Fallen Chapter 31

Although, nobody exactly said that I had to walk, did they? I walked into an alley and used my wings to jump from wall to wall, until I was air-born. I flapped to keep myself generally in the same air space. I pulled the hood of my jacket over my head, then I took to the skies.

It should be illegal, to feel this powerful, to feel this......heh, high. In the city lights below, I could see houses with parties starting to wind down, people talking around parked cars in empty street lots, and people walking in the streets with lit cigarettes. Not the prettiest sight in the world, but still pretty neat that I can get a view like this from this high in the sky!

This was almost taken away from you. I don't know where the thought came from, but I didn't have a response to it. He almost succeeded. Who is to say he won't do it again? This is why you must--What?

Something down below caught my eye. I had to focus on it, but it looked like someone was crouching on the edge of a roof top. He or she was holding something and pulling his arm back. I decided to drop in, literally. I dive-bombed the building and pulled up at the last second, and then flapped my wings for a landing. I probably shouldn't have done that. The person was a girl, and I startled her. She yelped in surprise and turned around with the bow and arrow. She let it fire, and it hit my wing.

Luckily, it was the metal wing and clanged off the metal part. It dropped to the floor as I landed. The girl held her bow at me, as if it was loaded; she was speechless. I said, "So, just practicing some moves up here?" As I looked closer, I saw that it was the same girl from the party a little while earlier. I said, "Hey, I know you. You can't really stay out of trouble, can you?" She shook herself out of the shock and tried to sound ticked. "W-what's your deal? Why do you keep messing up my plans?" I gave her a confused look, "And.......what plans would that be?"

She stayed silent and gave me the usual cold, unmoving glare. She then said, "Here." she pulled a pair of binoculars and pointed to a lit warehouse.

I hesitated, but I got to the edge and looked through the binoculars. After a lot of focusing and refocusing, I could see an operation going on; like, a criminal operation. I felt a tinge of fear, but shook it off; they couldn't see me, yet. I put the binoculars down and saw that the girl had decided to stick around. She was trying to look at my back, to see my wings again, she jumped a little when I turned to her. I said, "So you're a lookout Archer now?" She rolled her eyes. "Did you see those uniforms? Those are not the MMXII guys, that's a feminist group called the Amazons." I did notice the uniforms in variations of black, pink, red, and purple; but mainly black. The girl-what was her name? Right. Carmen- she said, "That girl, the one standing on the crates and watching the other girls, is their leader. That's Katherine Perry. There are a lot of rumors going on about her, and I wouldn't be surprised if every single one of them were true."

I said, "What, she owes you money or something?" She glared at me, and I swear to you, I felt a shiver ripple through my body. Carmen snapped at me, "She killed my father." Oh. After a minute of awkward silence, she said, "Yeah. Oh. She killed my dad just to intimidate my neighborhood. She took him away from me....Mom.....Zach." She gulped down, and her softening face became hard and cold again. "At first, I thought the rivalry between the Amazons and the MMXII thugs would get me close enough for me to kill her, but that was three months ago. I'm not going to let some...... some........ angel, or whatever you are, stop me now."

I didn't have a response. I handed her back the binoculars I had been fiddling with. Then I heard my voice say, "Can I help?" She showed her second emotion tonight, and it was surprise. She said, "I'm going to kill her, you know that right? There's nothing you can say to-" I held my hand up and interrupted her, "Yeah. I know. Believe me, you and I are in the same boat on this one." She looked at me skeptically for a few minutes, then she said, "Okay. I guess I could use your help. What I need, is a distraction............"

Fallen Chapter 30

When we got back, everyone went to a door that opened up to some stairs. I followed them all up and there were a line of rooms, like an apartment building. Everyone claimed a different room, quick glances revealed that they were small bedrooms with, uh, really small beds. Scrat said to me, "Uh, you can share a room with me. I got a bunk bed anyway. You want the top bunk?" I nodded. "Sure. Whatever is good with you." I said.

Eddie knocked on one door and waited for an answer. "You guys back already?" Carrie called through the door. "Yeah," Eddie said, "Just checking in on you. Goodnight, baby." "Goodnight, Bubby." she said through the door.

