The Phoenix Saga, Part 1 READ FIRST POST!!!

A sound rumbled deep within the young man's throat. It was a growl, but it sounded almost inhuman. In fact, one who listened carefully would compare it to that of a wolf. He stepped away from Destiny, but rather than stepping back or turning to leave, he placed himself directly between the men and her.

"My friend has asked you to leave," he said, calmly, but with a razor-hard edge in his voice, "I would suggest you do so before things become... unpleasant." Destiny would know how serious he was. He'd one slugged a kid for making fun of all the equipment carried in his bag... one of the rare moments Terry lost his temper. But it wasn't the slugging that had been so jarring for the kid. It was that he'd been knocked back about three feet, and Terry hadn't even hit him that hard.

Destiny felt the fabric of Terry's shirt pull from her hands and sucked in a deep breath. Terry's temper, when it showed itself, came close to terrifying her, and these men weren't helping. She hated to think that he could be hurt on her account.

A sudden tilting feeling caused her to reel against the doorframe as the shriek of a hawk echoed in her mind. Clutching the wood in one hand, she fought to breathe as the echo faded away. The tickling hadn't stopped on her neck, but she forced herself to focus on Terry, knowing that she would probably have to take her cue from him.

Movement at the doorway between the family and dining room's caught her attention. Looking over, she saw her older brother standing there, his bookbag slung over his shoulder.

"Chance!" she called, her eyes darting between the four men and her brother. "Chance, please!"

A slow, almost sinister smile spread across his features before he turned and disappeared into the kitchen. Destiny's heart shattered when she heard the back door open and close.

"Oh God," she whispered. "Oh God, what has he done?"

She gripped the doorframe harder as the man who'd spoken came within reach of them.

Terry's eyes darted from Destiny, to the men, and then around the room. His instincts were compelling him full force now... This was wrong. He wouldn't have any problem taking on four men if it came down to it, but these weren't ordinary men. He couldn't place his finger on it. It was a combination of things really. It was the way they moved. It was how they made no sound when their feet touched the floor, like they were perfectly balanced. It was even the way they smelled...


Terry backed up, reaching to grab a floor lamp. The shaft of it was cast iron, so even though it was hollow, it should make an effective weapon. "Des, see if you can get out the front door," he said quietly, "I'll hold these guys back..."

All at once, he lunged forward, attacking the closest man, the one who had threatened his friend. He wielded the lamp like a staff, not seeming to mind the weight on either end. He wasn't called a "jock-looking geek" for nothing, afterall.

The man cracked a smile, having heard Terry's instructions.

"Now come on, kids," he said, raising his empty hands, palms up. "Let's be reasonable here. If you're as smart as you look, you'll realize the futility of the situation. Even if you could get away from us, you won't get far."

Terry's attack was blocked quickly by an upraised arm. But instead of the crunch of shattered bones, there was a crackling sound, like live wires pulled apart. Sparks flew from the man's arm, leaving char marks on his jacket.

"Oh, well, that was rather rude," the man said, wrenching the lamp from his arm and thrusting it away from him. "Very rude, young man." He lunged for Terry.

At the same moment, one of the others reached out as Destiny made a dash for the front door, his hand locking like a vise around her wrist. He pulled her up short, causing her to stumble.

"Let go of me!" she screamed, pulling hard against his grip.

A number of things happened in that moment that, later, Destiny wouldn't be able to explain with any bit of coherency. First, the hawk-like cry echoed in her mind again, then, it emitted from her own mouth. At that same moment, flames enveloped the entirity of Destiny's left arm, not burning her but engulfing the hand of the man who held her. As soon as the flames touched him, his skin literally melted, revealing metal and wire beneath. Shrieking again, Destiny lashed out with her right hand, snapping the metal at the wrist. The big man backpedaled as Destiny wrenched the mechanical contraption from her arm.

"What..." she began, staring at the dwindling flames.

Her thoughts were cut short by another of the men reaching for her, bringing her to her senses enough to charge out the front door and into the street. Panicked as she was, she almost didn't see the two people, a boy and a girl, on the sidewalk until she was almost on top of them. Blinded by fear, she tried to avoid them and ended up tangling her own feet, tripping, and falling partially onto the sidewalk and more on the grass of her neighbors yard. Breathless, she rolled to her back, terror that they were after her, too.

