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"Sariya" Eins

"I'm not worthless... I'm not! I'm a person too, right? And that means I'm worth something... right? But if that's true... then why? Why does everyone hate me...? Please, don't leave me alone again!"

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a character in “Angel....or Mutant?”, as played by Tsukiakari

Description

Name: "Sariya" Eins. Eins is the name given her by her creators, whereas Sariya is a secret name she created herself. However, since no one knows of the "true" name she has made for herself, she is generally referred to as Eins.
Age: 15
Description: Sariya, better known as Experiment Eins (or just Eins) stands at a total height of five feet, four inches, making her seem rather small in comparison to most people her age, Mutant or not. Her build is clearly slanted toward her limbs, which are long and lean, making up most of the vertical size of her body - although, as stated above, this isn't saying all that much. Her body is slender, from her thin waist and flat stomach to her narrow shoulders, broken only by her still-developing but nonetheless rather appealing figure. Her small stature and thin, unimposing - if athletic - build are by no means her most distinguishing traits, however, as a single glance at her is more than enough to tell you that she is not your average person.

The first thing most people notice about her is her hair. It is straight, and kept trimmed just above her eyes and around her ears, flowing back to a point just below her shoulders like a cascading wave. Its texture is soft and smooth, like strands of silk, and it seems to flow like water rather than sit rigidly like any sort of solid matter. The bizarre thing about this entrancing curtain is, however, evident upon a single glance at her. Namely, its color, for in hue, it is a stark, silvery white, like new-fallen snow on a star-lit winter's eve. These gleaming tresses frame her face, giving her a sort of radiant halo that makes her really look the part of an angel.

Second most notable is the color of her eyes - the most prominent feature of her face, as her nose, ears, and chin are all rather small in size, and her rosy cheeks, soft pink lips and pearl-like teeth, along with her glistening hair, only serve to further accentuate the brightness within her gaze - which are a rather unusual shade of burgundy, like twin amethysts carved out as the eyes of some divinely crafted statue. But more remarkable than their unusual pigment is how much they seem to change. When she is happy, they seem to glow like stars, giving off a joyful light of their own. When she is sad - which is much more often the case - they have the appearance of dark, hollow pools that go down, down, down, an eternity of darkness between an onlooker and the soul behind those gloomy windows. But most oddly, when her mutations begin to act, her eyes change in a more literal sense, with golden streaks piercing through those scarlet eyes until they are like twin amber orbs, each gleaming like the light of a full moon.

Another, less notable feature - one that takes many people quite some time to notice - is her skin. It is a somewhat darkened, tanned shade, but despite this is soft and smooth, as though it has never been burnt or blemished, with nary a mark nor flaw to mar its surface. This stands in stark contrast to the battered, scar-pocked bodies of most other mutants, and would make most assume that Eins had not been tortured like her fellows. This is not the case, of course - her trials were simply of a mental variety rather than physical agonies.

And, of course, there is one final unique feature that Eins possesses: her wings. These majestic appendages are unique amongst all of her fellow mutants, unlike in appearance nor composition to any others.

In hue, her wings are a radiant silver, the same celestial hue as her flowing tresses of hair. Although from a distance they are bat-like in appearance, the light seems to shimmer off of them as though made of some kind of metal. A closer examination reveals that they are, in fact, neither of these things, and yet could be considered to be both regardless. Despite their bat-like, membranous nature, they are covered in dense, almost scale-like "feathers," which, although they appear just like the feathers of a normal bird's wings, are actually a hard, protective shell to both insulate her wings and keep them from freezing in the cold sky, as well as to protect them from damage. Despite their durability, however, they are nonetheless very light, and thus can serve their function of flight. These wings are only about seven and a half feet in total span, but due to her small size and very light weight, they are nonetheless capable of supporting her in the air.
Wing Color: Glimmering, jewel-like white.
Powers: Eins has only two powers, but they are diverse enough in their applications to be capable of matching the abilities of much more extensively mutated fellows.

Angelic Devil: Due to her nature as the original mutant upon whose genetic structure the Vampires are based, but nonetheless also sharing traits of the Angel-type Mutants, Eins possesses the strength and stamina of the average Vampire of her size whilst also being endowed with the incredible mobility and speed of the Angels, making her both quick and powerful - especially in the air - and capable of sustaining flight long after most Angels would tire and land for a rest, at speed unmatched by most Vampires. This power is not without its consequences, however, for because of it, she also has locked away in her subconscious the paranoid, maddened and sociopathic self-interest of a Vampire, clashing in the form of an entirely different self-identity and nature with her otherwise very "Human" persona.

The Heart: Eins' true ability lies, however, not in her physical abilities, but in her mental ones. Unlike most Mutants, who possess many very practical, single-use abilities, Eins possesses the uncanny ability to detach her mind from her body, tapping into the extra-dimensional and supernatural quality known as her Heart and manipulating it. This power appears in two forms: Psychic manipulations and more physical Manifestations.

On the psychic side, Eins has the potential to not only partially detach her mind from her body - allowing her to wander in a spiritual form, to see things from an invisible sort of soul camera which, like a classical ghost, could wander through walls and move unseen and unheard (Note: This is an ability she has not yet attained) - but also to connect her mind to the minds of others, allowing her in the case of willing subjects to speak telepathically, or even to serve as a bridge passing telepathic messages between two or more people, as well as giving her the subconscious ability to receive another person's thoughts and current physical sensations, strengthened by proximity and conscious effort, and weakened by the subject's mental resilience and conscious effort to keep these thoughts and physical senses concealed. At its highest level, this power would constitute telepathy, mind-reading, and perfect empathy - the power to assume another person's negative sensations in their place - but she has not yet attained this level, instead only gathering fragments of thoughts and particularly powerful feelings - mostly feelings of pain. She can, however, speak to a willing subject, even at some levels of distance, making her telepathy more or less effective.

On the physical side, Eins also holds the potential to manifest her Heart in a tangible, physical form, depending on what she most greatly desires at the time of manifestation. For example, should she desire to protect someone, she might manifest her Heart as a powerful particle/energy force field, or should she desire to fight, her Heart might take the form of a weapon, or a barrage of energy. While the applications for this power are vast in possibility, the reality is much less impressive. On the one hand, she can only manifest one of these things at once - they are based around her greatest desire, after all - and on another, as of yet, she is completely unable to perform a conscious act of manifestation, making the things she projects uncontrollable in their form, unpredictable in their nature, and directed solely by extreme emotions and instinct rather than any conscious effort. As a result, this aspect of her power is one that currently might only emerge for a few moments in times of extreme peril, in which her Heart's intense desire for one specific goal would cause it to be accomplished. While, should she ever master this ability it might be incredible potent, until she is able to, it is largely useless.
Personality: Eins is a person with a very complex, multifaceted nature. On the one hand, she is a kind and gentle, if somewhat reserved individual. On the other, she is a paranoid, borderline sociopathic Vampire who trusts no one but herself, loathes all things, and is willing to destroy anything or anyone she considers a threat. For convenience sake, I will refer to her standard persona as Sariya, and her secondary personality caused by her Vampiric mindset as Eins, as this is the means by which they usually differentiate each other.

Sariya herself is rather timid and fragile in nature. After a seemingly endless period of solitary imprisonment, interrupted only by experimentation and abuse, she came to the conclusion that she herself was useless, and was hated for it. Due to her constant treatment as a subhuman, she actually came to view herself as such, deriding herself for being unable to meet her creators' expectations whilst also hating herself for being unable to save the tortured beings she could sense imprisoned in a similar manner to herself. Thus, her primary objectives defined themselves as follows: help everyone who needs it, and become a splendid and worthwhile being. Who she was trying to impress was unclear - she had long since become too frightened of her creators to view them as anything more than mysterious, terrifying beings she was not meant to comprehend - but nonetheless, she desperately wanted above all else for someone to be pleased by her. Consequently, despite her torment, she became a very kind, thoughtful individual, who strove for a perfection she could not achieve and struggled to ease the lives of those around her, taking on some of their pain even as she herself was locked alone in that dreadful silence, left to suffer the fragmented and broken thoughts of those around her without anyone to keep her from going mad.

Despite her desire to help people, however, she was at the same time terrified of the very same race she strove to be worthy of walking amongst. Her only experience with other people was with the creators who now imprisoned and tormented her, and so she was desperately afraid that failure to meet standards she knew she could never match would be met with a similar punishment to the one she now suffered. Because of this, she is very reluctant to approach and speak to people save those who first break her out of her shy, paranoid shell by showing to her a kindness with which she is not acquainted. Those who are kind to her become trusted, and their kindness is returned. Despite her harsh circumstances, she's a rather simple, pure soul at heart.

But, Sariya also has a dark side: a black to her white, so to speak. This comes in the form of Eins, a second personality created equal parts by the loneliness and despair she felt at being discarded and imprisoned, and by her Vampiric urges to destroy anything that might pose a threat to her goals. In Eins' case, the goal is her own happiness, and anyone who threatens to cause Sariya grief or pain is subject to being labeled a threat to this personal happiness. Those who threaten her in such a manner rarely live, for Eins is ruthless in her execution of those who dare menace her. Ironically enough, at the same time, she continues to haunt Sariya herself with the worry that she is useless and that those around her are secretly against her. This paranoia, although generally kept in check by kindnesses shown her, is at times of intense grief enough to overwhelm her, causing her to act not on her own urges, but on those of Eins. During these times, she is uncontrollable and murderous, and can and will attempt to slaughter even those Sariya treasures as companions, as a means of "protecting" Sariya from the grief she is sure will be caused when these individuals inevitably betray her. And so, ironically, she is not actually an "evil" alternate persona, per say. Rather, she is simply misguided, and follows a system of logic and morals quite different from those of ordinary people. During these times, her Vampiric mutations reach their full potential, causing her eyes to turn golden as a side effect of her body's sudden enhancement. This is a simple means of differentiating the two personalities, and of determining which is currently in control.

A final interesting quirk of Sariya's is her habit of amusing herself by spreading her arms and spinning around and around. In her small cell, it was one of the only ways she could keep herself busy and preoccupy her thoughts from the nagging whispers of Eins and the broken but nonetheless agonizing feelings of the tortured prisoners nearby, not to mention the very blurred and incomprehensible, but nonetheless maddening, cruel designs of those that kept her sealed there. This simple activity continued to serve its purpose even after her escape, allowing her to distance herself from the confusing and scary world around her, even if only for an instant. When Sariya begins spinning about, it is quite often a sign that she wants to be left alone to ponder some troubling matter - and more often, she will simply ignore anyone who tries to approach her, choosing instead of hold spoken conversations with Eins during these times, relapsing into the solitary mindset she developed in her cell. While spinning, she is entirely deluded into forgetting about the present and actually assuming she is once more within the terrible but nonetheless safe confines of her old cell, left to her own devices to pass the time.

