The A Team

Chapter Three

"Then your back leg is positioned like this" Iskall demonstrated.
Mumbo studied his own feet before slowly moving them into the correct position.
"Like this?"
"Exactly!" Iskall said handing him a sword. "Then your arm is - yeah perfect! That is the ready stance for sword fighting"
"Wait I need to add something!"
Stress stood up from the grass where she had been sitting. She stood on her tiptoes and placed a daisy chain on Mumbo's head. She took a step back.
"There. Now you look beautiful!"
Iskall laughed. It was a loud high pitched laugh and it was utterly infectious. Before long Mumbo and Stress were also roaring.
False opened the door, axe in hand. She looked around wildly before seeing them sprawled on the grass laughing.
"I thought you were under attack!" She yelled.
"Sorry Falsey" Iskall called wiping a tear from his eye.
"We are under attack" Stress said. "Look out! Mumbo the flower king is coming"
Mumbo straightened his crown and struck a formidable pose.
False rolled her eyes, but smiled despite herself. The door was pushed open a little more and Xisuma stuck his head out.
"They aren't here yet?"
"No we haven't seen them" Mumbo said looking into the the thicket of trees surrounding the bunker.
X made some grumbling sounds and closed the door.
"He's a little high strung" Iskall said, re-holstering his sword, which Mumbo had dropped.
"Not usually" Stress replied, brushing the grass off of her clothes. "He's just worried about the half-breeds. They should have been here like an hour ago"
"They're probably fine" Iskall said, lying back and resting his head on his arms. "Half-breeds are kind of childish. I'm sure they just got distracted"
"You've met a mutant before?" Mumbo asked.
Iskall paused.
"Well no... but from what I've heard they tend to be kind of immature"
"I don't blame them" Stress said. "They are kept inside so much of their lives, they probably just want to let out some steam when they get to leave their compounds"
Mumbo furrowed his brow.
"Why are they kept inside?"
"Because they have to be kept hidden" she explained. "The Corporation wants to capture all of them. They've gotten at least half by now, and pretty much all of the rare ones at this point"
"How do you know so much about this?" Iskall asked.
Stress hesitated.
"Well... after the Corporation captures one and finish their experiments, they kind of just... dump the bodies around the forest. Part of my job when I was in training was to examine the bodies to see what they had died from. That's where X and I met"
They sat in silence for a minute.
"What did they die from?" Mumbo asked quietly.
"It was always different" Stress said looking down at her hands. "Different people can handle different amounts of torture and-"
"Torture?!" Iskall interrupted sitting up suddenly. "You said experiments!"
"Well technically they were experiments" Stress said. "They take blood, spinal fluid, skin samples, bone marrow, you know - basic medical samples, but they don't use any anesthesia so it's basically... torture"
"That's awful" Mumbo whispered.
There was another moment of silence.
"Well our mutants won't have to worry about that" Iskall said confidently, breaking the tension. "Because we-" he gestured to Mumbo, Stress, and then to the bunker "-are going to protect them"
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As the sun dipped lower in the sky, Xisuma became more and more stressed. He Doc and False had joined the others outside and X had taken to pacing back and forth in front of the bunker, looking at his watch, then at the descending  sun, then back at his watch.
"Xisuma calm down" Doc said. "They'll be here"
"They better be!" X said checking his watch again. "My first day on the job and our half-breeds are gone!"
"False and I can go look around the forest for a bit" Iskall suggested gently.
Xisuma nodded vigorously.
"Yes. Please do that"
"Wait" Mumbo said straightening up and squinting at the trees. "I don't think that will be necessary"
The group fell silent. For a moment there was nothing, then,
"I am totally going to win"
"Only cause I let you!"
"Liar!"
The voices got louder and louder until finally the trees in the distance rustled and two people, laughing loudly and pushing each other in an attempt to get ahead, burst through the trees.
"Oh thank god" Xisuma mutter under his breath.
"Are those... is that" Iskall squinted into the growing darkness. "Is that an avian?"
That got everyone's attention.
Mumbo blinked. One of them was clearly on all fours. He had pointy ears and Mumbo swore he could see a tail poking out from behind his back. As they came closer it was clear that Iskall had been right. The other one was gliding above the ground, beautiful gold feathered wings outstretched.
The two laughing hybrids came to a stop in front of the group panting, laughing, and arguing.
"That was so me"
"You're just a sore loser"
"That's beside the point!"
Feeling eyes on his back, Grian stopped suddenly and turned to the staring crowd of people.
"Um hi" he said waving his hand slightly. He was glad he hadn't landed yet, and was still floating a foot above the ground.
Ren straightened up and stuck out his hand to Xisuma.
"Hi! My name is Ren"
X blinked and tore his eyes away from the blond boy's wings.
"It's nice to meet you Ren" he said giving the wolf human a weak handshake. "My name is Xisuma. I'm uh... the leader"
"Oh! Then it's you we owe an apology" Ren said with a guilty smile. "We didn't mean to be late. There was... an incident this morning" he gave Grian a sideways glance "and it set us back a couple hours until we could... clean up the situation"
Grian snorted and Ren shoved him.
"Are these real?"
Iskall had walked around Grian and was studying his feathers closely.
Grian sighed and forced a polite smile on his face.
"Yes they are real. My name is Grian"
"It's so nice to meet you!" Stress said bouncing towards him.
Grian landed and was happy to see that he was a bit taller than her. He stuck out his hand, but the girl threw her arms around him nearly knocking him off his feet.
Grian had only ever been hugged by Ren before, and it took a minute for him to realize what was happening and reciprocate.
"My goodness" she exclaimed. "You're so skinny it's like hugging a baby bird"
Grian reddened, but smiled, not wanting to upset her.

As everyone broke out into conversation and began to move inside, Grian began to relax. The others were kind, if perhaps rather nosy, and he quickly struck up a conversation with Stress and Iskall, while Ren introduced himself to everyone else.
"So what's the deal with this place?" Grian asked looking around the bunker. The tall stone walls glowed with candles and illuminated the beautiful paintings. It was comfortable and warm.
"It's nice right?" Iskall said spreading out on one of the many couches. "Plus there are more rooms underground! I can't believe we get to live here"
"Well it was built just for us" Stress chirped. "I didn't know why they were giving us such special treatment until..." she paused and glanced at Grian. "Anyways we're very lucky"
Grian felt a tap on his shoulder.
"Excuse me. I, uh, don't believe we met yet"
A tall thin man with dark hair stood above him. Grian quickly stood up and spread his wings slightly to try and appear a bit bigger. The perpetually nervous man held out his hand, which was stained with red stone.
"I'm Mumbo"
Grian smiled and shook his hand.
"Grian. I like your daisy chain"
Mumbo felt his face grow hot as his hand flew to his hair. He had forgotten about it. Stress and Iskall snickered from behind Grian's back.
"I... uh"
"Don't worry" Grian said gesturing for Mumbo to join the small group. "I like it"

Thank you for reading chapter three! As always, please leave feedback if you can and leave a like if you enjoyed it! Chapter four will go up soon.