When Worlds Collide

Prologue

The morning sun shone down on Daventry, disguising its usual run-down appearance which earned it the nickname of "Chaventry". It was a medium-sized town on the north-western border of the county of Northamptonshire. There were two main secondary schools there, one on the north end, the other in the south-east. Kyrie angled his wings further as he followed the path of a bright yellow school bus. It was an old one, a double decker from what he could make out, and rather loud. He could just about hear its engine above the wind rushing past his ears. The bus pulled off of a roundabout and trundled up a hill along the edge of Southbrook and eventually turned left at a little corner shop and parked next to a tree.

Behind the tree was a wide but short alleyway, almost like a long driveway except there were two yellow bollards guarding from vehicles much larger than a motorcycle. Straight ahead was the back gate to the south-easterly secondary school, barred by a black iron fence with a matching gate left ajar but soon pushed wide open by school children arriving from left, right and centre. Quite literally, in fact as the alleyway from the buses joined another that ran all the way around the school.

The estate was a maze of foreboding streets and smelly alleys, it was the place that put the Chaventry in Daventry. Despite all this, the school was a safe haven. Bullying was a minimum and GCSE grades were almost at their maximum - the school was climbing still despite its already flawless reputation.

Kyrie alighted softly atop a nearby house to watch the people scurrying by below him. Laying flat on the roof he spread out his wings so that anyone below couldn't see them. He'd been an outcast all his life, but the wings weren't natural. They were made of natural things; bones, muscle, scales and skin, but he wasn't born with them. They were courtesy of Genekinesis' laboratories - the home of messed up genetics and mutations. The name itself is supposed to mean "moving DNA forward" or something like that but it really didn't work right.

Most of their "experiments" were dilapidated reptile-bird creatures with four eyes and a drooling issue, but Kyrie was different. He and his friend Cotastros were both human once but were kidnapped one evening while walking home from another friend's house and taken to Genekinesis. The result of their journey was a little mutilation and a lot of mutation. Him and Cotastros now each sported a pair of membranous wings which were more on the draconian side, with a scaly tail to match. Kyrie was fifteen, with midnight hair and azure eyes. His wings were coated in sparkling scales the colour of a summer sky and the membrane between was more like that of a frosty morning.

Glancing up, Kyrie spotted a flash of red land on the school itself. That'd be Cotastros - his scales were a fiery crimson. They were here on a mission; to find the two teens with the right DNA pattern for their latest experiment. Genekinesis was in direct competition with another company - called Gene Solutions. Both companies not only wanted to be top of the market, but right at the top. Destroying-the-world-with-mutant-creatures-that-kill-on-sight sort of top. But both Kyrie, Cotastros and all of the other intelligent life forms from various experiments weren't told this. Not the sane ones, anyway. Kyrie stood up, crouched, and leapt into the air, his powerful wings scooping at the sky like paddles to water. He soon rose above the hall and the PE block and gained enough altitude to circle above the four-storey main building.

Cotastros looked up, saw him and beckoned him down. His hair was a dark blonde and he had soft blue eyes. He dug in his pocket and pulled out an iPod Touch, unlocked it and brought up IDs regarding the two teens they were supposed to capture. Their photos were their school photos. One was a fourteen year old girl, nearly fifteen with brown wavy hair slightly on the blonde side that reached her shoulders, glasses and hazel eyes with a hint of green. The other was a boy of a similar age with hair of the same colour but straight and a lot shorter. His fringe hovered above his brow, under which nestled startlingly pale blue eyes. Their names? Emily Crystil and Jordyn Coragg.