Because of this unusual pastime, she has developed an equally unusual view of the world. In her simple analogy, each and every person alive is spinning in a circle. In her case, the circle is small - only as large as the confines of her cell, just the width of her extended arms - but in the case of some people who work hard to achieve their goals, the circle is vast, spanning countless leagues and stretching out into eternity. Her goal is to work hard enough to spin in such an endless circle, and to help others to escape the 150 centimeter confines that surround them.
Bio: Sariya, an abandoned child taken in and modified under the designation of Experiment Eins, was an entirely new class of mutant from the previous Angel-types. Modified physically to possess incredible endurance and bodily potential while also being rendered very lightweight and compact for the sake of assisting her ability to fly, she was also mutated to grant her the power of "Heart," in the hopes that she might one day be made into an overseer to keep all of the other mutants in line by entering their very minds and ensuring that they were only allowed to think loyally toward the Ward and the researchers there. Thus, her creators were rather disappointed when, despite all of their efforts, Eins could neither be coerced into performing these duties, which went against her pure, innocent heart, nor was she, in fact, capable of performing them, even if she wanted to. As such, instead of being allowed to roam free and live as she pleased within the rules of the Ward, she was locked away, deemed a needless liability and a failed experiment. She was not tortured to inspire fear, as were the Angels whose potential was still viewed as worthwhile. No, she was simply locked within a claustrophobic stone vault beneath the Ward, kept alive only for the sake of harvesting her DNA as a means of streamlining the creation of a new type of Mutant - the Vampires, who, unlike her, would be based around rule through brute force, and would be instilled only with loyalty to the Ward and its ideals. During the years in which this process was carried out, Eins - who came to identify herself instead by the self-chosen name Sariya - developed her own unique objectives and ideals, left to draw her own conclusions from the reality around her. She could vaguely remember her creators, but by this point, no longer saw them. The closest contact she had with them was when her food was delivered through a tiny slit in her cell door, and even then, she never saw their faces, nor heard them speak, save for scraps of thoughts about the "worthless failure" who dwelt within the cell. Realizing that they meant her was the train of thought that drove her to both the height of her perfectionist mentality, and to the depths of her fear and despair.

One day, however, things changed. Instead of being delivered food, her door was opened at last, and she was led out into the world around her. At first, she was confused, wondering why she was suddenly being freed by those who had held her captive for so many years. This confusion gave way to momentary joy as she hoped that she might have been deemed useful once again, and that she might be able to prove herself to all the world. But this emotion, too, gave way, being replaced with dread and horrified realization as the thoughts of those around her made her situation plain: she had failed utterly and completely, and now that her last usefulness had ended, she was being executed.

Her creators, not wanting to take any chances, led to her to a great furnace that heated the facility, and ordered her to be thrown in. As she fell, however, she was unwilling to accept her impending death, and, fueled equally by her fear and her desire to live, her Heart expanded around her body, cocooning it and shielding it from the flames that surrounded it, protecting her just long enough for the confused, terrified mutant to find a route of escape in a small shaft by which fuel was lowered into the flames. Flying up this long tube, she arrived in a vast storage warehouse in which fuel was left until required. This warehouse was left largely unguarded, and so it was a simple matter for her survival instinct to take over and lead her to stow away on the underside of an empty fuel tanker before it could be taken from the facility to refuel. Slipping out in this manner, she managed to escape her death and flee the Ward for good.

But, when Sariya came to herself after Eins' influence wore off, she found to her terror that the outside world was hardly more welcoming than the terrifying solitude from which she had just departed. And, when other Mutants also escaped - their familiar minds calling to her own like a well-known beacon - she had no choice but to follow them, approaching them in the hopes of finding shelter and protection amongst their ranks...

So begins...

"Sariya" Eins's Story

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Marceline "Marcy" Bernard Character Portrait: "Sariya" Eins
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"Yeah I'm from the Ward. I escaped a little over a month ago."

I don't know why I was so relieved to hear that, since I'd already guessed as much. I really needed to get a grip on myself before I started worshipping every avian mutant I came across.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a small movement and knew it was Eins. I was glad she'd caught up with me, I hadn't meant to leave her behind, but panic doesn't exactly let you pick and choose what you're going to do.

I hardly jumped when she latched onto my arm, probably afraid I was going to take off again. I didn't blame her.

The girl began to explain her situation and I felt another leap of excitement when she mentioned "others". I stomped it down, beginning to feel annoyed. I had to get a grip on myself.

"We got attacked by a couple Vampires too, but we got rid of them pretty easily. Lucky us." I inwardly grimaced at that bit of an understatement. That second Vampire had meant business.

When she stuck out her hand I hesitated only briefly before shaking it, fighting the urge to laugh at the image. Three mutants on the run, shaking hands like civilized people in a dark, dank alley. Nothing weird about that at all.

"Marcus," I introduced myself with another half smile, then glanced briefly at Eins. I figured she would be too shy to say anything. "And Eins," I added.

And now, the problem. How would we get Marceline back to the hospital? And once we did, would we be allowed to join her and the others, or would she expect us to go our separate ways?

"So, Marceline... we need to get you back to the hospital," I said slowly, and a bit tentatively. "How far away is it?" I went over our options in my mind, which really only boiled down to two. Walking was obviously one of them, and the first thing that popped into my mind... I put it on the back burner for now. What about flying?

A brief image of me and Eins towing her through the sky flashed through my mind... but no, Eins was already unsteady in the air. That was a recipe for a disaster. Maybe I could carry her myself? I wasn't sure, I'd never tried before. But I was pretty sure she would hate that idea. She seemed like the strong independent type.

"I guess walking is an option... but flying would be better. If I helped, do you think you could fly with one wing?" I asked. It seemed an awkward solution, one wrong move and we could both go down. On the other hand, three wings should be enough to keep us both up. Assuming she even wanted to take that option.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Matthew "Matt" Bernard Character Portrait: Marceline "Marcy" Bernard Character Portrait: "Sariya" Eins Character Portrait: Samuel Echtin Character Portrait: Marcus Character Portrait: Alice
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Marceline

I waved casually to Eins as Marcus introduced both himself and his companion.

"So, Marceline... we need to get you back to the hospital. How far away is it? I guess walking is an option... but flying would be better. If I helped, do you think you could fly with one wing?"

I’d just been about to tell Marcus the distance of the hospital, when he made his suggestion to put it in mild terms.

I frowned feeling my pride stiffen every friendly muscle I’d just had.

God, I could imagine it now. We’d look like an awkward giant-three-winged bird toddling through the air. It was so embarrassingly laughable that I couldn’t even bare to look at it in a humorous light. Or maybe that was just my pride speaking. Biting my lower lip, I deliberated for a moment, allowing Marcus and Eins to be covered in a blanket of silence.

Let’s see. Walking would save me all the shameful feelings of not being able to carry myself on my own two wings. On the other hand, in my ever increasing bad condition (being made worse by my rebellious nature) I was bound to tire myself out before we’d reached half-way there. And the whole trip would probably end up taking, about, two hours. Far too long. My brother and the rest of them would find that I’d snuck out of bed already.

Which left flying. In my condition, flying with Marcus’s assistance would give us about twenty minutes to make it back to the hospital. Enough time for the kids to find out about me being gone, but also enough time for me to get back without giving any of them heart attacks.

It was at a time like this that I wished Euro hadn’t decided to pick up and leave us. Damn that boy….man for having other things to do. With his herculean strength (or his car stealing skills) we may have slid out of this one at a much faster rate.

But no, I was left with other bird kids who were similarly malnourished to me, and just as clueless as I was about stealing cars.

Wonderful.

I wasn’t going to lie to them though.

“I don’t like this idea….but it’ll have to do. There’s no way we can make it back in time on foot…so to the air away….”

I spread my good wing, holding out my arm for Marcus to grab onto. My pride was bending my will into all sorts of impossible positions, and I could only imagine my conscience wreathing under my decision. What can I say? I liked being independent.

Motioning to the length of the alley with my other, not outstretched, arm, I said, “The alley should be long enough to give us an adequate running start.”

After all, with the two of us bumbling along, I didn’t think we’d have enough space to just jump into the sky.

“Maybe she should take a head start?” I said, jerking my chin towards Eins. If she was already in the sky, there’d be no worry about leaving anyone behind, and we’d have more space in the alley, rather than just having her go stand behind us, or outside by one of the stores.

Alice

There was so much to learn, so much to comprehend, I thought my mind would overflow with the questions that were pricking the back of my mind. Rubbing my forehead, I tried to make sense of what Mike had said.

I’d seen Vampires attacking the bird kids on the screens back at my father’s lab. But never before had I gotten a good in depth look on either species. What Mike was telling me was so different from what I knew from passing glances at blurry screens (you would think Gunther could afford better).

And McDonalds. The way he’d spoken of it all of sudden made it much more distasteful than I had originally thought.

Pursing my lips, I asked another question, a much more important one, that had been pricking my mind for quite a while.

“Where are we going now?” We were outside. The Arizona air was cool now, chilled by the snug blanket of the night sky. “Any place in particular, or are you just going to stuff me back in the Ward?”

For a moment, I surprised myself by breaking my usually monologues tone. The last words I said came out cracked, with a bitter tone, and I blinked away the strange wet substance known as tears. Father condemned me when I cried, and therefore I knew better than to cry. But he wasn’t here now, and with him gone, there was space in my head for me to think about how I felt. Emotions. Something I didn’t necessarily understand.

“Sorry,” I apologized quickly, going back to my dull, non-threatening tone.


Matthew

“What do we do after this?” Taylor asked, all of sudden concentrating on her swinging feet. I frowned. Good question.

"Well I'd say we get Marceline, and get the hell out of here. The nurse said she was doing alright. I'm sure she'd be alright now, right now we're taking a unnecessary risk." Samuel responded, looking my way and shrugging.

Raising my hands, I quickly made my position clear, “Don’t look at me that way,” I said, chuckling, “I’m not the leader. If there had to be a leader, I would chose Euro, but he left our sorry asses alone….well, anyway, I agree with Sam. I think we should get Marce, and get out of here. This place gives me the chills.” I shrugged my shoulders, as if I was trying shake of a nasty substance from my back.

I turned my head, searching around for the nurse that had addressed us earlier. My eyes didn’t find her for a while. She was camouflaged in with all of the other, similarly dressed, nurses, and even with my stellar vision, I was forced to pick body apart from body in an attempt to discern her.

When I finally spotted her, I waved my arm timidly, to which she responded by coming over.

“Yes, sweetie.” Aww she talked to me like I was a scared little kid.

“Umm, can you tell us what room Marceline is in?” I said in my most polite teenage voice.

She hesitated for a moment, before saying, “I’m sorry but you and your….siblings,” I arched my eyebrows in surprise. Marce must have told them we were all related, “Can’t see your sister just yet. You’ll have to wait till the morning.”

Her tone was as friendly as ever, but I had a feeling she knew about our secret. Maybe from Marce’s doctor or something. And I had feeling she was keeping us from seeing Marce because maybe, just maybe, a certain government investigation team was on its way to apprehend us. Which meant they didn’t want us going anywhere. This nurse had, in the span of a minute, become far more creepy and deceptive than I had originally thought.

She smiled at me again, before curtly nodding her head, and disappearing back in the masses of nurses.

Getting up and stretching, I turned back to address Sam and Taylor, “So, who’s up for an adventure. Any ideas on which direction we should head?”

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Marceline "Marcy" Bernard Character Portrait: "Sariya" Eins
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This was a terrible idea. But there were other mutants. And they'd escaped from the Ward. Safety in numbers.

It was like those old cartoons where there's an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, except my devil was telling me I was going to get myself killed, and my angel was cheerfully chattering away about how nice it was that there were more bird kids out there.

Really, walking was just a bad idea, not to mention a tiring one.

I eyed the alley critically as Marceline gestured, mainly looking for sneaky little rocks or harmless dumpster kittens that one of us could trip over. Because that would hurt. A lot. I kicked a semi-flattened soda can off to the side, wondering if this idea would really work. Plenty of things could go wrong... but really, the hardest part would be actually getting off the ground.