Eddie looked at me as I couldn't help but stare, halfway in the door to a room. "What?" he said all the way from other end of the hallway, "You got a problem with Bubby, as a name?" I ducked into the room to see Scrat already passed out on the lower bunk of the bed. I asked, "Is this how it usually works?" He raised his arm up and made a thumbs up sign. I guess so.

I climbed the tiny ladder and lied down on the bed. I looked down and saw that my shins dangled off the end. "Are you kidding me?" I whispered to myself. I layed there, no pillow, no blanket, no... anything. Just waiting for time to pass. I looked around at the trashy little place. It may not be much, I thought, but it's something.

Something occurred to me. "Scrat." I say. He grunted in response. "Why does everybody stay here, instead of actual....well, houses?" He was silent for a while. Then, he said, "We all messed up, man. Our parents kicked us out, 'cause we all got involved in one thing, or another. Riff-raff kept getting in fights when he went to school. Once, a teacher was actually picking on someone in the class, Richie- I mean, Riff-raff- stood up for the kid, and got slammed with charges of assault. When he got out, he met us." He sighed.

I said, "What about you, and the others?" He responded, "Otis is my best friend, my wing-man, ya know? I got the bullies off of him, and he helped me out with passing the fourth grade." Then I heard Eddie yell through the rooms. "Man, what are you talking about? You still in the fourth grade, man!" I could imagine Scrat was rolling his eyes. "Anyway," he said, "Otis and I got mixed up with the wrong people. We got the blame for transporting freaking marijuana!" He cleared his throat and calmed down. He said, "We call ourselves the Chain Gang because we all made mistakes that landed us in the wrong place at the wrong time, we are trying to keep others out of things we got ourselves into."

We sat there for a long while. I sat up on the bed, my legs dangling off the sides now. I noticed the old digital alarm clock, sitting on a nearby table, click to midnight. I asked, "What about Eddie?" The door swung open and Eddie stepped in. Eddie said in a quiet voice, "I actually killed a kid." The information hung in the air, I felt like if someone lit a match right now, the entire building would light up. Eddie then continued, "I was part of a gang. Small little group. Not much harm. We would vandalize a bowling alley, or start talking smack to someone, but that all changed. One day, we were given an offer by a hard core criminal. They were going to actually rob a bank. The police were on to us though. Before I knew it, we were in a shoot out." He paused, and I could swear I saw the shiver run up his spine. I also saw Carrie walking behind him, in a robe, and she put a hand on his shoulder for comfort.

He continued, "Things get pretty rough in a shoot out. I walked out with my hands up, hoping if I just gave up now, consequences wouldn't be as bad." He bit his lip. "I can't remember what happened next, it was like a blur. I think a friend got mad at me and started walking right towards me. He looked like he was ready to kill, man, I didn't know what...." He stopped, and shut his eyes tight. "I got off lucky. I only got five years in juvey for manslaughter, I owe a good friend for that. I even got out early for good behaviour. I met these guys," he gestured to everyone who was now standing silently at the door, "and Carrie, and we try to help whoever we can, however we can." Carrie was now hugging Eddie from behind. Otis and Riff-raff were leaning against opposite door frames outside the room. Eddie then said, "Well, now you know. Get some sleep guys, we're going on a little patrol at six tommorrow night."

Everyone cleared out and went back to bed. I laid my head back down and tried to get to sleep; which I considered was hopeless when I saw it was almost two in the morning on the alarm clock. I listened to see if Scrat, or any of the others, were still awake. Light breathing revealed that nobody in their right or left mind was awake at this time. Well, nobody but me.

I quietly let myself down and walked right out of the building. On the way out I was stopped at the door by a voice. "Try not to stay out all night." I spun around to see Carrieat the base of the stairs in her robe. She then turned around and walked back upstairs.

After a moment of thinking this over I walked out into the night.

Fallen Chapter 29

It wasn't long before something happened. There was a call at the desk, the girl there answered it. She said, "This is the Chain Gang front office. We knock 'em up and lock 'em up, just tell us who 'em is. This is Carrie speaking, how can I help you?"

I looked around and saw that everyone was looking at her, waiting for the news. After a series of "uh-huhs' and 'yes, we do have a special on that this week,' she finished the call with, "Alright, we'll be right there." She hung up and spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. "We got violent party crashers on 1046 Mayday Drive. You guys better get there, sounds like those M-M-X-II thugs." The guys sprang up and started grabbing stuff. I didn't exactly have anything to fight with, so I just put on my shoes and waited by the door.

