Guild of the Guardians

Introductions Are In Order

Hi! Welcome to the Guild of the Guardians!...or at least the story of it. To be an actual member, you have to be special.
     Don't get me wrong, I'm sure you are special, but not our kind of special. Our guild is a group of seven teenagers specially chosen by the US government. We do jobs the FBI can't, or rather, jobs the FBI can do, but we can do better.
     We're a group of actors and performers who can lie better than anyone you know, and we have better fighting skills than you can imagine. That, combined with the fact that we live in a completely ordinary nowhere town makes us the perfect people, drumroll please... for protecting nobles and government officials who need it.
     Governors' daughters, sons of ambassadors, and people distantly in line for the throne of England have all passed through our house, with sufficient payment of course.
     What? You thought we did this for free? How would we eat?
     Yeah, that's another thing: None of our parents live anywhere near us, for precaution. But we'll get into backstories later in the story, I'm sure.
     So... That's it: A guild of seven teenager actors who work for the government protecting rich people.

Or at least, that's our cover.

Remember I said the Guardians were special?
Well, we're not exactly completely human either.

I'll let that sink in.

     That's right, some weird divine intervention or something chose us to be half-human-half-animal freaks. Oh, and we can also control the elements.
     Cliché, and it sounds like something from a kids' cartoon, I get it, but it's a thing, so let's just go with it. At least this kind of explains why we're so connected to the government. How long do you think little kids with ears, tails, wings, and superpowers could keep it from their parents? Yup. Our parents, for lack of a better term, told on us.
     This is a lot to explain, so I'll just organize it by person. Besides, I bet you've been dying to get to know us anyway. Here we go!
     Let's start with the oldest and first to go through this. Hi! My name's Anna. Pleasure. Anthropomorphus canis lupus, aka the grey wolf chick that controls electricity. The Alpha of our team, I'm overly confident and cocky with a passion for stringed instruments. I think I was seven when I started to, ahem, "get weird" so my parents brought me to the FBI. Thanks parents. After a while of observing me, they decided I would be a good tool to use in the future.  I was under observation until I was eleven. Locked up in DC, I was realllllly bored. Until-
     Christian. A year after I came to the capital, he joined me. A polar bear, anthropomorphus ursus maritimus, with the water element and the Beta of our forming pack. Born in New York City with a love for the stage, he was the one who got me into theatre and choir. Loud, crudely-humored, and extremely outgoing, he's my best friend, and at that time, my only friend.
     Gavin, from Miami, anthropomorphus panthera tigris, came to us next. The two of us were ten, Christian nine, at the time. Strong and athletic, along with a shared interest in drama and music, the tiger had mastery of earth and rock. He was funny, and I remember that being the reason I wanted to be his friend.
     A few months later, a tiny red-head called Kyra from Boston found her way into our pack. Anthropomorphus lynx canadensis, she was the opposite of the rest of us; quiet, timid, and a rule-follower to the core. She took her main interest in art, but still enjoyed acting Contradicting her personality, the lynx's element was fire: wild and uncontrollable. Now that we're older, she's gotten a bit more rogue, but I'm still working on her.
     Pause. Sorry, important plot event here. A year later we were all supposed to start fifth grade, and the government finally allowed us to attend public school, as we had gotten enough control over our abilities to rejoin society. None of us would tell our secret; they had threatened us with experimentation if anyone found out. We all went to my hometown, in the middle of Ohio, as it was the most isolated. We lived in my old house under the care of an FBI agent. Our parents had all been relocated to Cleveland.
     A year and a half of attending Great Oak School for the Arts, and we had another addition come to our house. Ian, a great-horned owl, anthropomorphus bubo virginianus, from Nashville was as shy as Kyra at first, but warmed up to us quickly. Not to mention, he was crazy smart. Sharing our love of acting and the arts, the metalworks-elemental fit right in.
     With my age turning to 13, we were deemed fit to live by ourselves and started to take on the government tasks we were assigned.
     Somewhere in the middle of seventh grade, coming all the way from LA, Mackenzie, or as I've come to call her, Macki, anthropomorphus sialia sialis, joined our family. Also shy, but a little more outgoing as you got to know her, she identifies more as a dancer than an actor, but she's not bad at lying. The bluebird that could control the wind became another good friend of mine. To this day we have the same nerdy interests.
     At this point, our lives were in full swing: mastering our powers, taking care of small crimes in the area, harboring foreign officials, homework, and performances.
     Just in time for school musical auditions, Jenna, from Seattle, became the last member of our guild, our pack, and our family. Anthropomorphus pteropus alecto, the black bat (or black flying fox) that controlled the darkness fit the role perfectly. The introvert who liked obscure fandoms quickly became our friend. A year younger than everyone else and two years younger than me, the otaku (or "weeb trash" as Christian called her) also had an interest in music and theatre.
     The year most of us were in eighth grade and Jenna was in seventh, we became very close; a family of friends, knit together by physical and emotional ties that couldn't be broken. Up until the end of our freshmen year (Jenna, a year behind in eighth), things were still the same.
But then they changed.