I was about to mention this, but Marceline beat me to it, suggesting that Eins go before us. Pretty good idea, except a tug on my shoulder told me Eins didn't think so.

"What is it?" I asked, in the resigned tone of a person used to complications of life. I frowned and waited as she stammered, realization setting in as I pieced together her broken words. Oh, fantastic. I was quiet for a moment, determined to keep my sarcasm to myself and figure this obstacle out.

I mean. You can't just tell someone how to fly.

"Well..." I began, trying anyway. "Hovering is pretty much flying... kind of." I stopped, exhaled in one long woosh, and tried again. "Look, just get a running start and jump into the air. Your wings will do the rest."

Assuming she had the same instincts I had. Predicting her reaction, I added "Worst case scenario, you get a few feet in the air and then fall. But if you can hover, I don't see that happening."

I stepped away from her, further into the alley, to give her room. I couldn't imagine her not being able to fly... she might not be the best at it. But I was sure she could stay in the air, and I made sure that confidence showed on my face. We'd have to make sure Eins could even fly before we got into the air ourselves, otherwise we'd have to figure out how to land and...

Damn it. How were we going to land? But as I wondered, I could already see that we'd simply separate and drop the last few feet to the ground. Couldn't be that difficult.

Reassured, I turned to Marceline. "I guess we'll go for it right after her?" I asked, inwardly wincing at the awkward take off I was already imagining. I wondered if it would be a good idea to hold onto just her arm. Maybe I should get a good grip on her belt loop or something. But I didn't want to imagine the kind of reaction that suggestion would get, even if it was totally innocent.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Marceline "Marcy" Bernard Character Portrait: "Sariya" Eins Character Portrait: Marcus Character Portrait: Alice Character Portrait: Michael
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Alice

I grimaced under Mike’s conditions. They were, by the tone of his voice, absolute. Not that I knew how to fly. I mean come on, I’d been cooped up my entire life in Gunther’s lab. I’d never used my wings. Not being able to explore on my own, though, that one hit a tender spot. Even if Mike was locking me in room 24/7 I still had to stick with him. I was only learning as much as I was allowed to stray. Which meant I had no independency.

"Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I would like to ask you a question. If you choose not to answer, I will not be offended. Do you have any abilities, or powers that I should be aware of?"

At least he was giving me a choice. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t find out later. Somebody give him my files, and one way or another, he’d know everything about me, right down to my genetic make-up. So, might as well tell him now.

I sighed, before being my longwinded explanation. I would try and shorten it as best as I possibly could.

“First and foremost, you should know that I don’t have a pair of ‘parents’. Gunther’s not my real father,” I internally flinched when I said that but continued anyway, “I was born from the DNA of many of the bird kid mutants, including some of the ones you know…looking at it from that point of view, I have many parents.”

I twisted my fingers together as I began listing off my powers, “I have increased intelligence, for my age. It doesn’t mean to say I’m extremely smart. I just understand things quickly, and am smarter than the average child my age. Of course, most one year olds can’t do what I do. I can turn invisible for a small amount of time. It’s kind of like a shimmer, and I’m gone…but you can still hear my heart beat, my breathing etc. if you listen closely enough….”

I avoided Mike eyes for a second while considering if I should tell him about my last power. Sighing, I gave in. He would know about if I didn’t tell him anyway.

“I can shape shift…but not normal shape-shift…” Closing my eyes, I allowed myself to shimmer down to my much smaller six year old self, “I change the appearance of my age of so it seems.” My voice had risen about an octave with my more childish vocal cords.

Marceline

"Well..." Marcus seemed to be taking a shot at explanations. "Hovering is pretty much flying... kind of." He stopped abruptly, taking one long breath, before trying again. "Look, just get a running start and jump into the air. Your wings will do the rest. Worst case scenario, you get a few feet in the air and then fall. But if you can hover, I don't see that happening."

I sighed. I wondered if Marcus was just frustrated with her, or being a typical guy. I couldn’t tell, since I didn’t really know what the two’s prior relationship was.

I could feel my face softening, melting down to Mother-hen Marceline. I was pretty sure I had multiple-personality disorder, or something. Or maybe that was just me adjusting to the situation, like I’d always done for my brother.

Sighing, I pinched the bride of my nose before stabbing at an explanation of my own.

“Eins,” I said, trying to sound friendly, “Marcus is right. If you can hover, that means you have what it takes to fly. Besides,” I frowned as I stapled words together to form a coherent explanation, “Flying kind of has to do with the wind too. Flapping is to help you get up and stay aloft. The wind is what allows you to glide and stuff. The only time you really ever have to worry is when there’s little wind, which means you have put in some extra flaps…”I sighed. I could understand why Marcus had, had a hard time with this explanation. “You’ll understand what I mean when you get in the air…you’ll feel it, in your wings and body and stuff…Just trust me.” I said the last three words in the friendliest, most trusting tone I could muster up, before falling quiet.

I was never that…maternal…to people outside of Matthew. It was embarrassing. Clearing my throat, cheeks flashing red from embarrassment, I turned to Marcus, “I’m pretty sure this isn’t going to be a walk in the park. Both you and I know that. This is going to sound awkward but...I don’t think you’ll be able to hold me arm or shoulder. I’ll probably end up with a broken arm, or popped out socket…so..I think…you might just have to hold me…like…around the waist…or something…”

That was it. My face was full blown red. I frowned, quickly turning to look at my friend, the wall.

God if there was a time to slap me, it would be now.

Setting

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Character Portrait: Marceline "Marcy" Bernard Character Portrait: "Sariya" Eins Character Portrait: Marcus
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"E-errr... It's not that I can't get into the air..." I explained nervously, pressing my fingers together and staring anxiously at the ground, letting my hood slip over my eyes in a futile attempt to hide how embarrassed I was now that the one behind whom I had been hiding had slipped from my grasp and stepped away. "It's just... I don't really know how to move around once I'm off the ground..." A quiet rustling punctuated my statement as I slowly unfolded my wings, being careful not to tear apart the fabric of my rather fragile new shirt as I did so, and slipped them out from beneath my concealing jacket. As the diamond-like appendages emerged into the moonlit alley, they seemed to glisten and shine like pearls, as though they were emitting their own light rather than reflecting the luminescence of the mysterious white satellite in the dark sky above. I didn't realize at the time that Marceline had probably expected avian wings rather than my own batlike pair, and thus didn't even take into consideration the suspicion this would no doubt cause.

I gave them a few flaps - it didn't take me much to get off the ground - and began to hover in the air as a sort of demonstration.

"E-er.... I know you're supposed to lean forward and keep flapping if you want to move, but... I've never really done it before, and... and I might fall..." I explained lamely, gently touching down once more and looking at the two "Angels" for guidance.

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Character Portrait: Marceline "Marcy" Bernard Character Portrait: "Sariya" Eins
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Flying 101: Learning To Propel Yourself Through The Air With The Wings God -Excuse Me, The Evil Psycho Scientists- Gave You.

If I couldn't say these things outloud, I could at least say them in my head. In case some people hadn't noticed, I'm actually not a very patient person. We'd been standing in this alley for a while now trying to get our act together so we could finally accomplish something. It was just one obstacle after another.

I'm surprised I've lasted this long without blowing up about something, but I figured it was only a matter of time.

Both you and I know that.

I realized I'd tuned them both out completely and recalled what she'd been saying. Oh, right. Definitely not a walk in the park. I'm sure I looked as relieved as I felt when she mentioned the thing I was inwardly wondering about. Really, it wasn't that big of a deal... but I would rather eat glass for breakfast than piss her off and have her leave me here.

"I... was actually thinking the same thing," I admitted with another half smile. "Just didn't want to say it." And I could tell she was embarassed, so I left it at that, like it wasn't a big deal. Which it shouldn't have been, but somehow it was.

I watched as Eins hovered... obviously she'd at least had practice at that. I tried to stop and think about what I was saying before I said it.

"Eins," I said thoughtfully. "The only way you'd fall is if you just stopped flapping or you aimed yourself at the ground..." I could feel my tone going dry and trailed off. With my luck, she probably would hit the ground and then I'd feel bad. "Okay, just try it and if it looks like you're gonna fall I'll help?"

Maybe we should walk. This was becoming a lot more of a pain than it needed to be.

"Besides, you did fine flying up that building earlier. Don't try to tell me that was just hovering, because it wasn't," I said, a little amused by the whole thing.

I glanced at Marceline. "I knocked a vampire out in a forest not too far from here. Needless to say, I'm kind of in a hurry to get away from here. But maybe we will have to walk after all..." I grimaced at the thought. I really didn't want to do that. For one thing, it was slow. For another... it was slow. And also I wasn't exactly let out for early morning jogs in the Ward and all this action had already made me tired. Which, being manly, I wasn't about to admit.

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Character Portrait: Marceline "Marcy" Bernard Character Portrait: "Sariya" Eins Character Portrait: Marcus Character Portrait: Alice Character Portrait: Michael
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Alice

"Okay, now that you were truthful with me, I will return the favor. The thing is, if I let anything bad happen to you Gunther will kill me. I hope you can understand and forgive me for these rules I've imposed upon you. If you prove capable, then I will make exceptions. The more you learn, the less strict I will be. Plus a few sessions at the fireing range wouldn't hurt either."

I nodded complacently as Mike told me the truth. I knew for a fact that what he was saying was honest. I knew Gunther. He would crush anyone who got in the way of his goals. The Vampires were just another expendable tool that my father used at his own discretion. When he felt they were no longer good, he simply got rid of them.

So, I knew Mike was telling me the truth when he said Gunther would kill him if he were to let anything happen to me.

"I'm not asking you to trust me in any way, but if you ever have a problem, or a question about me for that matter. Feel free to ask it. I won't mandate which form you choose, but I only ask you don't shift in public."

Well, to be quite frank, that was a rather open invitation. My questions still burned in my mouth, but I held my tongue. I had a few things of my own to inform Mike on, things that, in certain respects, made me feel embarrassed. My clothing at the moment hung loosely around my body; of course being for a sixteen year old, they would have never fitted me perfectly. Still, they covered me, overflowing around my body, and giving me a hard time when it came to moving.

Shifting back to my normal form, I said, “You won’t have to worry much about me flying away…I can’t fly. I’m sure you’ll understand when I say, Gunther’s never allowed me out and about much. Also, by his orders, I’m to stay in my sixteen year old form whenever I’m out and about with you, so you won’t have to worry much about me randomly changing back and forth between forms.”

I hesitated for a moment. My ability to speak with others, through my thoughts that is, was a handy thing. While I wasn’t able to mind read, I’d been able to persuade people, or rather trick them, into thinking that I was the one thinking for them. They didn’t understand that their conscience voice and mine were too different ones. It had come in handy in certain situations between me and my father’s personal assistants and scientists.

Taking a deep breath, I continued speaking, “I think I’ll be able to keep my brain in check, and resist using any mind abilities with one exception. Or rather a request. I want you to teach me how to fly. A least give me times of the day, and places where I can go out and practice. Not that I’m planning to, you know, run away or anything.” I tact on the last sentence quickly, hoping to avoid any suspicion from the Vampire.


Marceline

I didn’t expect what I saw when Eins broke out those wings of hers. My shoulders stiffened, and I eyed them carefully. Marcus was either extremely oblivious to what Eins wings looked like, or he knew something I didn’t. I was going to go with the second choice. Because I understood from what he was saying, something about knocking Vampires out, that he wasn’t stupid. He clearly knew what danger was, so why would he be with Eins if she was a Vampire. But she definitely wasn’t one of us.

