Written Fate

Chapter 8: According to Plan

Nara

A couple weeks had passed since the bombing and there was no sign of the missing children. The man in black scolded us for leaving the Hall and so did my brother but after the man in black left the room he congratulated us for telling him even though we got in trouble.
Me and Elise were on better terms now and we were training more and more together. Soon me and her were the most skilled on our team, at least that’s what man in black says.
I still couldn't get those kids out of my mind even though I knew my brother and his team were looking for them. I just couldn’t help wondering what had happened to them. Elise seemed to have forgotten but she shut down whenever it came up in conversation. Somehow I knew it bothered her. Grace was also still bothered by it, I guess it brought back old memories that she didn’t want to remember. Luthor didn’t seem bothered by it on a personal level but then again he never really talked about how he was feeling. Amy had been sticking extra close to Luthor since the intruders had taken him; however, he didn’t seem to be worried about it.
Life has stayed relatively the same for the last few weeks: wake up, eat, train, rest, train, eat, sleep. We all had greatly improved, so much that the man in black had called us into the training room to discuss our improvement. We all filed in and stood in a line, Elise, me, Luthor, Grace, and Amy, just like the man in black had taught us. He stood in front of us with a file in his hand. “You all have grown quite a bit in both teamwork and training, because of this fact I think you are ready for your first mission.” We all started talking at once but he shushed us, “when I say mission I mean that you will be silently following me as I stake out a Horsemen’s base of operation. It is not a major base but it might have information inside that would be valuable to getting to the larger operations. You are not to talk or go anywhere that I have not understood?” We all nodded in agreement, personally I’m just happy to be going on a “mission.” Grace raised her hand, “What kinda info we looking for?” The man in black opened the file and showed us a picture of an odd machine. Its main shape was a sphere but it had four large antennas coming out the slides, the top, and the bottom. The sphere itself was gray with a bluish tint, it wasn’t reflective and looked blurry in the photo. It also had four robotic leg-like things coming out of the bottom. “What is it?” I asked, “to our knowledge it is an advanced radio receiver that the Horsemen are using to hijack police scanners, news broadcasts, and car radios. We are simply confirming that they are in possession of it. After we do, we get out and report back to the Hall. If we can confirm that they have it, it will give the FBI probable cause to search the building. We will leave in two days, tomorrow you will do a final bit of training then we will leave the next day at nightfall. You are dismissed.”
I can’t wait for this mission, it's almost like he knows I’ve been wanting to get out
Back in our room we were switching between conversations like a malfunctioning lightswitch. Grace seemed to be monologing to herself, Amy was squeaking her excitement to Luthor who was listening with open ears. Whenever Grace stopped talking I added my thoughts to hers, Elise was the only one who wasn’t talking, typical to her character she just sat there and observed and true to her character, Grace somehow managed to get Elise to join in on the conversation, “what do you think about all this El? Are you excited for the mission? Do you think the bad guys have the thingy?” Elise put her hand up to stop her questions, “slow it down. I think it’s good for us to learn how things will be eventually. Second question, I am not excited but I am intrigued by the idea, and third question I do not know if they have it or not.” I smirked, “wow Elise, that's probably the most words you’ve ever said in a row.” She gave me a quick glare, “watch it Nara, you might end up in a row of your own.” She paused, then a small smile appeared on her face, “in pieces.” I knew she was joking but it was still unsettling.

Amy

This was all so strange but yet so exciting. I went from taking care of the house while Luthor was at work, to going on some secret mission with amazing people with all different stories to tell.
I can’t wait for this mission
I jumped onto my bed but I couldn’t sit still, too much was running through my head to sit still. I rested the tip of my wings in my lap and fiddled with the feathers, something to distract me I guess. The feathers in my hand twisted and turned into characters of my own imagination, dancing around jumping over buildings, and running around trees. They ducked behind boxes to avoid being spotted by the guards, they snuck behind them, careful not to alert the guards. They snuck into a small room with many devices and in the middle was an odd sphere. One of them grabbed it and…
“Earth to Amy, Hello?” I blinked my eyes and looked up, Grace was hanging off the side of my bed, “Sorry I was thinking.” I rubbed my eyes. A bad headache had started to form. Luthor walked over to me, “you good sis? You zoned out there for a minute.” I nodded and gave him a small smile, “I’m fine, I just have a headache.” He smiled back and sat back down. They all started their conversations again and I tried to go back to the story I had created. It was like trying to start off where you left on a dream that you had woken up from, my dream was how I imagined the mission to go I guess. I stared at the feathers in my hand trying to go back to the story but all I could imagine was the sound of alarms and some distant noises. Well there goes that daydream
I looked up at the others who were all back to their own conversations, Grace had gotten distracted and was “making” Nara blow pieces of a broken pencil up. Elise as usual had her eyes closed and was sitting on her bed but I noticed that every time Nara blew up a piece of the pencil, Elise would collect the small bits of debris with a shadow and place them in a neat pile. Luthor was laying on Grace's bed throwing a tennis ball up in the air, he mostly managed to catch it but sometimes he closed his hand too late or too soon and the ball rolled onto the floor. Elise would retrieve it with a shadow and he would continue throwing it. The rest of the day seemed to pass by so slowly but eventually nighttime came and I had a hard time falling asleep but eventually I did. Morning came and we woke up, ate breakfast and headed to the training room. We were all excited to start training so we could go on the mission, the man in black made sure we knew the plan and how to carry it out. He also made us play an elaborate game of hide and seek where one of us hid and the rest tried to find us. We could move anywhere we wanted but if we were heard or seen we were out. The whole day was like this and by the end of it I was very tired and my wings dragged behind me. The man in black sent us to bed early so we would be “well rested” as he said. I plopped down on my bed and before I knew it I was asleep. When I woke up I was in this large room and everything was quiet. A strange ball rolled into the room and I was blinded by a flash of light. When my eyes adjusted the whole room had changed, there were wires coming out of every wall and they all connected to another ball in the center of the room. It was making a strange noise but it was hard to hear so I got closer. When I did, loud noise came from behind me and spiders seemed to crawl through every crack and hole in the wall. Before I could do anything they were crawling up my legs, I couldn’t move as they covered me. Just as everything was going black I jolted awake to find myself in my bed. I looked at the clock and it was about 2am, I glanced around at the others who were sound asleep but I guess Elise had sensed my fear and had sat up. She had a puzzled look on her face. I opened my mouth to talk but no words came out, just a small squeak. I still felt like I was in that nightmare and I just wanted to wake up. I brought my knees to my chest and wrapped my wings around me, tears started to roll down my face. I soon started to feel better, my fear was going away and I pulled myself together. This isn’t a dream, you are safe in your bed.
I uncurled myself and looked around, Elise had fully sat up now but her mouth was slightly open. This black mist poured into her mouth and I followed the trial of mist. It led all the way across the room to my chest, the trial slowly faded away and Elise closed her mouth and looked up at me. “Feel better?” she whispered, I nodded, slightly confused. She seemed slightly taller and more menacing than usual and then it hit me. She just ate my fear, she literally ate it. How does one eat a feeling, what if it tasted bad, like broccoli. I looked up at her, “how did you do that?” She shrugged “do what?” “How did you…eat? My fear?” She half way threw her hands up, “probably with my mouth I assume. Now take the gift and go back to bed.” She laid back down and rolled over and I just sat there, confused. Conversations with Elise always seemed to leave people confused. I laid back down and stared up at the ceiling and before long my eyes closed and I went back to sleep.