"Terry!" she shrieked.

Alex was just about to respond when a form literally burst from a house a couple doors up and careened their way. It was a girl - if memory served her correctly, the same she'd seen earlier at school. She ran towards them, then quickly veered from hitting them as she tumbled into the yard closest to them. It didn't take a therapist to see the girl was completely terrified.

Jogging ahead, she knelt by the girl, checking mostly by sight to see if there were any vital wounds on her form. She'd heard the girl yell someone's name as she'd gotten closer, and so directed her gaze to the house she'd stumbled from.
Turning her head towards Kit, she began to speak, though her words came out in more of a tumble as they often did when she felt hurried. "I think the person in there is in trouble - I'm gonna go see if I can help. Could ya stay with her so if anyone tries to get her out here you can, Iunno, whap them with a stick or something? Thanks!"
Without waiting for a reply, she left her book in the grass and ran for the house full-tilt.

When she reached the doorway and both heard and saw the commotion, it took awhile for her eyes to adjust themselves. Or rather, for her brain to adjust itself. There were three guys ganging up on the one she assumed to be the friend of the girl outside. Another guy had what looked like a print of something which had melted through his arm, revealing the metal inside, his hand snapped off and laying on the floor nearby.

Not waiting to get better acquainted with the male being triple-teamed, she looked to the tree outside the window, her arms outstretched as she yelled "Termino frendo!" No sooner had she uttered the words than the branches seemed to slam into the glass, shattering the window. Glass rained into the room as the branches wrapped around the man nearest the wall, yanking him back into the forest line with a sickening crunch.

She came bursting out of her house quickly almost crashing into them. Kit stood dumbfounded a moment before realising what happened. Alex sprang from his side to the girl and Kit followed.

Kit knelt down next to the girl as Alex did.

"...Could ya stay with her so if anyone tries to get her out here you can, Iunno, whap them with a stick or something? Thanks!"

As Alex dashed off, Kit reached a hand to help the fallen girl to her feet.

"Are you ok? Whats going on?"

----

OOS: Blargh, sorry short...

Terry grunted when the lamp was pulled away from him. "You think that was rude?" he retorted, flying at the man, "You haven't seen anything yet!" He threw his weight against the invader with seemingly-unnatural strength, but he was surprised when he didn't feel flesh and bone under him. Either way, the two went toppling backward just as Destiny ran out the door.

For a few moments the intruder and the boy struggled for a moment, strength against unnatural strength. Pretty soon though, the invader had Terry pinned... until the girl he and Destiny had glanced earlier came in and cited her incantation.

Catching the man offguard, Terry released a kick to his gut, sending him flying back against the outer dining room wall. He got to his feet. "That was rude," he breathed, grabbing his weapon again. With the first invader out of commision, and the second now being dealt with by the trees themselves, Terry could focus on the final one. Crying out he swung the lampstand hard, sending it crashing into the last one's head.

Rather than the expected crunch of bone and blood gush, however, he watched in amazement as a flurry of sparks flew from the stranger, as well as a few assorted microchips and ripped wires. "Robots?!" he groaned, "Now I've seen everything!"

Destiny let out a shriek, clapping a hand over her mouth as the trees sprang through the front window of her house. Springing to her feet, she tore away from the hands of the boy beside her, practically flying back into the house.

"Terry!"

Stopping short, she gripped the doorframe, gasping for breath and Terry delivered the last blow.

"Robots?! Now I've seen everything!"

Slipping past the girl, she darted to Terry's side.

"Terry, are you alright?" she asked, averting her eyes from the battered... thing... on the floor. "What is this? What's going on?"

---

OOC: Please don't think Des is rude. >___<* lol

Alex looked at the front wall...which looked as if an invading army had said "screw the door" and rammed through it. Looking out towards the tree, she saw the battered frame of the android torn to bits and scattered at the base of the tree, now back to it's "normal" self. Whispering a very quiet prayer of thanks, she turned her eyes back to the group, particularly to the rather frazzled young girl who'd just come in.