Eddie walked over to a closet and pulled out two bats. One wooden and the other aluminum. He tossed the wooden one to me. "Try not to break that, that's my lucky bat after all." I nodded. "Alright," I said. The tall, skinny one, who introduced himself as Riff-raff, grabbed a five foot chain and roped it up to put under his jacket. Scrat grabbed a crowbar that was leaning against the wall. I rubbed my head, these kids are looking for a war, aren't they? The other big guy, Otis, went into a back room and came back out a minute later. He was holding anything, just wearing a big black jacket.

I asked Scrat, "What about him? Isn't he going to use anything?" Scrat looked over at Otis, and he grinned. He said, "Oh, don't worry about him, he's got something special to fight with." He looked back at me, I don't know what my face said, but he then said, "Oh, it's not a gun, or a knife, or anything like that. Just wait and see. Considering that this might be the MMXII crashing this party, you just might see some action."

Oh, this is just getting better and better.

Riff-raff drove a silver Durango with Eddie riding shotgun, Otis and Scrat sat in the back passenger seats, I was scrunched into the very back set of seats. I could rest my chin on knees if it weren't for this bat. "I'm getting claustrophobic back here." I said. Riff-raff exclaimed from up front, "You say what now? I did not know you went that way, man." There was a moment of silence before Scrat said, "Uh, Raff? You know Claustrophobia means a fear of enclosed spaces, right?" Riff-raff didn't answer for a minute. Then he said, "Oh, uh, yeah, um, yeah. I know."

Now, we were all snickering, even Otis was making silent laughter. I said, "It's a fear of enclosed spaces, love," in a stereotypical gay voice. We arrived at the address of the party, the sun was way past set, and I looked at the clock to see it was 9:20. We left the car with suppressed laughter. The people that were hanging out at the front porch looked at us with worried faces and silent pleas of help. In my head, I knew that this was a little more serious then what I was expecting. Eddie went in first, followed by Scrat, Riff-raff, and me. Otis brought up the rear.

When we first entered we didn't even have to ask where the trouble makers were, we could hear them. "What do you mean, we're not welcome here? This is an all around party, right?" We entered and I saw three huge kids. Two guys and one girl. The girl clacked her gum and twirled the knife in her hand with uninterested, the guy talking was using one hand to gesture with his screaming voice while he held a crowbar in the other. The third was grinning like a possum and held an actual gun in his left hand. I guess that's why someone got enough sense to call someone.

Eddie said, "Yo! Scuz-buckets!" The trio of gangsters swirled around to us, and there was a moment of utter silence. The girl clacked her gum and Eddie began again, "I suggest you leave before things really have to get ugly." Everyone who was a guest at this party started to inch their way out the door, except for one kid, who I guessed lived here. I readied my bat and stepped up, "Just walk on out guys. Nobody has to get hurt."

The trio glared at me. The big talker says, "Boy, you even know who we are? We the MMXII! That's roman numerals, bud, for 2012. We are your doom!" I rolled my eyes and looked over to Eddie. "I guess this is the part where we beat the crap out of them?" He shook his head and said, "This is where Otis steps in." We all moved aside and Otis stepped up. He swung his arm like he just threw something, and a small ball on a chain streamed out of his jacket sleeve and landed smack in the bigger guy's face. He yelled and cursed as he held his now bruised eye. The ball and chain returned from the air back into his sleeve.

My jaw probably hit the floor before I decided to close it. "Last chance," said a deep and low voice. It took me a minute to realize that the deep and powerful voice came from Otis. The guy he hit got back up and cursed at him. He ran and tackled him, rolling him into the other room. Scrat went after him. The Talker looked slightly nervous now that their biggest player was tumbling in the living room. He turned to the girl, "Carmen?"

