The Cities Have Fallen

Things Better Left Hidden

"Nice of you two to drop in. You're the Newbies, right?"

Gale and I nod.

"Indy and Fyera have taken a shine to you. Indy loves everyone, but Fyera? Well, I'm impressed. She and I have been friends a long time. She ran away from home with me when we were both little." Flare says. She looks a lot like a female Torch, a more lithe version of him, complete with muscle and more orange tinted fur. Her narrow eyes and tall posture make her look almost more intimidating.

"Why?" Gale asks.

"If you're here about what I think you're here for, you'll know in a matter of minutes."

"We might be. What's a Forhaga?" Gale puts the same emphasis on the word as Twitch did.

Flare closes her eyes, like she's too disgusted to go on with the conversation. "Twitch told you."

"He mentioned it." I say.

"Twitch is an idiot, and if he thinks he can call her that, he can jab his puny little mouth in a volcano so we can burn it off. He has no right to call her that. None at all."

"But what is it?" I plead, curiosity now taking over.

"Fyera's grandparents... well, two were more modern Sentients who believed in love before species. The other two were willing to break laws, but had no radical predisposition. What the point is is that two were Felids, two were Canira. On both sides, she was mixed breed. Her parents had suffered their whole lives, bullied and almost forced to suicide. They were considered dangerous, but luckily, half breeds by natural causes rather than the Plague are more stable. They spent their whole lives concealing it, found each other, and raised their one litter, six children, to keep their origins quiet. Out of their six, three were pure Canira, one was pure Felis, one was unstable and killed himself in a fit of energy, and the last one was Fyera. She was Forhaga. Forhagas are... see, instead of getting both powers, she got neither. Her powers are very weak and basic, limited to regrowing projectiles and slightly enhanced battle abilities. She spent her whole life training so it looked like she was like the rest of us.

She told very few of us, but then Twitch heard it, and he's been using it as leverage ever since. They hate each other a lot."

"With good reason!" I object.

"So what's the Mercy Pact?" Gale asks, edging us both away from the conversation.

"Twitch is a jerk. We have a pact between almost everyone, if we see him in the Arena we take him out before fighting each other."

"Why do you all hate him? Besides the obvious." I ask, hoping to get more than the simple, 'he's a jerk' response.

"He's an idiot." Flare responds, "Minx feels sorry for him, but that's really her problem. I can't take him."

"That's all you're going to give us, isn't it?"

"Piece it together yourself. You guys are smart." She says, flicking her tail. "Anyhow, someone wants to see you. He's at the door."

The door slides away and Indy walks in. "Hi Rena, hi Gale! I was looking for you guys. I thought I'd just warn you ahead of time, Torch has picked up surveillance of a whole bunch of renegades just hanging around over near, uh, what's that place? Right, the Sweetbone Station. Anyways, they seem dangerous and at least half of them are so far into the Plague you can see what mutation they have and it's at least a Call 3. In fact, the alarms should be going off right... now."

Alarms blare overhead and I hear high pitched screeching that threatens to permanently deafen me. Looking up with bristling fur, I leave the room, getting back in the elevator with Gale, Flare and Indy right behind.