"Uhh...sorry about your wall....it was the only thing I could think of to save your friend when I came in," she said quietly.

The girl jumped up past his arm and threw off his hand rushing to return to the house as the trees seemed to rush in. Kit did nothing to hide the confusion on his face as he ran after to see exactly what was going on.

Is America always like this?, he wondered to himself as he reached the front door.

Inside he saw the group standing around, the wall wrecked, and three men in suits. The man nearest had a huge gash in his forehead, through which wires and assorted machinery were clearly visable.

Not bothering to say a word, Kit stepped up next to Alex, and took up a defensive stance. There was a sharp crackle as Kit's cheeks puffed out and a small stream of blue fire wreathed his mouth and licked the air before retreating. At his back a long furry golden tail filtered into view where none was before.

----

OOS: eh... a bit of a rushed reveal, but now I guess a bit of a battle royale is coming? hehe

Terry caught his breath, taking a glance around at the destruction that now wracked Destiny's once-stately home. Nodding his affirmative to Destiny, he then turned and looked at the girl, smiling. "The least you could have done was yell 'Timber!" he joked.

He bent down to examine the destroyed android. "Pretty sophisticated stuff from what I can tell," he commented, "Looks like an advanced positronic brain of some kind, but I can't tell a whole lot more with it all smashed up like this..."

He stood back up again and looked at Destiny. "And what was with that screech?" he asked curiously, "You sounded just like a hawk... Kinda' freaky to be honest."

Destiny shook her head, lifting her scraped right palm up to pull bits of grass and debris from it. It stung a little, but there was very little blood, for which she was grateful. Blood always made her a little queasy.

"I... I don't know," she admitted in a low voice. "It just... happened. I-"

She glanced at the boy and girl that had entered her house and let out a sharp gasp. She clapped one hand over her mouth, fighing to regain her composure, and praying she hadn't offended him. The girl she recognized, but the boy was unfamiliar to her. Yet, somehow, a spark of knowing erupted at the farthest part of her mind, like a long lost kinship rediscovered.

"Oh my," she said, tilting her head in wonder at the sight of the boy. "What... who are you?"

OOS: Gak, sorry... could have sworn there were four bad guys, I must have misread or miscounted somewhere.

----

"What... who are you?" She asked.

Seeing the danger had already passed, Kit lowered his guard and blushed deeply.

"err... I..." Breathing out sharply, Kit frowned and closed his eyes. "Can't be helped," he said glancing back at his tail. "I came to this country because almost no one know about my kind here... You can call me Kit, I am a Kitsune... a fox."

His tail flicked and filtered out of view.

"Sorry Alex, I guess, you won't have a chance to figure the puzzle out on your own." He said apologetically.

Alex chuckled at the joke of who she assumed to be Terry. "Yeah, but where's the fun in that?" she joked back with a grin.

She had been standing still when she sensed more than saw Kit's defensiveness. Closing her eyes, she scanned the area just as Des asked "What...who are you?"
Alex opened her eyes, momentarily confused at the question until she felt something brush her leg. Looking down, she saw a tail...connected to a set of legs...connected to...Kitsune before it flicked out of view. She felt like smacking her forehead. She shoulda caught onto that one a bit sooner...she blamed her previous disorientation for that.

"Sorry Alex, I guess, you won't have a chance to figure the puzzle out on your own."
Alex smiled at Kit, patting him on the shoulder. "It's fine - I shoulda caught onto it sooner anyway," she said, smiling half-apologetically, half-sheepishly.

Turning her gaze back towards Destiny, she tried to explore the feeling in the back of her mind that she'd somehow known or met this girl before. Not necessarily a "deja vu" feeling...more so a feeling of friendship...

Through the exchange, Terry kept his silence. He reached back to scratch the base of his skull, trying to piece everything together. For awhile, he'd assumed he was the only gifted one. Now, he found himself in the presence of some sort of witch..., and a kitsune? He'd heard of Kitsunes in the past. They were supposed to be some kind of fox spirit that loved to pull pranks on their victims. Kit seemed harmless enough though.