She looked at him coldly. She merely clacked her gum. Eddie and Riff-raff ran after him, leaving the girl to me. I said, "You aren't going to be too much trouble are you?" She shrugged. Then she said, "I've been looking for a way to dump these geeks anyway." She started to walk out. I decided to let her go. What could I do anyway? I went into the living room and landed a solid blow on the gangster's back with the bat, knocking him out cold. The other two came back with the other guy and tied them both to a nearby lamp post.
The dude of the house called the police and thanked for our services. Eddie pulled out a slip of paper and handed it to the kid. He said, "That's the bill. The address is on there, we're giving you a full week to pay that off, that should be plenty of time. You take care, aight?" He nodded, and thanked us a hundred times more. We left the house and went back to the Chain Gang base.

You know? I just had a thought: I kind of like the idea of helping someone like this.

Monster Chapter 1

I stepped out of the car with my parents. My mom says to me, "Honey, get back in the car. Stay with your sister. We'll be right back."

I sighed and sat back in the car. We were suppose to be going out for a family dinner. At least before school started and ended spring break. Sara squirmed in her seat. "What's happening?" said the four year old. I said, "Looks like a little, uh, train accident. Um, big boo-boo." She looked around and saw the cars that aren't going anywhere anytime soon. She also also the red and blue lights flashing everywhere from the emergency vehicles that were filled with people looking for survivors. I think the train was mainly for cargo, but there must have been employees somewhere, cause the police were trying to explain that all of this has been going on all afternoon.

Sara folded her tiny arms and pouted, "I wanted to go to Pizza Castle. Mom said she had a coupon for that!" I reached over and stroked her blond hair. "I know, Biscuit." That's what we all called her. I could never figure out what the name meant, but it was cute little nick-name for her.

I looked out her window while stroking her hair. There wasn't much to see. It was late, like almost ten, and the flashes of light from the cars ahead gave me a small flash of images. A tree, hedges, small and curious animals, a boy? I shook my head and blinked. A boy? I said, "Sara. I'm going to lock the doors, OK? Don't open it for anyone except for Mom, Dad, or me. Alright?" I had training in a lot of martial arts, I even teach some classes; and I always keep some pepper spray with me whenever I go out. If someone was hurt out there, he might need a hospital; and if he was some creeper, well........

Sara nodded and said, "Where are you going?" I smiled at her. "Just going to look at something. I'll be right back." I left the car and walked around to the bush. I noticed at the corner of my eye, Sara was squirming in her seat, trying to see where I was walking to. I stood in front of the bush, still standing on the pavement and in the light. I felt like I was crazy. "Hello? Is, uh, is there anyone there?" Nothing; no movement. "Are you in trouble? Do you need help?" I saw movement in the darkness. I could make out a humanoid figure.

I was about to reach out to the thing, but I heard my mom from behind me. Back at the car, she said, "Jazz! Honey! Come on! What are you doing?" I turned around to her. "Nothing, Mom! Just, uh, I thought I saw something! Just a rabbit!" I looked back at the bush. The silhouette was gone. Where did he......?

"Jazz! Get over here!" I spun around and ran back to the car. "Yes ma'am!" I said.

The creature watched as the girl ran back to the car, at the order of her mother. It reminded him of the guards that abused him. Except, the parents didn't beat her or slam her against anything, they just seem to give her a wary look and got back into the car.

The being wanted to reveal himself. Maybe she could help him. He shook his head. No. He could not. Any contact with a human would mean death. They would make sure of that.

He left the hiding place from the brush and ran into the woods to look for food and water.

Heroes Chapter 23

Although, what was incredibly unlucky was that the building she stepped into was a Police Station. What could she possibly be doing in there? My mind went wild with imagination. Is she turning me in? Is she turning herself in? Is she secretly meeting with Walker? She just walked out, then she pulled out a bundle of papers from her bag, and a roll of tape.

She then walked over to the closest telephone post, and taped one of the pieces of paper to it, humming one of her favorite songs while she does this. I know this because she constantly blares it on the headphones of her ipod.

After she applied a couple pieces of tape, she walked away to another lamp post. I made sure she was out of sight before I read the paper. It was a Person Missing poster. The boy on it had to be at least eight or nine. He had black hair and his eyes were different colors; one being green and the other being blue. The poster gave more information. What number to call if spotted, he was last spotted at a local restaurant......last year. It also says that he should be about ten by now.

Mira was looking for her little brother! And she didn't tell anyone? Well, maybe she didn't want us to worry about it. Should I go to her? We could help, after all. No. If she wants our help, she'll come to us. I'll just have to have faith in her.