“Good job, Eins,” I called in a hesitant voice, trying to reinforce Marcus’s thoughtful encouragement. I’d tried to keep the uncertainty out of my voice, but it cracked anyway. I internally reprimanded myself. I didn’t want Eins to be afraid of me. Or did I? I mean, how would I be so sure if she was on our side or not?

Marcus didn’t seem to be bothered by the whole waist thing, and with my new found surprise, the blush from my face began to recede away. I could feel a pulsating pain come from my damaged wing, and I assumed it had something to do with stress. Because I was stressing out. I mean what had I agreed to when I told them about the kids back at the hospital? For all I knew, they were double agents, about to whips out knives and guns on my sorry ass.

Shaking my head, and still looking at Eins, I slowly put an arm around Marcus’s shoulder. I was too scared and unsure to be bothered by the contact anymore.

“We’ll be able to take off,” I said in a far off sounding voice. Then, in a low whisper, out of Eins earshot, I murmured, “Marcus, what is Eins? I mean” I subtly signaled to her wings with a casual flick of my hand, “What are those? On her back. They’re not, you know, wings like ours…” I trailed off, nervously glancing at the girl. My instincts had kicked in, and all of a sudden I was in flight or fight mode. I swallowed quietly, eyes darting to the entranceway of the alley. My only escape. Not that I could fly or anything.

(@ Abridged. I think perhaps you should have them take off in the your post. I don’t mind if you rp Marce’s actions. Then I’ll have her, you know, lead them to the hospital post after that. I don’t want this whole taking off thing to take too long.)

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Character Portrait: Marceline "Marcy" Bernard Character Portrait: "Sariya" Eins Character Portrait: Marcus
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Well, while it was nice to see that they were encouraging me, and that evidently, flying shouldn't be a problem, somehow I didn't really feel any less nervous.

Truth be told, the only way I'd flown earlier was by hovering in the air and then flopping forward slightly before I panicked and righted myself... over and over again. I essentially was simply lurching myself forward, stopping, then lurching again. That was why it had taken me so long to surmount the roof of the building, not mention why it had been so difficult for me to get down again. But... they wanted me to fly, so... I would have to follow their orders. That was the only way.

"O-okay... I'll take off then, and try it..." I murmured, not sounding entirely convinced of the safety of these actions even though I was the one doing them. Still, it was the only choice, so I couldn't complain. I was a servant, which meant that doing something like that was out of the question, as was failing in my duties. They wanted me to fly, so I would have to fly, no matter how scared I was or how many times I fell. I couldn't have them worrying about me, nor could I afford to slow them down by being burdensome. So, slowly, I began flapping my wings again, and bit by bit I rose into the air. Not wanting to be unable to see my surroundings, I swiftly pulled back my hood once I was high enough that my face, and the fear in my eyes, wouldn't likely be seen. I didn't take into account, of course, the fact that my long, white hair immediately came flowing out and trailed behind me as I rose like the tail of a comet. I, myself, didn't realize at the time exactly how strange my hair was. It wasn't just that it was white, which contrasted greatly with my age. No, my hair was even stranger than that. It quite clearly had never greyed nor been bleached it dyed. Rather, it was obvious that my hair was naturally that color. Its hue, unlike what one would expect, was a pure, silvery white, like the light of the moon in reflected, or like the pureness of snow I had never seen. It seemed more like a void of absolute color than a dimming of whatever hue it had originally been, almost as though it was glowing with a light of its own rather than merely shining with the glistening moonbeams that filtered through its soft, straight strands.

A few more flaps, and I cleared the alley, floating upward with a speed I was rather concerned about. Unfortunately, due to my small form, I couldn't help but rise quickly, even given my rather small wingspan and my wings narrowness. Soon, I found myself stabilized somewhat as I floated over the alleyway, gazing down at the city below. For a moment, I couldn't help but shake off my fear and be consumed by awe and wonder. I never had dreamed something like this could exist, even here in the outside world. Vast expanses of masonry, lights gleaming from every surface... people bustling around beneath me, moving with a chaos despite the completely ordered cityscape around them. Each one of those tiny shapes was a living, thinking being... a "Human." I hadn't seen many of them, and couldn't help but wonder at how intricate, and yet how normal they were. This was the life form upon which I was based, a being that did not know the joy of soaring without limit above the clouds, of spreading one's wings and rising through the boundless heavens. Then, it struck me. I didn't know what that kind of freedom was like either. It might have seemed a little conceited, and more than a little foolish, but just this once, I wanted to act for myself... to feel what it was like to be "free."

And so, my curiosity and delight overcoming my fear for an instant, I cut out two flaps from my usual routine, and leaned my body forward, letting myself slowly begin to arc out into empty air, as though stepping off of a vast cliff. Then, forcing my body forward with an inexorable will, I began to flap my wings faster than I ever had before. There was only a mere second or two of acceleration, and then, I was off, rocketing into the vast and unbounded heavens. I streaked like a comet out into endless space, my flowing white hair and glistening wings trailing behind me like a gleaming tail as I eclipsed the moon, then banked to the side, slowing the movements of my right wing as I came about abruptly, my wings' protective covering the only thing protecting their delicate membranes from the strain of the sudden turnabout. Then, I turned my gaze upward, and with my wings beneath me, I continued to rise, my wine red eyes set firmly on the heavens as I spread my arms, aiming to grasp one of those tiny lights that seemed just a little beyond my current reach. As I pierced like an arrow through the clouds, I at last spread both my arms and wings to my sides, letting my momentum carry me as I slowly spun about, my flight beginning to dwindle as I rose on my final wingbeats into the endless heavens.

The world beneath me was white as I stared down from above the clouds, as though I, too, was a star in that unlimited sky, gazing down on the gorgeous world below. My eyes soon took in the entire panorama as I slowly spun, searching out over every inch of the immeasurable canopy beneath me. Then, with my arms spread wide for joy, I did something I had never done before.

I laughed. I laughed loud and long, my voice ringing out forever over the sky even though it did not reach the world below. In that instant, all of my fears were forgotten, for I had achieved what I and many others like me had thought impossible. I was flying at last, soaring through the endless world above the world that I had only dreamed about. I felt, for an instant, that my existence was validated, that I was meant not to serve, but to fly as I was now, from the moment I first took breath to the moment that I at last departed from the earth. If I had died in that instant, I would have done so without any regrets.

But, like all good things, that seemingly eternal moment came to an end. I felt gravity begin to take me, and with my wings no longer flapping to maintain my altitude, I slowly began to fall. For the first few seconds, I didn't do anything to stop myself, so transfixed was I by the new and unimaginable beauty before me. But, moment by moment, the realization came to me that this was a world in which I could not remain. I had enjoyed being a star, and overlooking the Earth, but for now, there were things I yet had to do before I could enjoy this moment forever. I had left my masters on the ground, and it was time I returned to them.

"I'll come back," I whispered to the heavens as my voice was drowned out by the air rushing around me as I once more pierced through the clouds, and began to fall.

Spreading my wings to slow my descent, I gave several powerful flaps until I found myself slowly fluttering downward, like a feather dropped from a height as it sways back and forth, seeming to go down in slow motion. Slowly, tentatively, I finally managed to calm my stressed nerves, and, overcoming my panic, I landed on the roof over the alleyway I had only just left. Gazing downward, I decided to wait here and see when my masters would come up to join me.

That was right... I wasn't born to be a star. I was created to serve, and until I had completed this duty, I would simply have to wait. Still, I had to admit... it seemed like before my eyes still was not this mundane world where one's feet must always touch the ground. Rather, the world I still saw, even after I had left it for the time being, was the unlimited sky.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Matthew "Matt" Bernard Character Portrait: Marceline "Marcy" Bernard Character Portrait: "Sariya" Eins Character Portrait: Samuel Echtin Character Portrait: Marcus Character Portrait: Taylor Rice
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Matthew

I grinned when I heard Samuel say democracy. I like the sound of that. We were working together, rather than having someone be the leader. I hoped that wouldn’t change. So far we were doing a good job without my sister or Euro here to lead us on.

"Always..." Samuel said, nodding in response to my previous question.

“Sure” Taylor responded, shrugging her shoulders. I could understand the look on her face. It was one of those ‘we’ve-got-nothing-else-to-do-so-might-as-well’ looks. Which was understandable. It’s not like we were normal anyway.

"As for the directions, I haven't got a clue. I'm sure we'll figure it out though." Samuel continued, helpfully.

I smiled. His casual response was cluelessly optimistic, which encouraged me not to give up.

Sam’s head turned before he casually sauntered over towards the waiting room’s door, peeking outside. Turning on his heels, he walked back to where we were.

"We could always split up and search the hospital individually." he suggested quietly, "Or... if things get bad enough we could always ask the doctors... politely."

Both Taylor and I snorted at the same time.

“Jinx, you owe me a soda,” I muttered under my breath comically, suppressing a mischievous grin.

“Right...” she said sarcastically in response to Sam’s idea, “I think that could be our last decision”

Putting a finger to her chin, she looked thoughtful.

“Searching the hospital could be a first choice though…Individually...”

That seemed to be our resolve. It was a good a idea anyway. If we were all thinking on the same wavelength, then we all probably thought we’d look way too suspicious running out together, all huddled up, and looking for our “sister”. Not to mention the fact that none of us had a single idea about which direction to head in.

I bit my lip, “I guess we’ll be splitting up then.”

Glancing toward the entrance of the waiting room, I could see the hall conveniently split up into three paths, as though it were meant for the three of us. Left, center, and right.

“I’ll go right,” I declared, eyeing the right hall. I’d just made a split second decision. All the halls looked equally dreary, and I deliberated the idea of splitting up again. Still, if we stuck together, it’d be too obvious. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Ward caught us faster that way. After all, we were in a hospital. A hospital, that, by the looks of the hall, was one huge maze. I swallowed noisily and nervously.

Taking a deep breath, I looked back the two of them, before smiling. Sticking my right arm out in the middle of the group, I explained, “We should probably do one of those things where people stick their hands in the center of the group and then raise them,” I shrugged, “It’s corny…but since we are a team now…” I let my thoughts trail off, "We'll meet up back here if anything."

I glanced at the clock. It said 10:15.

"After about an hour. So, like 11?" I questioned, still patiently holding out my hand.

Marceline

"I thought that it was a trap to lure me in, even though the Vampire couldn't have predicted that I would've followed him into the woods. But then she started getting her tail kicked again and I jumped in. And she seemed to think I was going to take her head off next, which didn't help my suspicion any. But she started doing that beaten dog routine and I stopped worrying about it. Well, actively worrying about it. Now every time I express any kind of emotion she acts like I'm going to rip her head off."He rolled his eyes, and I chuckled warily, "I've just kind of decided to keep an eye on her... I'm not sure."

I nodded, complacently taking in the information. At least, from what I understood, Marcus was still keeping an eye on her, unsure of her or not. He was a good guy.

In a matter of seconds, after his explanation, we were taking off. Synchronizing our steps, we took a running start towards the opening of the alley. If felt a little awkward, running so close to him, and I internally sighed in relief when he put some distance between the two of us, allowing us to speed up.

The take off wasn’t so bad. I could hear the heavy flaps of his wings, and I knew he was working extra hard to help stabilize us in the air. I myself was pounding my good wing up and down, hoping it would help him somehow, and feeling extremely sour, bad, and regretful for the situation I’d put him in.

When we were stable enough, he seemed to tilt one wing up, allowing us to flow almost fluently through the air. I grimaced. If Marcus let me go now….I subconsciously tightened my grip around him, loosening it when I realized how wussy that must have looked.

