The Syndicates

One

Kyle

The sky is gray and menacing. The wind gently blows my blond hair. I'm back on Skorix, my home planet. My dad is standing next to me, a concerned look on his face. I don't understand why and it scares me.

"Looks like rain." I say, trying to shake the fear out of my small, twelve year-old voice.

My dad stares at the sky, contemplating it. "We can only hope." He mumbles softy, not meaning for me to hear. "Yeah." He says louder, clearing his throat. He nods back towards the house. "Come on, your mom is going to need help getting dinner ready."

I nod in agreement. With one last look at the dark sky I follow him back towards our house.

Earth. 5:45am. My alarm blares in my ear like an air horn. My eyes flick open and I scramble to turn it off. Yes, sweet quiet. I groan, unfortunately I still have to get up.

I roll off my bed and start my search for a clean t-shirt. Accomplishing that, I grab some socks, not so clean, and pull on my running shoes. I walk blindly down the hall and into Daniel's room. I try in vain to wake him, reminding him that he promised to get five miles done with me. He moans something unintelligible. Fine. I think, not so surprised.

Once again I make my way down the dark hallway. All is quiet. The rest of my six siblings are smarter than me to stay in bed, I suppose. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, I exit through the laundry room into the calm, humid, late spring morning. I stretch briefly before embarking down the gravel drive for my run.

The sun hasn't quite risen yet. I love living out here, away from the city, though Savannah isn't far, but the country definitely doesn't have enough street lights. Looking at the sky I can tell it won't be long before daylight. The sky is a soft pink, but pretty soon it's going to burst with brilliant orange.

My love for country living is owed to my parents. Back on Skorix they preferred the simple, country life as compared to living in the big metropolises like Watford and Ecrin City. No, we lived in Raven Peak only a short drive to Bridgeborough Valley. It's not a metropolis, but it's actually considered a town, where Raven Peak really isn't. Unlike the name implies, we didn't live on a mountain. We just lived in higher elevation than the "valley" twenty minutes away.

My mother was always responsible for our education. When we got to earth though, she was too weak and schooling us was too much for her. So we all attended schools.

So yeah, Skorix isn't that different from Earth. We have the same periodic table, I mean, ours just has more on it. Why? Well, Skorix is several thousand years older than Earth. So we're just more advanced. No, we didn't have flying cars. 

The sun is up now. I check my watch, I've got two miles so far. Only three to go.

I really don't remember all that much from my home planet. I remember our house. It was nestled amongst tall oak trees that Tori and I would always climb. We were the oldest, only two years between us, so Teague and Skylar would always try to climb them like us. They were twins, but one was definitely smarter than the other. Skylar knew when she was high enough. Teague, on the other hand, was bound and determined to get as high as me. That ended with him falling and breaking his arm. Mom was furious at Tori and I. After assessing that Teague would, in fact, not die, my dad just smirked. After all, Teague had learned his lesson.

I guess an important detail to mention is that, well, we have "super powers." My name is Kyle Benjamin Bryant and I shall be referred to as The Human Torch. Yeah, right. No, I sadly can't fly, but I can control/manipulate fire.

You see, though we appear perfectly human, our DNA is a little different. We're born with abilities. We're all a bit stronger than humans and we each have kind of a special ability that differs from person to person. Think of it like eye color or hair color, some people are alike and some aren't.

The sun is now getting warm. I look down at my watch. Mile 4. One more to go.

Running has become therapy for me. Occasionally I'll have the company of one my six siblings or one of the five Weston kids, but I prefer to be alone.

The Westons came to earth with us. When the The Syndicates Plan was put into motion groups of people from Skorix were scattered over the whole Earth. Our families are basically inseparable, so it was only right for us to be together. I know my mom appreciated them being near with my dad's passing and all.

I miss her like crazy. She played a huge part in getting all of us here and fighting my dad's killer, I guess it was her way to avenge her husband. It scarred her permanently. She only just died four years ago.