Now, to tell Ares not to.....huh? I turned around to see Blair talking to a boy. The boy's back to me, and Blair had an irritated look on her face. I stood and watched from afar; if Blair needed help, I'll be right here. I could hear the boy say, "Aw, come on, Blair! I'm not all that bad!" The boy's voice was obnoxious and unnecessarily loud. Blair snapped back at him, "Zack, you put three people in the hospital because they made fun of your greasy hair! Then you lied to me about it! Saying that they were making fun of me! I'm nothing put a get-out-of-jail-scot-free card to you!" She started to walk back to Norman's car; she wasn't five feet from it when she was talking to Zack. Zack grabbed her by the arms and spun her around to face him, which caused her to yelp in surprise. "I'm not done talking to you," he said in a dark and low voice.

I put a hand on his shoulder, saying "Yes you are." I hadn't realized it, but I had moved across the street without even looking to see if there were any cars. Zack turned around to me, showing that Blair had a face of relief. "Oh, Alex, could you call the police or something?" she said. Zack asks, "You have five seconds to leave with your arms still attached, buddy." I could tell he had been in fights before. His left eye even looked like it was finishing up from a bruise. I had no experience in fights.

I glared at him. "You want a throw-down, Bunch?" Now, Blair had stepped between us. "Guys, please don't. I don't want to see you guys fighting." Zack snapped at her, "How could you?! You're freaking blind!" That did it for me. I threw my fist into face with all the strength I had. He stumbled back and fell on his butt. I resisted the erge to shake my hand, I hadn't thought that a punch might actually hurt me. Zack looked up with a look of rage. "You're gonna pay for that." he snarled. "No. He's not." Norman stood over him with his arms crossed. Zack looked up at him and tried being all friendly, "Norman! My man! Remember the time I took that hit for you in-" "Shut it! You piece of garbage! Get out of here before I turn you inside out." Zack scrambled away, and Norman looked at me. "Thanks." he said. I said, "Anytime."

Norman looked over to Blair, "I really can't take you anywhere, can I?" She rolled her eyes and faced me. "You didn't have to do that." Norman and I looked at each other, and we both said, "Yeah. I/He kinda did." Blair smiled at me, then pushed down on my shoulder so she could lift herself up to give me a peck on the cheek. "Thanks anyway." she said.

After a minute of my face burning, Norman cleared his throat and said, "Well, anyway, the store doesn't have the kind of Construction Paper we need either Blair. Sorry." She sighed and said, "Oh, well." I asked, "What kind of project are you doing?"

She said, "Just something about the eyes. I thought it would be kind of interesting."

Norman laughed, "Yeah, mainly because you're going to get your eyesight back any day now right? They found out that her eyesight is curable, they just need to do a certain kind of surgery."

Asylum Chapter 1

I swung a wide right hook to his side; he blocked it and swiped his foot under me before I could blink. I was on the floor and panting, exhausted. My sensei stood over me, his hands behind his back. "Sloppy. Always sloppy, little girl." He said to me, "You still need better foot work!" He was always a ball of old Asian sunshine. Just as red sometimes, too.

He took a deep breath. "And yet," he said, "You are one of my best students Miss Myers. I will miss you the most when you graduate." He offered his hand and I took it. He pulled me up and said, with a grunt, "I can only wish you luck, from here on out." I gave him a small smile and gave a respectful bow. "It's been an honor to train with you, sensei." He left, probably to eat his "1 Minute Noodles!" he's got waiting for him. I went to my gym bag and pulled out a tiny green box with a purple bow around it. It was hard, trying to find a gift for him, after all he's done for me. I might not ever see him again. I took the present and went to the back, private room he always said was off limits.

I creaked open the door, and I saw him kneeling in front of a small table. It had lit candles close to the edges and a few pictures towards the center. I knew the pictures were of his son, his wife, and his grandchildren. I knew the tragic story behind them all. I think he helped me because he reminds me of them. He still misses them, I can see it in his eyes when we spar. I put the present on the little table that was next to the door, and slowly closed the door. I said my own silent goodbye, and left his private dojo to change in the fast food restaurant next door.