He opened his eyes a bit. "I hate to spoil your fun, but it might be prudent to find someplace better to talk," he suggested, "When these androids don't report back, whoever built them is going to come looking, and I for one don't want to be here when that happens."

Destiny looked around at the three teens in her living room, her eyes scanning the broken window and the torn up furniture, and finally falling on the... things... on the floor of her house. She vaguely floated in and out of the conversation taking place around her, so shocked was she by the turn of events in her life. Looking down, she clenched her hands into fists, hearing once again the faint calling in the back of her mind.

"I agree," she said, forcing her attention back to her friend. "I think... before we go much further, we need to get out of here."

In the distance, sirens blared.

---

OOC: After the next set of posting from the rest of you, I'm gonna change the Chapter, and introduce a new setting and character. Just a head's up.

Kit's ears pricked at the sound of the blaring klaxxons. Gritting his teeth in an unpleasent manner and looking towards the ground, he thought 'Less than a month in America, and I'm already a criminal'.

He shook his head, "Where do we go? I'd want to tell my aunt... She will worry." He stopped speaking but he was thinking, 'Especially, when she finds I left Japan without actually telling anyone I was leaving.'

Alex thought for a moment, then spoke: "There's an area in the woods we could go to. It's quiet, secluded...I'm pretty sure no one would bother us there," she suggested, beginning to move towards the back door.

"I'd just left that spot when I came here, so I know I can at least trace my steps back that far," she said, pausing. "The sirens are coming from the west and we came from the east. If we run now, we'll make it in time."

Terry bit his lip. He wasn't sure he liked the idea of running, but whenever faced with situations like this in the past, only his life had been at stake. Now, not only was Destiny's life apparently in danger, but who knew what fates might befall his mysterious new friends?

"Let's go," he said once he heard Alex's suggestion, "I don't want to have to explain what happened here." He paused and turned to Kit, "And I think it would be best we don't tell anyone right now... For their own sake."

Okay y'all, I said I was gonna change the chapter, so here it is. I'm gonna bump the timeline forward by a few minutes, so instead of posting through the run from Destiny's house to Alex's clearing, we'll skip the middle ground and have done. So... away we go! ... again. :p

---

Feel, feel the stirrings of life.
Break, break free the restraints.

Fiery wings and fiery wishes. Loud refrain in voices of thunder with spirits of lightning.

Four hundred years... four hundred years and another handful on top. An age is coming to an end, the life that was lived is slowly winding down. But... will the future be what it should be? Or will fate step in and alter the course? Already, the threads of time are being woven, changed, rethreaded.

Time is running out. All hope now lies here.

Chapter 2: Escape the Breaking Point

As soon as they entered the clearing that Alex had led them to, Destiny collapsed at the base of the nearest tree. She stared intently at her trembling hands for the longest time, feeling rather than seeing the others moving around her.

"What was that?" she thought. "What was that back there? The flames... why didn't they hurt?"

She curled her fingers into shaking fists and looked up, bringing her attention back to the task at hand. Her house was a wreck, she had no clue where her father was, and Chance was... well, that was the blank spot above all others. Chance had been there, he had seen what was going on. Yet, he'd walked away. Just like that, he'd turned his back on his little sister and left.

Tears leapt to her eyes as she forced herself to her feet. She blinked the moisture from her eyes. She'd cry later. Right now, they had to figure out what was going on, and fast. Something in the back of her mind told her that time was running out.

Alex sighed heavily when they'd finally reached the clearing, dropping her things at the base of one of the shorter trees at the edge of the clearing. A short, thick branch protruded from the trunk low enough for her to pull herself onto and she did, leaning against the trunk with her knees pulled up to her chest.

There was silence in the woods as they all caught their breath and thought about what had just happened. A blue jay flitted in a nearby tree, as if strutting the brilliant blue of his chest to the sky which was slowly succumbing to the dull gray of nimbus clouds.

