that case I'll leave you to it. Good luck, and you all have my full approval for whatever you decide to do."
She gave us all an awkward wave then simply vanished, leaving the six of us to deal with the situation on our own.
"So what's the plan?" I asked as I looked back and forth between Shirley and Wes. "We need a plan, right? It's not like we can just walk up to MI5's front door and demand they hand over our mom and dad."
Cara sounded almost proud of me when she responded, "Excellent idea Aster, that is a perfectly workable plan. Between my air magic and Yuki's lightning magic I'm sure we'll be able to convince the humans to release your parents."
"And if they require additional persuasion," the large black bird continued, "Your sister's magic should be able to peel their headquarters open like an over-ripe orange. It's simply the reverse of the repair work she's been doing on our castle, to turn their building into ruins. I'm sure even Wes can play a part. If I recall correctly there's a little river that flows past the government building? Our maid can certainly take advantage of that with his water magic."
By the time she was done my eyes were wide and my ears and tail all drooped down. I turned to look at Shirley and asked, "That's not the real plan, right sis? We need a better plan that that."
The tall wolfgirl's tail flicked back and forth, then she marched past me and swung open the fridge door. I watched as she reached in, and when she closed the door she was holding two bottles of that magic water we'd brought back from Scotland the other day.
"Ooh!" Wes grinned and his ears perked up. "What are you going to do with those, Shirl?"
My sister replied in a firm serious tone, "I'm going to offer one of them to our parents after we rescue them. And I'm going to dump the other one in the Thames if any of those goons try and stop us. Or if they've hurt mom and dad at all. Or maybe just out of spite, for going after our folks in the first place."
Finally Shirley looked to me and added, "And yes Aster, your idea's perfect. No more messing around, you and Yuki and Cara are supposed to be Gaia's enforcers right? Well let's go show them why messing with Mother Nature is always a bad idea. Now grab your jacket and your helmet, you're taking your bike. Wes and I will follow you in his Mini."
I stared at her for another second or two before nodding, "Ok sis. You and Cara are both right. Let's go save our folks."
It only took me a moment to grab our favourite denim jacket. I slipped it on then grabbed our helmet, and found two surprises waiting for us. The first was the formerly smooth black shell now had a pair of ear-holes on the top, perfectly positioned so I wouldn't have to make my fox ears disappear when I put it on. And the second was the smaller Cara-sized helmet we found inside.
"Ah excellent," our bird friend commented as if she'd been expecting that all along. "Be a dear Aster and help me put that on, then we'll be ready to set off for London."
I rolled my eyes as we all headed outside together, then stopped when I got my first look at our upgraded Rebel. People who didn't know bikes probably wouldn't notice anything unusual about it, but to Yuki and I the differences were obvious. The fuel tank had been replaced by a similarly-shaped polished black crystal, and instead of the original two-cylinder engine it was now powered by a sleek black electric motor. And of course the exhaust system was completely missing.
As far as I could tell it still had the same gearbox, and everything else seemed familiar. Our key fit like usual, and most of the controls were the same as before. There was no ignition though, no starter. The bike was simply 'on' or 'off'.
Cara landed on the handlebars then sat still while I fastened her little black helmet ontop of her head. Then when Yuki and I got seated our bird friend climbed into the front of our jacket and got herself nestled safely in between my boobs, with her helmeted head sticking out at the top of my chest. I was positive she looked adorable, but I was equally certain she wouldn't appreciate being told that. So I kept quiet as I slipped our helmet on, then smiled as my ears popped up through the new holes at the top.
Meanwhile Shirley and Wes were arguing over which of them was going to drive. It was a very short conversation though, which the tall strong wolfgirl won. So our little dog-kin maid handed over the keys and Shirley climbed into the drivers seat, while Wes walked around to the other side.
That little sparrow was still perched ontop of his head in between his ears, and just before he climbed into the passenger seat Sally glanced our way and let out another series of chirps and chirrups. Wes stopped in his tracks and turned to look back at us, and a wide smile broke out on his face while his tail started to wag again.
He grinned at us while he replied to the small bird, "Yeah they do look pretty bad-ass, between the black bike and the black helmet and the denim jacket. Not to mention Aster's four dark floofy tails."
Sally responded with another couple more chirps, then Wes nodded solemnly as he told the sparrow, "It's true. You know the government's messed up bad when they make a good kitsune go to war."