Phoenix Ryder

Chapter One - Wolf Pack

The bell rung, signalling the end of the day. Lamya, or Ice as she would have to become, crouched in the shadows. Her bluish white hair hung in soft waves, cascading over her pale shoulders and coming to a gentle stop at the ground. Usually she had it tightly drawn back and hidden, but the residents of the world she was on were oblivious to the small figure that watched their every move.
She patiently watched the door to the large classroom, waiting for the boy to come out. Gicela chittered nervously on her shoulder, still unused to the warmth of an uncovered sun. Of course, the inhabitants of this world needed the sun to survive, but that didn't take away her right to complain.
She could be certain that this was the right classroom, these days everything could be found through hacking their beloved Internet. She could see the dark figures moving through the tinted windows.
She whispered soothingly to Gicela, and the white fluffball crept silently into the depths her hair. Usually there would be a coat or such for her to hide away in, but disguise called for a school uniform, which she hated. Where was the fur? Where was the leather? It disgusted her, but it was necessary. Besides, fur and leather would probably be far too warm.
Ice hid her hair in a beanie, letting out the ends slightly so she appeared as a boy. From up close her gender would be obvious, but it would do for her purposes. Gicela chittered grumpily, before relenting and crawling into her pocket.
Soon the bright red door opened, and students began to stream out of the room. To her surprise, Phoenix was the first out. He seemed hurried, rushed, and as soon as his books were away and his bag on his back, he ran. Soon Ice saw why.
They were like a pack of wolves. Six boys followed the alpha male, a blonde haired boy. After grabbing their bags they took off after Phoenix, faces ruined by rage and anger. She took this as her signal to follow, and left in quick pursuit.
Travelling through gardens, sometimes through trees, she followed them. Phoenix was leading them in a roundabout way to his house, taking abrupt turns and sometimes doubling back. Soon, though, Ice could see he was tiring. The other boys saw this too, albeit later than her, and cruel relief glimmered in their eyes. Not that they were tired, of course, just that they were bored.
She knew what she had to do. For couple of second she slowed down and stepped into the light, revealing herself to the wolf pack but not to Phoenix. Their leader saw her and, to her great annoyance, shouted.
"Who's that?"
As quickly as she had appeared she disappeared again. To her surprise Phoenix didn't turn around. Soon she revealed herself again, and brought a finger to her lips. She quickly turned her head, sending a clear message, Follow me.
The wolf leader nodded quickly, then muttered some instruction to the four that had started to lag behind. One scowled and shook his head, sprinting faster to catch up. The others turned, saw her, and followed her down the dark alleyway she had turned down. She had wanted all seven, but three would do for now. She would catch up with others soon. Speeding to get ahead of them, she lead them to a dead end, then vanished from sight. They stopped in slow confusion.
"Wait... Where'd he go?" One yelled to no one in particular. She grinned from the shadows, glad that her disguise had worked.
"He lead us down a dead end!" Another shouted angrily. The two others both nodded and shook their heads seriously; it was hard to not laugh.
"Well, he must be 'round here somewhere! Let's find him!" This was met with a small chorus of approval.
Ice knew her Father would disapprove of what she was about to do, he would tell her to get it done with quickly. But she wanted to see their reactions.
"Hello, boys." Ice stepped from the shadows, taking off her beanie and letting her hair cascade down her shoulders. The effect was immediate.
The three boys looked at her, gaping. There were murmurs of shock, and she gave them a grin. One smiled shyly back, and she almost felt sorry for him. After all, she was about to paralyse him.
"So, you were saying?" She said, seeing if any of them were strong enough to recover. Quite often feelingless thugs like these would, her trick rarely worked on her father's soldiers, but it really depended on how worked up they were.
"Umm... I was... Umm.... I was going to find.... You?" He said the last word as a question, unsure if he was right, "And then..." Suddenly she could see that his eyes had cleared, the memory had brought back his anger, "I was going to do this."
He stepped up to her, raising a fist. His face was an odd mixture of hate and love. His mind felt hatred but of course, like most boys, he couldn't help but like her. One boy, the shy one, let out a soft sound of protest, but the fist didn't touch Ice.
With a yell she pushed all her energy into a single dagger of ice aimed at his fist. It shattered on impact, ice travelling up his body and freezing his body. He could only look in absolute horror as, shocked into stillness, his whole body turned blue and froze. She may have gone a little overboard with that, but he would thaw easily enough and would be fine afterwards.
She looked up to the other two, raising an eyebrow. The boy that was in love didn't noticed the ice seep into the ground and travel towards him, and looked startled as he realised he couldn't move. His eyes suddenly cleared and, though he couldn't speak, the absolute rage in his eyes spoke for him.
"You're like him! You're a freak! You're a-" The other boy didn't say anymore, as the ice closed his mouth for the next 12 hours.
"More of a freak then you think," Ice muttered to the three ice figurines, their eyes the only things moving, "Try being a hybrid sometime."
White cheeks flushed blue with the difficulty of freezing all three of them, she sighed wearily and turned. It was then that she remembered Phoenix.
Cursing her stupidity, she realised she had no hope at catching up now. Deciding to give up on saving him from the wolf pack, she started walking to his house. If all had gone to plan, her father would have Hydris and her feelingless sister, Chymra, would be far away in a different world.
Gicela crept out again, chittering grumpily as she climbed onto Ice's shoulder. Giving her a gentle stroke, Ice continued at a fast pace to the place where Phoenix lived. Hopefully he would be on his way by now, and maybe she could get there just before he did. Or not, and maybe that would better for his trust in her. After all, she was a freak. But so was he.
Soon she was in he woods, making a beeline for his house. There were obvious signs that he had been along the path, various shoe prints in the mud, a trail of blood here and there. She hoped he was fit to travel, her Father was not a patient man.
The house was in sight, and both the gate and the door were wide open. She sighed, but hoped that this was a once off mishap. Well, what would it matter if it wasn't? They were escaping into the wild, after all. But once they reached their destination it would matter, for the charms against eldritch beings only worked when they were denied access to the dwelling.
She stepped up to the door frame, and was startled to see him right there, in front of her. For a moment she stood, fascinated as he cleaned the various bruises and cuts. She guessed it could've been worse, and assessed that he was fit to travel. He would do.
Now she had to cast off Lamya and change to Ice. Lamya was her Father's machine, a twin of her sister in every aspect except looks. Lamya would stop at nothing to avenge her Mother's death. But Ice was different. Ice had feelings, and only wanted the best for Phoenix. So, steeling herself, she put on her mask and spoke.
"Phoenix Ryder?"

~

Hey guys! It's Honey, or Honey_Fall here. I'm sorry for taking so long to update, we've been adjusting the story line a bit so it needed editing before publishing. Hopefully everything is sorted out now, and chapters should come at a faster rate. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Now, for a bit of background information about the writing of this story:
The prologue and chapter one were written by me, as I'm sure you can guess. The next chapter will be written by Cacigrace, who is writing from the perspective of Phoenix himself. After everything in the story is sorted out, Drop_Of_Inspiration and TheLeopardOfSnow will have their own characters too, and maybe Jess19365. As you can see this quite a group project for the members of JAZIM. (Or maybe not -present day Honey)
Question of the Day (QotD): Try guessing who's which letter in JAZIM =) I'll give you a clue: TheLeopardOfSnow is M. Not much of a question, but I want to see what you come up with. Don't say if you already know =)