Henri and my dad, Ben, were best friends. They even grew up together. So after my dad died, Henri definitely became a father figure for all of us. I don't know what we would have done without him.

Reaching five miles, I walk the length of our gravel drive, picking up the newspaper as I go. Our house is set about a quarter of a mile back from the road. The house faces west, the north and south sides are mostly wooded. Around back we have a field, that I hate mowing.

"I was just going to get that." I look up to see Daniel, nodding toward the newspaper in my hand.

I throw it to him. "You're welcome. And by the way, my run was way better without your whining." I give him a cheeky grin, which he mocks, of course. We make our way to the side door into the laundry room. Kicking off my shoes I say, "I hope you at least made coffee." Walking into the kitchen is enough of an answer as the aroma of coffee greets me.

Daniel pours a cup and hands it to me. I take a long sip. "Bless you."

We hear footsteps coming down the stairs. More than one pair. "Jordan, you're an idiot...."

Lorelai. Daniel and I share glances. Oh here we go.

They're in the kitchen now. "Aerosmith cannot even be compared with Zeppelin. Zeppelin is legendary." You know it's bad when she she uses big hand motions. Lorelai has a thing for classic rock. I'd like to take credit for that.

"But you have to admit-"

"Jordan, I'd be careful which battles I choose brother." I pat his shoulder. "Besides, Zeppelin rules." This pleases Lore. She practically struts to the pantry. She may be the youngest, but she has the most sass. And well she just turned seventeen so...

Tori appears in the room. "Did I hear something about Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith?" She says, raising an eyebrow. Jordan grunts and leaves. "Ok then."

"Coffee?" Daniel asks.

"Don't have time." She hurriedly pours herself a cup of milk.

"Says the woman who can teleport."

"I like to try to be mostly normal and not magically appear and freak people out."

"Key words being try and mostly."

"Client called. Thinks her Pit got burned somehow." She says while glaring at him. She turns her attention back to her milk. "She's a nice lady. She sounded panicked, so I thought I'd do her a favor and come in early."

Lore has returned with bread and peanut butter. "Dean going?" She teases.

"Yeah, he's meeting me there." Dean O'Brien is Tori's long time boyfriend. They met at vet school, found jobs at a clinic near by, she as a Veterinarian and him as her tech. It kinda worked out perfectly. Yes, big brother approves.

"Well, I'm gone. I love all of you." She gathers her keys, phone and wallet from the counter. "And hey, it's Jordan's last day of high school. Someone should probably take his picture or something."

And I'm a sucky older brother. Jordan's last day of high school and I forgot. He's graduating like really soon. "Yeah. I'll get on that. Or, you know, ask Sky."

"Yeah. That's what I figured." She smiles and starts to leave. Stops. "I just think, you know, mom would have wanted us to."

"You're right. She would have." I give her a sad smile.

"Yeah. Well, I'll see you later." She says, shaking the nostalgia from her voice. 

"See ya." I look at my watch. It's almost 7:15am. Crap, I'm gonna be late. Showering at the hospital might be faster. Being a paramedic you still get the perks of the locker room and the gym at the hospital. "Sky!" I shout up the stairs as I climb them. She meets me at the landing. "It's Jordan's last day of school and Tori thinks we should take his picture and I'm late and-"

"Yes Kyle, I'll take care of it." She's always kinda had this mom aspect to her. She finishes tying the drawstring on her scrubs. "I'll probably see you later?"

"Ha. Hopefully not." Skylar's an RN and usually works the ER. With me being an EMT, (dude there are too many acronyms in this line of work) we usually run into each other.

"Right." She moves to descend the stairs, telekinetically carrying her bag. "Bye!"

"See ya, Sky." I turn down the hall and towards my room to get my duffel. Time to go to work.

-----------
A/N: Well, there's chapter one. I tried to edit it, but I always miss things, so apologies for typo's. Again thank you for checking out my story and I hope you enjoyed One!
~Emerald_Parrish ✌🏻️