Future Mysticons

Shaylia, Kaddy & Kitty

Shaylia sighed as she checked Skypies for  the third time. It seemed wrong to see the place all closed down without any lights on. She didn't understand why Em and Kasey wouldn't send at least one person to work.

          The crowds didn't usually pick up until late at night; one person could easily handle it. Besides; they had a huge group out looking for Pyrite and he was somewhat likely to come there.

          She never had understood some people. Actually she'd never understood any people. Sure; when someone goes missing, you try to find them, but you still work and function and help keep the realm's economy going.

          "Lost in thought?" A voice startled her out of her reverie. She jumped in surprise as a figure materialized from the shadows.

          "Aunt Tazma? What are you doing here?" Shaylia asked, relaxing as she recognized her companion.

          "I came to see if I could be of assistance." Tazma replied.

          "Really?" Unlike everyone else in the realm, Shaylia didn't particularly distrust her aunt. But at the same time, helping to find the lost son of one of her former enemies didn't really sound like her. Then again; looking for lost kids didn't really sound like Shaylia, either.

          "What? Can't a reformed shadow mage be helpful without being accused of having ulterior motives?"

          "No." Shaylia honestly replied.

          "I always did appreciate the way you were never afraid to speak your mind." Tazma remarked.

          "Why are you here?" Shaylia questioned.

          "I already told you..." Tazma began, but Shaylia cut her off.

          "No, I meant, why are you here?" Tazma gave her a strange look that Shaylia didn't understand.

          "Because this is where my little brother's daughter is." Tazma replied in an uncharacteristically gentle voice. It was then, that Shaylia realized that the look on Tazma's face, was one of respect.

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           Kaddy made her way down the street, snacking on some snorg balls. She figured that the Undercity was just as good a place as any to look. However, so far she'd spoken with all of her contacts and she was no closer to finding Pyrite than when she'd first begun the search.

           "Kaddy?" A trembling voice called out. She whirled as she recognized the voice.

           "Pyrite?" She asked, astounded as the small boy crawled out from behind a dumpster.

           "Don't let them take me." He whispered as he clung to her.

           "Don't you start playing the pronoun game on me." Kaddy sternly rebuked him, hands on her hips. Well, as close to her hips as she could get, with her cousin's arms wrapped tightly around her waist.

          "But I don't know who they are." Pyrite politely replied. "Do you know who they are?" He asked, looking up at her with a quizzical expression. She mentally slapped herself for thinking he looked adorable.

          "Maybe." Kaddy sighed. Gently pushing him away she looked down at him. "Can you describe them?"

          "No... I didn't get a good look at them." Pyrite said.

          "Well... what do you know about them?" Kaddy tried a different approach.

          "I woke up last night and something was coming in through my window. So I screamed and Copper came and took me away."

          "Why didn't he say anything?" Kaddy asked herself.

          "I don't know." Pyrite said. "He just took me to the Snorg Shack and told me to lay low while you guys sorted this all out. He seemed scared; like he knew what was going on."

          "Strange." The hairs on the back of Kaddy's neck started tingling. "Looks like we'll be able to ask him ourselves soon." Sure enough; a split second later, Copper raced into the alleyway.

          "That was close." He wheezed, doubled over, not having noticed them yet. He looked up and saw Kaddy. "Oh... Cousin... hi." He stammered with an uncertain smile. Kaddy folded her arms.

          "You've got some explaining to do." She stated, flatly.

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          Kitty opened her eyes to absolute darkness. She would have thought that she'd gone blind if not for the fact that she could see herself quite clearly. She was merely drifting, in an endless black void.

          "Hello?" She tried. The void seemed to swallow up her voice, making it disappear almost before it reached her ears. There was no one else around to hear it anyway. She sighed, turning around, trying  to see if there was anything different anywhere.

          Nope; still nothing. She started considering her next move. It was difficult, considering she didn't have the slightest clue what was going on. She was quickly beginning to think that there was no way to leave.

A/N Sorry for the long delay; life during summer vacation somehow managed to be way crazier than life during the schoolyear. Anyways; I'm back now! I'll be (hopefully) updating two chapters every weekend again. If I don't for some reason, I'll post about it on my page.

I forgot to mention Tazma in the first chapter. In this story she escaped her snow globe and got back to normal size around the time that Malvaron died. Once he had, she and Arkayna had a moment alone where Tazma admitted that she had loved her brother and Arkayna let her escape. She's been laying low in the shadows ever since and people gave up their half-hearted search for her a while back.