Closing her eyes, Alex worked to keep her head clear. Thoughts spiraled in her mind like loose leaves blown by a bitter, familiar wind. And of all the questions....of all the hypotheticals and what ifs...the picture of her twin brother was the most prevalent in her mind.
Had he been through something similar before he'd been taken...? Pain and guilt teased her memories and she opened her eyes, shaking her head a bit as if to clear it. She couldn't focus on that now.... Here and now was what mattered. Though she didn't know them, she knew those around her were good people. Their spirits were protective, gentle, kind, sensitive...almost seeming kindred.
Her gaze wandered to the girl whose hands were shaking in balled fists. Maybe she couldn't have protected her brother....but she would be damned if she wouldn't try to protect this girl.

Kit was worried. As they entered the clearing he constantly looked back. He had never been in this kind of trouble before. He didn't know what was going on, and he wasn't sure he would ever find out.

He began to pace, a troubled look on his face. He looked at his new companions. He wasn't sure he trusted them, but they seemed nice, and hadn't tried to hurt him when they knew what he was. That counted for something, Kit decided.

He stopped his pacing, and decided to sit down. Worrying would not solve anything. It was not like him to worry so much. Pushing the negative thoughts aside, he waited to see what exactly would happen next.

"Whatever happens, it will" he thought, " be more interesting than sitting at home."

Terry seemed to make it to the clearing with greater ease than the others. But perhaps he should not have been surprised, considering that he was used to far more than simple cross-country running. He took a few moments to shift his weight from side to side, bending his knees, working the developing knots from them. "Well... that was pleasant," he muttered to himself.

He let his gaze wander around the forest clearing, ensuring that everyone was present that should be, and that no uninvited guests had tagged along. It was with relief that he noted Destiny had arrived. He was glad to see the other two as well, but he was not so concerned about them. The focus of those men... if they could even be called such, had been on Destiny alone for some strange reason.

Seeing Destiny come to tears, the young man quickly moved to her side and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry Des," he said, "We'll figure out who's done this... and why." He swore inwardly, knowing it was a long shot. They had no clues, no allies (apart from one another), no money, and little idea of where to turn to get those things.

"Now that we're here, I think it would be best if we came up with a plan of action," he said, trying to get everyone focused on one thing at a time, "Whoever they were, they won't stop at Destiny's house." He took a deep breath, "But first..." He turned to paused, turning to look at his friend, "Destiny... Is there anything you want to tell me?"

Destiny looked up into Terry's steady gaze and tried to smile. It was a new feeling to have someone to really depend on, but she'd suspected from the moment that she'd met Terry that she could. This affirmation should have been enough to break the strain of her helplessness.

Instead, she only felt the leaden weight grow heavier.

She turned Terry's question over and over in her mind for a few moments. Answers eluded her, taunted her from the shadowy places of her thinking. There were no answers. Not for things she didn't know, couldn't fathom or understand. She held her hands up, scrutinizing them through wide eyes, feeling the gazes of her three companions heavy upon her. The world seemed to hold its breath.

"I don't know," she said quietly, still staring at her hands. "I don't know, honest. It just... and I... and the..."

Destiny stopped suddenly, her eyes vacant as she stared directly at Terry. Her hands fell limply to her sides, swaying for mere seconds before tendrils of hot blue flames crept from her fingertips and worked their way up her hands and wrists. The sleeves of her shirt rippled, but didn't burn, as the flames passed over them and crept into her hair. The bright red locks took on a new life as they swayed with the living flames that now engulfed Destiny almost entirely. Yet, she nor the area around her burned in what should have been an inferno.

"You will forgive me, I hope," a voice issued from Destiny's mouth that was not her own. "for interrupting you so blatantly. But, I think in this instance, Destiny is not capable of giving you the answers that you seek. I believe that I am better suited for that purpose."

Alex opened one eye at first, then the other, sitting up a bit more straight against the tree as the foreign voice spoke through Destiny. Letting her right leg fall to the side of the tree and keeping her left leg curled up, she leaned forward just a bit, gauging the reactions of the two guys.

"Pardon the pun, but I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume this has never happened before...?" she said, her question directed at Terry as her eyebrow arched.


((OOC: sorry it's so short - I have to get to work and I wanted to post before I had to leave ^^; ))