Elise

After Amy fell asleep I sat back up and quietly walked out of the room. I was aware that I had ended the previous conversation on an odd note but I was not left with a lot of choices. I walked outside the building and headed to the nearby bay. All the ships had been docked and were empty. I walked out to the end of a pier and sat in silence, waiting for a small fish to pass by underneath me. When one final did I swiftly grabbed it and held it up. You are starving, why waste the food~
You are the one who is starving
I opened my mouth and a black mist poured out into the fish’s mouth. It started jerking around, struggling to get out of my hand. I released it back into the water and it swam in a panicked circle for about a minute then stopped and floated up to the surface. Any type of emotion placed in such a concentrated form would be dangerous but at least the fish did not  suffer long. I sat down at the edge of the dock and placed my hand at the top of the water. I could not tell if the  water was cold or warm but due to the time of year it was probably freezing and the wind blew bits of water up above the surface creating an icy mist that shimmered in the moonlight.
I stared over the mirrory, black waters and realized that I was indeed starving. I had made it for long periods of time with very little before but my movements were slowed and my perception of things was different. If I was to keep the others safe tomorrow night I would need both my movements and perception to be on point.
Your completely right, big and strong is what you need to be~
I rubbed my eyes and stood up, the cons far outway the pros
I made my way back to the hall just as the clock struck mid-niht. I sat in the bed until the first light then “woke” up with the others and made my way to the cafe. While the others were eating, Nara came over to the corner where I was sitting and sat down. I nodded at her and she smiled back, “hey, I heard you leave last night. You okay?” Curse that hearing of hers
“Yes, I wanted to take a walk.” She nodded and took a bite of her muffin but there was something in her eyes that was not satisfied with my answer. “I want to believe you but something just doesn’t feel right. No matter how many muffins I eat I just don’t feel full.” I looked down at her plate, she had about 7 muffins, all chocolate. “You do have quite a large appetite, what makes today any different.” Once again she gave me an unsatisfied look and I guess she understood that this conversation would get nowhere because she stopped pushing the matter. The day passed faster than usual and soon the sun was setting and we were called into the meeting room. On the main table there were neatly folded clothes. We all approached the table and stood in a horizontal line. The man in black also approached the table with the same file he had had before. “Each of you will receive outerwear for the mission tonight. The collars have a built in tracking device so we can track your movements throughout the night. You will be allowed no weapons and again, this is a covert, no confrontation mission. Do I make myself explicitly clear." We all nodded our heads, "Nara, please step forward." At the man in Black's request she stepped forward. He handed her an all black suit and an earpiece, "you will be in charge of your team, second to me during the mission." Strangely Nara took a step back and while I could only see part of her face I could tell she was boiling. Grace's cheers for her did not seem to help. She calmly stepped back into line but her eyes deceived her posture. Each of us were called up and received a black suit and an earpiece for communion.
We were taken to a car and were piled in. It was about an hour or so before we stopped.  We stepped out of the car and we were greeted by a large forest. "We will walk from here," said the man in black. As we walked, Nara hovered about us, just under the tree cover. Grace was hopping and dancing in between trees and rocks and Amy followed. Luthor did his best to catch up with them but they were more agile than him. They all had smiles on their faces as they played a version of hide and seek within the trees. As we neared a clearing the man in black shushed us and brought us behind a large rock for cover. He pointed at a back door on the left side of the building, "Everwood, give us cover." I nodded and threw up a shadow. It was similar to the training exercises we had done, ducking and hiding behind boxes to avoid being spotted. When we made it to the back door the man in black stenly reminded us to be quiet and to follow carefully. When we entered the building it was very dark but the hallways were still visible. Everytime a guard would pass by I would throw up a shadow to conceal us against the wall. After they had passed we would continue on.
So far things were going according to plan.