He glanced behind us, probably scouting out for Eins. Her little display earlier made me grudgingly sure that she could keep up with us. All that complaining for nothing. She’d done just fine. And that, my friends, is what happens when people underestimate themselves. I really need to stop talking to myself…

He turned back to me, half smiling, half frowning. This still sucked. I couldn’t move on my own, and was completely dependent upon some boy I’d met not but ten minutes ago to help me. But, in the end, we were still in the air. That was what mattered.

I smiled wryly in response wondering if I was doing the right thing. On the plus side, I’d just added two new members to our cracked up family. On the down side, I had no idea if they were good or bad. I had to make myself believe they were good. They were on the run from the Ward too…but…

I sighed shaking my head.

"What now?" He said loudly, speaking over the commotion our wings, coupled with the night wind, were making. I pursed my lips. We’d head to the hospital.

Tilting my good wing, I angled us the in the direction of the hospital, depending on Marcus to straighten us out. As if by instinct, I replayed his earlier motion; glancing backwards, I raised my eyebrows at Eins as if to silently say ‘keeping up?’

“We’re heading towards the hospital,” I said, trying to keep my voice level enough so that I was able to be heard. All of a sudden, I’d found my throat all dried up, and found myself rather tired. I really needed to stop stressing out.

“We’ll go in through the window I left from. After that, I think we’ll search for the rest of them. Then we can get the heck out of there, and somewhere….better…” It wasn’t necessarily safer, being out on our own. There was always the chance that some Vampire would get us. But it was better than being in a stinky hospital all day.

It took us about twenty minutes to reach the hospital, and sneak back in through my window. It was cold, but I peeled off my sweater anyway, wondering if either Marcus or Eins had realized that the blackish-red splotches on it were really blood marks. Walking around a hospital with blood all over your clothing wasn’t exactly the best way to go, and so I simply wrapped my arms around it. I was unwilling to leave it; it’d kept me warm for almost a month, and God knows when I’d get another one. If I kept it hidden it wasn’t such a big deal.

But my wings. It’d be hard to hide those with the thin black t-shirt I was wearing. Hesitantly, I turned the sweater inside out, so that the fluffy inside was facing outwards. Slipping it back over my head, I smiled dryly at the two of them.

“Wouldn’t want any nurses to see all that blood,” I glanced at the entrance of the room, “Eins you might want pull your hood back up. Normal people don’t have natural white hair.”

I loosened my own hair, before wrapping it up in a tighter bun. “People out there are going to be suspicious. As far as they know, I was in here alone. So we’re going to have to be sneaky.”

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Character Portrait: Marceline "Marcy" Bernard Character Portrait: "Sariya" Eins Character Portrait: Marcus
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The sound of voices and wingbeats beneath me told me that my masters had taken off as well, prompting me to spread my own silvery wings and follow them as they clumsily rose from the alleyway below, like some sort of giant, two-headed bird. I might have laughed at how silly they looked, but it wasn't my place to do or think such things. So, instead, I focused on not messing up and falling to my death as I still worried I might do at any second. They'd gotten a head start, which meant I'd have to catch up to them, or be left behind. And, even though they were flying two on two wings, they were still moving at a pretty decent pace, and already had quite a bit of distance between them and myself.

Gulping down my breath, perhaps as an instinctive method of filling the air sacs located adjacent my lungs, I took two steps, reaching the edge of the building, then leaped off of it, giving a powerful beat of my wings at that same instant. With an almost violent force, I was launched into the air, carried for a moment, then propelled further by the force of my second flap. My initial leap had already carried me into the sort of lunging posture that was apparently appropriate for high speed flight, so now all there was to do was go forward with my full strength! In an instant, my mind was consumed once more by the desire to fly, and to fly as fast as I could. I wanted to be free to roam that unlimited sky, to defy the laws of gravity as I moved ever farther, ever faster into the heavens. At the time, I didn't even notice the strength this desire seemed to give me, and even if I had, I probably wouldn't have thought it anything unusual.

From what I could tell, there were three steps to flying. Firstly was the launch. Through the strength of one's legs, a powerful jump could be used to gain initial momentum, and to carry oneself from the ground without overly straining one's wings. I had picked up this art back in my old concrete world when I had hovered to keep my wings from atrophying. But now, I had found two more steps. The second was the first segment of actual flight. Through several powerful wingbeats, each punctuated by a large intake of breath to replenish my air sacs, I could continuously bounce upward, catching the wind and launching myself like a rocket both straight ahead and into the air. Once I had reached a satisfactory height, the third step was key in maintaining my desired altitude, as well as in gaining speed. You see, while continuous, powerful bursts of energy would keep me aloft, they would also carry me progressively higher and higher until I was finally completely exhausted. At that height, a stall and the subsequent free fall would surely be fatal, with no chance of recovery. So, I reasoned, I would have to keep my speed and height without going beyond my original intentions. In this endeavor, any excess movements would only serve to knock me off course and waste my strength, which meant that the goal for the third stage of flight would have to be maximum efficiency, with each movement flowing into the next: that is to say, continuous wingstrokes that were strong enough to propel me, but subtle enough to keep me at my current level of altitude.

Therefore, as I flew, my wingbeats grew progressively faster and faster while also becoming smaller and smaller. After about ten seconds of flight, I found that I was moving fast enough to cause my eyes to tear up, and mentally made a note to search for some kind of eye protection later. But, for now, I was overjoyed at the prospect of the sudden freedom I had been completely ignorant of until now. This kind of speed, this kind of absolute movement over an endless expanse of space... It was surely what the people minding their own business far, far below me had always dreamed of, and it was something only I could experience. That realization gave me a sense of pride as my wings seemed to stop beating entirely, instead simply oscillating up and down at such a pace as to be like a blur of white light streaming off of my back, a celestial halo that carried me inexorably forward, my speeds continuing to rise with every passing second.

The wind must have given a loud, ear-splitting roar as I abruptly came alongside, then, in the same instant, passed my comrades, for I could see their hair and clothing blown to the side opposite me be the sheer force of my passing, overcoming even the overwhelming pressure of their flight, the wind of which should have been enough to keep these things pinned securely behind them like the silvery hair that trailed out behind me like a mane of light. I gave a joyous laugh as I sped on ahead, blissfully ignorant of the fact that I might have actually been moving fast enough to create a small vacuum beneath their wings in my wake, which would likely have carried them both ahead and downward at a somewhat dangerous speed. Fortunately, I hadn't yet achieved a sufficient speed to make a shock wave of sufficient force to actually destabilize them, so this faux pas ended up being rather harmless in the end. "You were right! It is easy!" I called back to them as I slowly halted my flight by turning my momentum into an upward launch, then looping back overhead to come down beside them, at which point I hovered along on their left in the semi-standing posture to which I was more accustomed, the slow pace of which kept me by their side as we limped our way to our destination.

However, as I flew at speeds that, although I did not know it, I almost certainly should not have been able to achieve, I never turned my gaze backward. Consequently, I never even noticed the faint trail of glittering silver particles left behind me as I flew, nor did I realize that not all of the light emitted by my gleaming metallic wings had been reflected from the moon above them...

A few minutes of flight brought us to the building known as a "hospital." I wasn't sure exactly what it was, but from the moment I entered it, I felt suddenly on edge. The sterile smell of its rooms, the perfectly ordered white cupboards and drawers, the mysterious instruments laid out all around... It seemed, somehow, that it was too clean, or perhaps too methodical. Remembering the many thoughts and pains I had obtained from Jude and the other mutants back in the lab, I immediately shied away from anything and everything that I didn't recognize to be safe - which is to say, the entire contents of the room. All the fears I had felt in the places of my fellow prisoners in the Ward now flooded my mind, as though a chorus of invisible voices was warning me that this place was dangerous. But, I didn't say anything, although I felt my skin grow cold and didn't doubt that I had blanched somewhat since my energetic, enthusiastic smile in the skies a few minutes ago.

I was quickly directed to pull my hood up again, so I did so, letting its warm, comforting folds wrap around my face and restore some of the heat that my inexplicable terror had sapped from me. As I folded my wings beneath my jacket - although I wore it more like a cape - a question occurred to me, however, that caused me enough curiosity to momentarily overcome my fear.

"Err... Why does everyone keep saying that my hair isn't normal?" I asked innocently, my voice sounding curious and just a little bit hurt. I knew that normal people had hair, and I also knew that "white hair" was also a common expression among Humans, so why was my hair so different from theirs? I didn't realize that "white hair" didn't refer to hair so purely and naturally that shade that it could truthfully be said to practically glow with a light of its own.

(Foreshadowing...!)

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Marceline "Marcy" Bernard Character Portrait: "Sariya" Eins Character Portrait: Marcus Character Portrait: Alice Character Portrait: Michael
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Marceline

"Because the only people who have natural white hair are old people and mutant escapees, and obviously you're not old. People will notice and remember you... maybe the wrong people."

"Like I said, normal people don't have white hair," I snapped, irritated by the repeated explanations. Some small voice in the back of my head told me it was wrong. Told me I should have given Eins the benefit of the doubt, be more light about it. But I wasn't in the mood to keep up with innocent curiosities when I had more pressing matters on my hands. I had just brought two completely clueless mutant children in a place that I was most certain they didn't want to be. My lips pursed as I warily eyed the door. I wondered if the doctor from earlier was still seething about my "masturbation" accusations. It left me grinning mischievously, almost evilly, and, for the benefit of my two new mutants, I quickly wiped the smirk off my face. At this rate, they were going to start thinking I was insane.

For a while, I deliberated on what to do, while Eins and Marcus stood off idly waiting for, I guess, directions.

"I don't think we could get out without saying we snuck in," Marcus said, breaking the silence, "Maybe... me and Eins should go back out the window and go in from the front. If they would let us in..."

I scrunched my nose, unwilling to leave the two of them alone. Eins had already proved to be more than enough to handle, and I didn't think she and Marcus alone in the hospital would do any good.

"I don't think, if we were normal you'd get in any trouble. But I'm willing to bet whatever I have," If I was wrong there went all my clothes, "That a couple of those nurses have been informed about my present...condition."

Meaning my wings. A sighed, resigned to our plan.

"Here's how things are going to go," I said quickly, trying to give as much information in a little span of time, "We're going to go out there casually. If no one asks us anything, great. But if stuff happens, we're just going to wing it. No doubt the commotion is going to bring the attention of the....family," I smiled wryly as I thought of referring to Matt, Sam, and Taylor as my collective family. If Marcus and Eins stuck around long enough, no doubt they'd become a part of that family too.

"Once we're all together we bust out of here."

I didn't wait for their approval. Assuming they were following me, I carefully opened the door, walking out with caution written all over my face.

A male nurse immediately threw me a grief stricken look, "Miss you're not supposed to leave..."

"My ass!" I said, pushing a hospital cart into his stomach before he could wrap his too big arms around me. He was too fit, too muscular, and way too accurate to be a hospital nurse. I could deduce from this that we were probably surrounded.

"Run!" I screeched last minute dodging the same nurse from before.

(@ Abridged and Tsuk
You guys can probably go into a fighting scene. We'll be up against a few nurses (male and female) who aren't actually nurses, but rather gov't officials. The commotion should bring all the other bird kids, who have split up, to the same point. From there, I'm thinking los government officials will apprehend them and bring them in for questioning.)