I am Molly Myers. My story is unlike any other. Once my life was a simple and happy one. I had a Mom, a Dad, and my fraternal twin brother, Jason. That was a long time ago. Dad died in a car accident. After that, Mom found some lawyer jerk. She explained to me that she was only dating him for the money, but soon she must have seen something in him. They married.

Ever since we met each other we hated him; both Jason and I. He mostly had a thing against Jason, he could have cared less about me. He called Jason a monster once, and I defended him by saying I could say the exact same thing about him. When Mom died he found a way of framing Jason. Some sort of "He's assaulted so many people" bull. Jason was protecting me from a long line of jerks. As for me, he disowned me. I was stuck in an orphanage until Jack adopted me. Jack was a close friend of my Dad. Whenever he's over we called him Uncle Jack.

Jack had heard what had happened, and he thought it was a total load too. He's a good friend. He helped me with the classes and always gave me support. He also helped in my plans to break my brother out.

Yes. I plan to break my brother out of his prison. His frame landed him in an asylum. The Brother's Grimm Asylum for the Peculiarly Disturbed, to be exact. The Asylum has so many legends and stories behind it. Any majorly traumatized or disturbed youth gets sent there. They say this is only a rumor but, some say that once you enter the asylum you never leave.

Well, I'm about to change that. I studied chemistry and learned how to make both bombs and makeshift bombs, and I was trained in three different forms of unarmed combat; Karate, Judo, and Boxing. Well, Dirty Boxing actually, but hey, this is war; and all is fair in love and war.

Anyway, you get the idea. I'm freeing my brother, one way or the other....

Cyrus Noble Chapter 27

The police immediately started shooting. I'll tell you right now, those things looked more pissed if anything.

The bigger of the two swiped the cops into the air. I half turned to the guys, "Guys! Work on the shorty! I got the big guy!" I turned back to see the big guy standing in front of me. He was glaring down with hatred; all contained within his in grey eyes. I said, "Hey. What's up? Other than that big ego of yours." He raised his clawed arm above his head to strike down. I rolled out of the way for the blow. I took a shot at the ribs, and I heard a crack. The thug grunted and swung around. He got a good hit to the side of my head.

I struggled to get back up. I felt my throbbing temple with my fingers, and I felt blood. I was then slammed into the ground by the boot of the monster. I let out a cry without meaning to. I could feel the base of my spine shatter.

I heard Jazz cry out to me. "Cyrus!" I opened my eyes. Through blurring tears I could see Jazz running to me. Viktor took off his blindfold and unleashed his power to the monster above me. The thing staggered and fell back. Magnet had bullets floating around him, still spinning and still hot from leaving the muzzle of the soldier's gun arm. Magnet focused the bullets to start going through the shooter, not that it did much. The bullets started bouncing off of him.

I could see Sara hesitate, but I watched as she put her arms out towards the bigger soldier, who was trying to get back up. The smaller of the two swiped Magnet to the side and started walking towards Sara. I tried to call out to her, but I could only make a little strained noise. Luckily, Longarm shot his arms out and hit the Gemini soldier, knocking him down.

Longarm yelled over to Sara, "Girl, you better start moving!" Sara was straining to do something, but what? I looked over to the other Gemini soldier. Jazz was by my side, asking me if I was alright. I was too stunned to answer, because I was watching the monster float in mid air.

He was flailing. Then I had an idea. "Viktor!" I said, struggling to get back up. My bones are taking their time in fixing themselves. "Stand under the big guy and unleash everything you got!" He looked puzzled, but he whistled to get his bearings and ran over to the Gemini soldier. I said "Megan! Throw the little guy at the big one!" She flew down from her position in the sky, picked up the soldier and tossed at the big one. Viktor got to his position and slid his blindfold off. The blast caught the soldiers and sent them tumbling into the sky. They must have reached sixty feet before Viktor put his blindfold back on.

They began to fall. We ran to one of the buildings for cover. I felt through the floors the impact of their descent. I ran back out with the others behind me. The big guy had fell on top of the little one. They were both on their backs. The big guy's eye piece was cracked, so I looked over to the little one.

I said, "Two to nothing, Bish." I kicked the soldier's face with the heel of my boot. I hopped off the Gemini Soldiers and out of the crater they made.

The police officers were staring at us, they had obviously gotten out of their daze, because a few helicopters were hovering above us, and we were surrounded by FBI trucks within seconds.