Alice

I looked at Mike intently listening to all his directions and observing his take off. I grimaced when he hit the air, flying what looked to be a dozen feet above me and circling my position. My teeth gnashed together. It looked so easy that it was laughable how frightened I was of the actual take off. Him circling me didn't make it any better; I could barely imagine myself getting in the air, much less angling myself enough to go round and round.

But I was determined not the let that deter. Putting on a confident face, I gave myself some space, trying to mimic the amount of the space Mike had given himself. He was taller than me so the space was no doubt more than what I needed to get in the air. My foot steps would not be as striding as his, and so I would be able to pick up speed in a relatively small space. The extra space made me feel comfortable though.

From what I'd seen of the bird kids, they didn't need to run to fly. I figured Mike was teaching me this was because I was just beginning. There was no way I was ready to just snap out my wings and fly from a stationary point.

Taking a deep breath, I snapped out of my standing position, racing forward. When I thought I covered enough ground to give me an adequate amount of speed, I jumped pushing my wings out, and pumping them fiercely in attempt to get in the air. And...it worked!

I smiled triumphantly for moment, before nearly tumbling out of the sky.

"Woah!" I yelped, forgetting about my momentary happiness in favor of trying to stabilize myself. I was not circling anywhere, at least not today. Looking up at Mike, I tried again for the grin. I didn't smile often, and the stretch on my mouth felt good.

"How was that?" I asked, as I waited for him to lead me on further to wherever we were going. All of sudden I was excited. What if I did see bird kids on this night?

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Character Portrait: "Sariya" Eins
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I nodded as my newest instructions were given, this time not by Marcus, but rather by the new girl. While it seemed a little odd to obey this person over my master - Marcus had saved my life, after all, which meant I now belonged to him, whereas this girl had simply appeared and requested our help... did that make her an employer? - he didn't seem to have any issues with the current circumstances, so for now, I went along with my orders. Making sure my white hair and wings were safely concealed beneath my jacket, I waited for the others to begin moving, then followed them out the door.

At first, everything seemed like it would go smoothly - that is, until we were suddenly accosted by a strange, uniformed man who immediately reminded me of the white-coated, gray-haired one who had always appeared vaguely through the slit in my door to deliver me my food and water. But this man was much larger than even that person, a thought which struck fear into me the instant I beheld him. Calling out that we apparently weren't allowed to leave, he reached out to take hold of the girl I could only refer to as our employer, only to receive a rather heavy looking cart to the chest instead. Stumbling backward, he was only overbalanced for a split second before he lunged forward, forcing the girl to dodge and cutting between Marcus, myself, and her. At that same instant, I heard swift footsteps ringing off the floor of the corridor behind me, and noticed a swift shadow rushing up from out of the corner of my vision. Giving a squeak of fright, I darted to the side just as the small form of a female nurse, her long black hair trailing around her like the tail of an evil comet, swung up her hand at my head, revealing in the process the glinting object which she was lunging toward my throat. I recognized the fearful thorn-like weapon immediately thanks to the fears and memories left me by those mutants whose minds I had comforted back at the Ward: this was a syringe filled with a tranquilizer, a chemical that would immobilize me almost immediately should I be struck by it. Before I fully realized what had happened, I had leaped to the side without a second to spare, the woman's hand plunging right through where my throat had been only a moment before as I ducked beneath her extended arm and rolled forward, again escaping only just in time as she used the momentum of her first attack to spiral back about, bringing the syringe down in a backhanded stabbing position toward my back.

In an instant, I had risen to my feet, and found myself confronting the woman as she lunged yet again, this time aiming for my right side with a low stab. Twisting myself aside, I felt the needle brush against the tail of my coat as it passed. However, I didn't have any time to focus on how close this escape had been, for a slight shimmering from the edge of my vision and a sudden flurry of movement drew my attention to the woman's free hand, which was suddenly striking across her already raised weapon arm, aiming straight for me. The pinprick of light that gleamed in her incoming hand didn't need to be analyzed to recognize it for what it was. That light was glinting off of the needle of a second tranquilizer! Immediately, I tried to dodge to the side, but found myself cornered between the wall of the corridor and the medical cart that the girl had shoved this way earlier. It was too late. There was no way to escape. Which meant I'd have to block it somehow?

Before I fully realized what I was doing, I flared my wings outward, sweeping them forward with abrupt force. My right wing shot forward, its very tip striking the needle of the syringe and knocking the weapon off course as I quickly bounded off of the wall, diving out of the way as the weapon brushed right past my head, jabbing into my hood and forcing it down as I pulled away, the needle striking the wall and breaking apart as I did so. My white hair scattered around me as I launched to the side, the woman dropping her second syringe and leaping after me after only a split second of shock at my sudden revelation of my true nature. I grimaced, wishing that I hadn't had to show my true nature so soon, but there had been no other option.

What was she going to do to me if she managed to knock me out, I wondered as, slashing my right wing upward once again, I countered the syringe and sent the second weapon flying from the grasp of my raven-haired assailant. The sounds of clashing metal rang through the air for a moment as I drew back, not risking a counterattack against a clearly superior foe. Perhaps she would take me back to the Ward, or to some equivalent place? This time, I probably wouldn't be spared any of the tortures and humiliations I'd felt within the minds of the other Mutants within the old complex. Or perhaps I'd be agonized until I finally relented and served these people as my new masters? Alternatively, I might simply be deemed monstrous, and executed on the spot.

Rushing air from overhead tipped me off to the enforcer's baton the woman had drawn, with which she was now attempting a basic overhead strike. While such a heavy blow might give me a concussion in the process, it would still serve the purpose of incapacitating me, which meant just like before, I couldn't risk being struck by a single blow, which would doubtless do enough damage to my body to render me incapable of further resistance. This time, I spread my left wing, sidestepping the blow and parrying it with my silvery, steely scales, before bringing my back foot around and rotating myself to the woman's outside as she stumbled forward. Bringing out my right wing, I whipped it up savagely without even thinking what I was doing, striking to the woman directly in the back with enough force to send her slamming into the wall. The loud crack, like that of a whip, sounded throughout the hallway, followed by an audible thud. My eyes fell upon the crumpled form of my assailant, from whose back blood was now streaming, staining her formerly pristine white coat in shades of crimson. The warm liquid on my wing began to dribble down, seeping between my scales as it slowly flowed down toward the floor. I'd managed to cut her with my almost blade-like appendage, it seemed. Still, she was already beginning to rise again, which meant I still hadn't done any severe damage to her. She would come back again, no matter how many times I struck her down or disarmed her, it seemed, until I finally lay prostrate before her, and she could kill me at her leisure.

So... was I going to die? As she gave a hoarse growl and lunged again, her baton clashing with my wings again and again as I deftly diverted the force of each and every blow, continuing my steady dance around my enraged opponent, I had to admit, I was terrified. It seemed to me like nothing could stop her, whereas a single misstep would have cost me my freedom, my strength, and possibly even my life. I was sore and tired, and with each impact against my wings, I could feel myself shaken from my scaly feathers clear down to the bone. Yes, at this point, it was already almost a certainty. This fight was one I couldn't win. Already, the woman's blows were beginning to come closer and closer to striking home. At first, I'd had the advantage of surprise, but by this point, she had surely analyzed my fighting style and taken measures against it. My silvery wings would not cut her a second time, would not even reach her through the vicious storm of blows she rained down, forcing me to continue my frantic retreat as the moonlight-hued ward that danced before me grew weaker and weaker with each stroke it intercepted. In short, I didn't have a chance of winning anymore, didn't have a chance to survive at this point. That realization welled up inside me, almost sapping my entire remaining strength as my willpower cracked and began to break down. With a sudden rush of air, a blow got past my defenses, forcing me to duck as the club arced over my head. I was doomed, for sure, but, at that moment, above everything else...

I really, really didn't want to die.

Golden light flared up in my eyes as, with a predatory hiss, I swept out my leg, striking my enemy in the shin and sending her off balance. Carried by the force of her blow, she staggered forward, right into my elbow as I brought it up, slamming it with unnatural force into her solar plexus just as I brought both of my wings forward, twisting myself first to one side and then the other as I landed a powerful slash against her exposed sides, prompting a cry of pain from my formerly calm enemy. I smirked as I took another step forward, hooking my back hand around and striking her hard in the side of the nose, feeling the bones cracking beneath my fist. Yes, it was true that her combat experience made her a far superior fighter than myself, but there was one advantage I had, acting on instinct though I was.

She was proud. She had underestimated me, had thought that my wing-based deflections and counters were the most I would risk in a fight like this. Unable to get close without exposing myself, I'd been completely incapable of attacking with either my legs or my arms, forcing me to resort to hanging back at a distance and fighting only with my wings. Because of this, she had pegged me as too scared to venture such an all-out offense as I had just launched. She had simply assumed that she knew everything there was to know about my combat abilities, and so had closed in for the kill, unknowingly opening herself to the very sort of attack I'd been prevented from launching since the beginning! Now, as she stumbled backward, blood from her shattered nose dribbling into her right eye, she was disoriented, enraged, and partially blinded. Her next attack, if I had pegged her right, would be a wild return strike with her club, trying frantically to strike a blow and drive me off before I could continue pressing my advantage. She would panic and aim to take me down with one blow before I could do any further damage to her. Before she could even reverse her momentum, I had already sprung into action, beginning to step to the side before the club had even made it halfway back towards me. By the time it reached me, I was already twisting with the force of the blow, causing it to simply graze off of my left flank as it carried me around behind my enemy, right into her newly created blind spot. In an instant, I had leveled my hand, and, twisting about with all of my strength, I came around from behind her on her right side, striking the blade of my hand hard into the side of her neck. I didn't know anything about pressure points or stylized combat, to tell the truth, but something, a sort of fighting instinct, simply told me that this would work. And so, as she let out a gasp, the air knocked from her lungs by the force of my strike, and crumpled to the ground in a blood red and pristine white heap, I didn't waste an instant on surprise at my success. Reaching down, I quickly snatched up her club, clutching the fresh bruise on my left hip with my other hand. Even if I'd turned away the force of the blow, the impact had still hurt a great deal. But, I could still fight, and with my master and employer in need of assistance, I'd just have to provide it.

However, just then, two shadows fell over me. Looking up, my eyes widened in surprise and fear as two shapes loomed over me, cutting me off from my two fellows down the corridor. That was right... I'd been so focused on defending myself from the nurse's frantic assaults that I hadn't even realized that she had just been luring me away from my comrades, letting me knock her out in single combat so her comrades could surround me! I hadn't even realized what was happening until too late, and now I knew all too well that she'd been one step ahead of me after all. As one of the two uniformed men raised a small black object, the golden light died out in my eyes. I'd caught a glimpse of what that object was, and its purpose, in the mind of the one who held it.

A stun gun. A weapon capable of releasing a powerful electrical discharge into my body before I'd even be able to effectively dodge. I couldn't block the attack, even with the weapon I'd just picked up, and the corridor was too small for me to be able to evade even the first shot! If I rushed forward to try and close before he could fire, his comrade would certainly snatch me up, or perhaps just knock me to the ground in an instant. In short, there was no possible route of escape. My mind worked frantically, trying to find some way in which I could be of use to my comrades, even though I was about to be eliminated. Then, I fell upon my answer. It wasn't a particularly original plan, given that it had been my response to danger each time I had faced it since escaping the Ward. That's right... when Jude had attacked me, when the Vampire had sprung its ambush, and now here, faced with yet another enemy I could neither escape nor defeat... This was the only thing I could do after all, wasn't it?

In an instant, my thoughts stretched out, scouring the hospital I was in, searching the minds of all those around me. I found names, minor scraps of notable thoughts, schedule information, and so on and so forth, but amidst the tumult and the chaos, I also found exactly what I was looking for: Mutants, and plenty of them. The ones we had come to this place to find, no doubt. And now, these Mutants were the last reinforcements I could call to the aid of my master, even as I failed him myself.

Time seemed to slow down as the man tensed his finger on the trigger and I braced myself, ready to fight to the very end. I drew back my arm just as I drew my thoughts back in time, to when we had entered the building. In an instant, I had recalled the memory I desired to locate, done the proper calculations, and expanded my consciousness to reach out to each and every Mutant in the building.

"Third floor, eastern corridor off of room 308. The Angels are under attack. Help them." This message was projected to each and every one of the potential comrades I sensed, a faint whisper suddenly entering their mind and silencing the chaos of their constant thoughts with just a few short words as I spoke to them, even over the distance between us. I didn't recognize many of them, but that couldn't be helped. I would simply have to trust in them to help us, and hope I had done the right thing.

Then, giving a final, defiant cry, I shifted my weight forward, and brought down my arm, releasing my grip on the club as I did so. With the sound of the air being forced aside, the blunt weapon arced forward from my extended hand and caught the gun-wielding man in the wrist, knocking his aim off just as he tensed his finger on the trigger, causing the electrical discharge to be fired into the floor rather than my fragile body. Not one to let a last change go, I continued my forward motion, flapping my wings powerfully and hurling myself forward, slamming my shoulder into the overbalanced man with all the force I could muster. I gave a quiet cry as I felt the aforementioned bone dislocate from the force of the impact, my right arm suddenly dangling uselessly at my side as I felt an iron grip fall upon me from behind even as I watched the man I had struck fall to the floor, letting go of his stun gun as he collapsed like a fallen giant. As I was lifted from the ground, I quickly brought back my leg, kicking it outward, making a quiet crack as it connected with the weapon on the floor, which skidded down the hallway, straight towards where I had aimed it. Even though a crushing arm had wound its way around my throat, driving the air from my lungs, I didn't need my voice to give one final cry as my vision blurred and faded.

"Master! I hope you know how to use a gun like that... It's on the floor to your left, so take it! I've called friends for help, so perhaps you can use that to last until they arrive. And... I'm sorry I wasn't able to do more for you."

"Do you think they're going to kill me? Ah... I really don't want to die."

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Matthew "Matt" Bernard Character Portrait: Marceline "Marcy" Bernard Character Portrait: "Sariya" Eins Character Portrait: Marcus Character Portrait: Alice Character Portrait: Michael
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Marceline

"Where?!" Marcus retorted sarcastically. Figuratively speaking, his sharp response provoked an equally sharp feeling in my chest.

It was like venom versus venom.

"Anywhere but here," I said, scathingly, pausing just enough to get in a pouting scowl. My own sarcasm burned my tongue; it was natural, for me at least, to act that way. To challenge when I felt I was challenged. And so, I flinched internally, hoping Marcus wouldn't take it badly.

The pseudo nurse was still coming after me, his long, heavy muscled arms outstretched in a threateningly uncomfortable way. Grimacing, I imagined that the incoming grip was a gentle hug, rather than the tight squeeze I knew I would feel in less than a minute. I gasped when his arms wrapped around me, quashing the breath out of my lungs and making my world spin with oxygen deprived dizziness. Ouch. I could feel my wing crushed up against my back; it disturbed me when I realized that my damaged wing had gone limp. I suppose the pain had been a bit much for it to endure.

I was in the air now. I was tall myself, but this guy was taller and stronger. With his height, my toes could barely reach the ground.

"Idiot," I grumbled under my breath, knowing he wouldn't hear me. He grinned down at me condescendingly, and I could feel my rage growing. Writing in his arms, I tried to slip out of his grip. Instead, my foot clipped him in the knee, forcing him to drop me as he doubled over in pain. Good. I hoped his knee would feel pain for a good week or two (you know, if he happened to survive this encounter.)

While he was wreathing on the floor, I found myself in the vice tight grip of much slimmer, more sure, arms. A woman. She'd been so quiet, I'd barely had time to react before I'd realized that her slim hands were wrapped around my neck. The best I could have done was slip out from under the delicate strangling half circle she created with her left arm, only for me to grab her right and fling her over my head. My wing (both of them, thank goodness) were beginning to feel normal again, as the blood flow previously constricted returned back to its normal flow, and I ripped off my blood soaked sweater. I was taking this bitch down.

She snapped up on her legs faster than humanly possible, and began charging at me again. I would have compared her to a hunting lioness, if I knew what one looked like.

"You are going down." I snarled charging back and snapping out my wings. The elongated hall of the hospital was perfect; flapping hard, it was less than three seconds before I was in the air at my top speed, my wings slightly bent to compensate for the fact that hall was smaller than the length of both my wings put together. For a minute second I wondered how the boys, with t their probably large wingspans, would have been able to cope with the claustrophobic space.

I have no idea what my top speed it; but, I do know that it supposedly breaks the speed of sound. Curiously I wondered if this was the fastest I could go. Could I break the speed of light? It was a good question, since I hadn't always been able to fly this fast. It had built up over the years, till I had hit a maximum speed. The Ward Master hadn't labeled it as my utmost max speed, and so it left me wondering how they had programmed my body.

And for that matter, for the first time in my life, my eyes. Normally, a bird kid, even with our advanced sight, would not have been able to see at my speed. Their eyes would have teared up and everything around them should have been a blur. But I was seeing just fine. A slight frown tugged at my lips; it had always seemed so natural that I had never considered it. Perhaps, when they had messed with my brother’s sight they had messed with mine too?

I didn’t have enough time to contemplate all those questions. Before the lady was able to hear the flap of my wings I had crashed into her (what with my faster than sound thing going on). I heard a sickening crack come from her arm, and a splatter of blood whipped across my face in a diagonal line. Ew.

We crashed into the very end of the hall, rolling in a discordant ball, and tumbling more than a few nurses out of the way. When we finally stopped, I was able to look back and check out Marcus and Eins.

To my surprise, and dismay, Eins seemed to have been hurt. However, he’d done it, Marcus had saved her. As I tried to get up, I froze, feeling a strange tingling sensation rolling down my back. It was stressful, as thought my muscles had tensed up, and I realized that was exactly what happened. To make matter worse, the muscle spasm had my left wing (the hurt one) constantly pulsing with pain. I kneeled on the ground, not sure if I was giving up or taking a break.

Matthew

I nodded briefly before dissolving from our little group to head down my hall. It was only now, when I was away from Sam and Taylor, did I realized how frightened I really was. My mouth feel dry, and I could feel the early stages of a headache crawling up along my brain. I needed an Advil or Aspirin, or whatever the hell people used to get rid of headaches.

I could give you all the boring details of my exploration through the hall but I’m not trying to kill you. All you need to know was that is exceedingly dreary and frightening to be alone and worried for my sister. It had all my nerves on end, and I found myself carefully picking my way from nurse to nurse, politely asking them discreet questions, hoping they wouldn’t relate me to my sister quickly.

After about fifteen minutes of searching I heard the strangest thing I’d ever heard in my entire life. Third floor, eastern corridor off of room 308. The Angels are under attack. Help them. I hissed (at least in the human approximation of the word) before I began making sense of the urgent invasion of sorts. It didn’t take me long to deduce how I had received such an alien plea for help; either a) there were other mutants in the hospital, or b) the Ward was trying to bait me. And either way you looked at it, if the Ward was trying to bait me or not, it meant that either Marce, Taylor, or Sam were in trouble.

Following the direction, I soon found myself close to room 308. And that’s when I spotted her. Relieft flooded through me.

“Marce!” I called out, elated. She was hurt, so that definitely meant something was going on. There was a woman not too far away from her with a deformed looking arm. She was slouched against the wall, her lips twitching angrily as she stopped me quickly lopping towards my sister.

“Don’t you dare,” the woman growled at me as I went in to pick my sister off the ground. I had been about grumble my own response back when I realized she was holding a gun to my face. I swallowed noisily waiting for her to pull the trigger. Time seemed to stop, and I barely had a fraction of a second before I ducked. The bullet careened off the metal top of the hall, reflecting back and digging itself into the flat marble floor.

I looked back at her stunned; had she really been out to kill me? Usually the Ward went for capturing, not killing. And there was nothing even remotely Vampire-ish about her. Out of my peripheral vision I was just able to spot the blurred shapes of two smaller (or rather thinner) people, about my age, I would guess. I didn’t risk glancing, too afraid that the gun was still loaded.

Alice

"You did great, I fell on my face a few times before I could even fly at all. You're a natural, When you want to land just get as close to the ground, flare your wings a few times to reduce speed."

I felt a genuine smile creep onto my face. How many times in my life had I even been complimented? I’ll answer that for you; not many.

Even with the space Mike was giving me, I found myself angling away from him, not wanting to be smacked by his mammoth wings. For a while, I admired the way he flew. It was far more graceful than me, and if there was anyone who was “natural” at flying out of the two of us, I would have thought it was him rather than me.

For a while we flew separately, until it seemed that he had something to tell me. Carefully, he angled his wings, coming close enough that I could hear him, but staying far away enough so that we didn’t collide.

"We'll be landing at the edge of the forest, we wouldn't want any bird kids seeing our approach." I nodded quietly, listening intently as he spoke.

Then, as he had described to me earlier, he began descending towards the ground, flaring his wings out in order to make a smooth landing. I watched him with envy; I knew this was the part of the day where I failed my flying test.

He called down for her, and she grimaced when he mentioned “handling this nicely.” This was not going to be nice.

“Here goes nothing,” she muttered under her breath. Taking a steep (probably too steep) dive downwards, she angled herself as best as she could, for the ground. It wasn’t enough.

“Ouch,” she growled, as she tumbled in a pile of crumpled leaves and pointy bushed. Groaning, she asked sarcastically (something she had picked up from observing one of the bird kids), “How was that.” She rolled her eyes, not at Mike, but rather at herself.

Twisting around so that she could see her wing, she grunted when she realized that her Vampire wing, jet black as it was, was marred with the small trickle of blood that indicated a cut. Her pure white Angle wing seemed find, albeit a bit ruffled.

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Character Portrait: Marceline "Marcy" Bernard Character Portrait: "Sariya" Eins Character Portrait: Marcus
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As suddenly as the pain had started, it stopped, air flooding back into my deprived lungs as I gasped desperately, trying to stay awake after the crushing pressure that had nearly incapacitated me. The arm grinding down upon my throat had been torn away, causing gravity to take effect once more as I fell back to the ground, stumbling forward due to my disorientation and swiftly overturning myself, causing me to slump against Marcus for support as he drew off his jacket and spread his own wings in the attempt to increase his mobility. Evidently, both he and my second master had thought along the same lines as myself, using our speed for advantage in close quarters even if we couldn't actually fly. Although, they must have had a harder time than myself, since it seemed that their wings, unlike my own, could not also serve the ancillary purposes of "Shield" and "serrated bladed weapon." I suppose I should simply give thanks to my own design, then, as it seems that my own capabilities are somewhat of an anomaly.

It seemed that our first ally had arrived, as a boy who looked quite similar to Marceline quickly showed himself and rushed to support her. I'd at least succeeded in one regard, then.

A sudden spurt of pain as my shoulder contacted Marcus reminded me of my previous injury, and I stumbled backwards somewhat, giving a quiet gasp as I instinctively clutched my dislocated right shoulder in a futile attempt to make the agony stop. Now that the adrenaline had slowed somewhat inside me, I was feeling the full effects of my wound, and despite my valiant attempts to compose myself, my vision rapidly blurred as I began to tear up from the inescapable torture of my badly jarred arm.

"It hurts..." I mumbled without even realizing it, nearly fainting from shock at the agony the likes of which I had never experienced, even whilst taking on some of the pain of my fellow mutants back in the Ward. Even if I managed to retain my consciousness, however, I could tell one thing.

I wouldn't be able to continue fighting from this point.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Matthew "Matt" Bernard Character Portrait: Marceline "Marcy" Bernard Character Portrait: "Sariya" Eins Character Portrait: Samuel Echtin Character Portrait: Marcus
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#, as written by TheFlag
Samuel


Samuel nodded anxiously towards Taylor and Matthew, he took a deep breath before slowly turning his back away from them and stepping towards the left hall. As Samuel approached the opening he looked back briefly, before steadying himself and taking another step forward. This time however he didn't falter; he knew that he had to do this. As Samuel continued down the bleak, dull hallway he felt the cold chill of fear begin to creep up his spine, his eyes darted forward instinctively examining his new surroundings in more detail while he steadily continuing forward. The hallway seemed so still, serene came to Samuel's mind; there wasn't anyone walking through these halls, and the noise was now a hushed whisper. This added to the atmosphere, but most importantly it also added to Samuel's distress, he wasn't exactly sure what to expect from the unnerving silence. To put it simply: in a room full of people he felt safe, no matter how many were secretly against him, silence however was different he couldn't help but feel something was out to get him.

Samuel took a sharp turn before letting out a sigh of relief at the sight before him: there were people, although the amount was small Samuel's tension was eased considerably. They were mostly pushing empty hospital trolleys along, a few were heading in and out of rooms holding documents of data. However Samuel's momentary ease didn't last of long, he wasn't sure why, but the tension just seemed to return as quickly as it had left; he knew it had something to do with the way everybody was moving, it seemed rushed and slightly false. Samuel could just sense something bad, he wasn't sure if it was pure-avian instincts, or just common-sense; then again he had developed quite a paranoid streak since his escape from the Ward. Samuel gulped not exactly sure what to do, a sense of panic seemed to wash over him, he felt an irresistible urge to flee from this building and never look back. The feeling he felt there was similar to the feeling of being caught in a trap which had not sprung yet. For a second the feeling to escape wasn't a suggestion it was a maddening imperative.

Samuel sighed before shaking his head shakily he couldn't leave now, he had gone down this rabbit hole (on his own accord) and he had to see it through, he knew the consequences but for a moment he didn't really seem to care. All he knew was that he had to see this through. Samuel began to continue through the hallway until a thought struck him; he could at least prepare himself, it wasn't a solution but it would make him feel better. His eyes scanned the edge of the hallway until he spotted what he was looking for, a bathroom but that wasn't all he spotted. Two of the male nurses had spotted him from down the hall, which was non-surprisingly empty by now. He could immediately tell that these people weren't ordinary nurses, they didn't look the part, but he could also see in their eyes that there was harm, which was more distressing. The two nurses did not even attempt to stop him, but simply strode towards him, one had a case, and was unpacking it slow and steadily: he pulled out a long hypodermic needle, while the other pulled out a baton of some sort, both looked calm and business-like. Samuel stood there dumbfounded for a few seconds before his rationality regained itself, and he quickly rushed into the bathroom slamming the door behind him.

The bathroom was empty like everything else, and there were six empty stalls next to several sinks with urinals on the other end of the room. Samuel had originally intended to come inside here, and drain the power from the lights, he didn't have time to do it now of course, but he still had a rather vague plan in mind. Samuel's eyes glanced at the stalls, and then towards a small window which was tightly shut. Samuel had to act quickly; he dived over to the window and tried to force it open it didn't budge an itch it must have been or something, he hesitated before exerting more force, he could hear it creak and that willed him to push harder until the window was fully open. Samuel turned in panic, they were probably almost upon him by now he quickly ran over to one of the stalls shutting its door behind him and quickly getting up on the seat, he knew they were going probably going to check the stalls but they wouldn't be able to spot him: hopefully anyway. Samuel paused before closing his eyes and forcing concentration, he was trying to become invisible to no avail, he was beginning to panic now, rationality was beginning to crack as he heard the bathroom door creek open.

Samuel heard them shuffling forward, until a giant wham! entered his ears. Samuel winced he knew they were kicking the stall's doors open. He closing his eyes, shivering slightly. Another wham! had entered his ears, Samuel was in outright panicking now, he was positive he was in the third stall, and the surge of adrenaline that had washed through him had made everything slow down. As the stall to his door was kicked open, he saw the man with the baton fall back down from his kicking stance, before scowling adjectivally, he looked around in the stall failing to spot Samuel, who had by now relaxed and was breathing heavily; he wasn't sure how he had done that, but regardless felt a large weight lift of his chest. As the two nurses checked the last three stalls, the one with the needle muttered uneasily, "Where did the bugger go?" The one with the baton looked around, in thought before spotting the window that was open, he gasped before stating, "I think the little shit might of gone out the window." Samuel looked on casually aware that there was a slight pressure on his brain, he had another five minutes before he'd have to become visible again, but they'd be gone by then so it didn't really matter. Samuel watched laughing hysterically as the two nurses ran out quickly, he fell to the floor howling with laughter, this wasn't the funny sort of laughter but more of the, I-can't-believe-that-worked kind of laughter.

Samuel pushed himself off the floor, wiping his eyes; the occasional snort of laughter erupting. As Samuel looked around the bathroom, he decided it'd be best if he did what he had originally planned. Samuel slowly walked forward until he was directly under the light, he could feel a small buzzing sensation in his stomach and he raised his hands, almost as if to touch the light. Suddenly a spark of yellow static electricity escaped from the lamp and jumped into Samuel's hands, it buzzed around for a second before steadily feeding into his hands, the light was flickering on and off rapidly now, he was sure that other electrical appliances would be acting up, as he wasn't draining just this lamp, but the whole hospital but none of the appliances would be drained as bad as the light, since that was the source. After about a minute he let go satisfied that he had charged himself up enough. Samuel pushed himself forward, raising his right hand and sparking a small spark of electricity from his fingertips, "Perfect..." he smiled, before snapping his right hand shut.

As Samuel readied himself to leave the bathroom: a voice entered his head, causing him to nearly jump out of his skin, before looking around obviously startled and bewildered, Third floor, eastern corridor off of room 308. The Angels are under attack. Help them. the voice whispered, and then it was gone. Samuel looked around wide-eyed for a moment, before regaining his composure, he wasn't sure whether to act on this, it could be a trap, he hardly recognized the voice which had entered his head after all, but nevertheless he felt a certain obligation to do so. The obligation wasn't anything special, more of a natural curiousness which Samuel couldn't help but check, anyway now that he was charged up he felt confidence bubbling up, before he grinned. Samuel walked out of the bathroom with some hesitation however, but he was almost certain that he invisible anyway so it didn't really matter to him. Samuel walked out to see the hallway was completely deserted, he relaxed before letting himself become visible again. Samuel began running at a quickened pace forward, he looked up at a sign above the hallway's archway, which told him he was exactly on floor two, and in the western corridor.

As Samuel continued running down the western halls, jumping over the occasional obstacle he came across a small stairway, which he quickly dashed into and up a flight of stairs as quickly as he could, he didn't want to waste anymore time. As Samuel emerged he could hear something, which sounded like a gunshot, his senses were immediately on high alert, and he instinctively fell to the floor; he scowled edgily, before realizing the trouble the others could be in. Samuel dashed ahead, before sliding along and soon finding the eastern corridor, as well as the ominous room 308. The first thing Samuel noticed was the scene that had played out before him, his eyes went wide at what he had seen: a woman her arm a mess, was holding a gun in her other hand towards Matthew who was supporting his sister, behind him however was two others, both he didn't recognize; he could tell however he was a bird-kid due to his black wings, the other he couldn't get a good look at, but she looked different.

Samuel had fortunately however, emerged behind the scenes and had not drawn the woman's attention... yet anyway. Samuel stopped when he was a few feet away from her, hoping she wouldn't detect him. Samuel sprang with surprising speed off his legs and onto the woman's back, forcing her to the ground, he heard something slide along the floor, he suspected (hoped) it was the gun. The woman turned slightly before elbowing Samuel in the face a few times, they didn't do much damage due to him being on top of her, but they still hurt, and Samuel felt blood drip from his nose, it didn't matter all of his wounds didn't last for long after all. Samuel quickly grabbed her head, before slamming it into the ground repeatedly, her blows got weaker and weaker, until they stopped completely. Samuel rolled off the woman, before speaking roughly "Sorry I took so long..." he coughed, before spitting some blood on the floor and staggering to his feet, using the wall as support.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Matthew "Matt" Bernard Character Portrait: Marceline "Marcy" Bernard Character Portrait: "Sariya" Eins Character Portrait: Samuel Echtin Character Portrait: Marcus
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"Eins, we have to get moving," I snapped, in no mood to coddle her. Yeah, something was definitely wrong with her arm, but now was so not the time to worry about it. She wasn't dead, she wasn't bleeding, and she could walk. That was good enough for me. The sympathy would have to wait until we weren't about to be killed or captured by the Ward.

"We need to go back to Marceline," I said, really having no idea whether that was true or not. Was now a good time or bad time to be separated? I'm just not good at these decisions in the heat of the moment. I checked to make sure she was following and I headed back through the semi-crowded hall, shoving people out of the way and occasionally throwing a punch if someone tried to stop me. The hall seemed to clear in front of me and I soon found out why.

A nurse was holding a gun on a boy who looked remarkably like Marceline, and who I just instantly assumed was related to her. Marceline herself was a short distance away and seemed to be hurt. The sight filled me with as much panicky fear and anger as the the sight of the gun did.

Martial arts is kind of useless when a gun is in your face. You don't need to touch someone to hurt them with a gun. In the movies I'd watched, the hero used special martial arts to dodge bullets. The Ward had used guns on mutants with even greater abilities and had never failed to kill them.

As if to prove me right, the nurse pulled the trigger. The sound was deafening in the hall and I flinched, expecting to see blood gushing everywhere or to feel the unexpected pain of a bullet wound myself.

But since Marceline's brother was still in one piece and no one else (including me) was lying on the floor in a pool of blood, she must have missed. He had to have been lucky to avoid that at such close range.

I was wondering what I could do to take her down when another kid -probably a mutant- began to sneak up on her. I stared... I couldn't help it. Easy way to ruin someone's ambush, by staring at them while they sneak up on someone. Luckily my reaction didn't seem to ruin it; he sailed through the air and tackled the woman hard. I couldn't help but be impressed as he slammed her head into the ground repeatedly. I was even more impressed when she kept fighting. Vicious.

He climbed off of her when she stopped moving and apologized for taking so long.

"No problem. Not like we're facing a life or death situation or anything," I said sarcastically, but I half smirked at him to show that I didn't mean it. "Can we leave now?"

A couple of the nurses I'd taken down were closing in on us again, though now they were being slow about it, as if approaching dangerous wild animals. Which I guess is a good description. Oh, and they were pulling out guns too. Copy cats. My smirk disappeared in an instant and I tensed up again. I so did not want to get shot today.

"Now what?" I asked seriously, all traces of sarcasm gone. Not like we could rush them and they definitely weren't close enough for me to do anything. I was useless.