Lyeth Appears

She alighted in the back streets, little-known places the locals kept quiet and the vagrants frequented when the missions were full or the soup kitchens closed. Seedy, filthy alleyways far from her point of origin. Tears still stained her face, dark hair wind blown but face warm and somehow, no one noticed her landing, the trailer of white flames flickering out quickly. Perhaps she was fortunate light still caught in the sky though it was dimming, or maybe the various men and women gathered about fires smoking from their metal barrels were too busy, for whatever reason, to pay attention.

In an exhausted daze she wandered among them, ignoring dirty glances and lewd comments or enquiries as to whether she could spare any change. She simply didn't hear them, most likely not knowing even where she walked. Emotionally and physically spent, she staggered, stumbling over bits of wood and cardboard and her own feet. Several muttered she was obviously on drugs; a few thought she might be an east target for a mugging. One man in particular decided she was a prime candidate for a light of his cigarette butt, a tromped-over, squashed bit of filter with a few strands of tobacco that somehow clinged yet to the yellowed paper in which it had been originally rolled. Reeking of orange Maddog 20/20 and even cheaper beer, he swaggered his way towards her general direction.

"Hey, doll... Gotta light?" His personal odor was an offensive stench and when she didn't respond to it or his question, he reached out and managed to make uncoordinated contact with her shoulder. "Hey! Gotta light?" he slurred

The girl, no older than sixteen, paused in her tracks, turning towards him. Owlishly, she blinked at him, uncomprehending. He seemed to wait patiently, understanding it could be difficult, and was rewarded by the dim glow of awareness as it passed through her eyes. She focused on the shabbily dressed man's face, finally nodding. "Yeah," she murmured. "Yeah." Raising her arm, she did something very foolish, very dangerous and totally unthinking. Placing her forefinger to the end of his cigarette butt, she ignited her gift. A thread of ivory flame sprouted from her fingertip, catching the arsenic-treated paper afire. As soon as the action was completed, she lowered her hand and shuffled away. To be fair, what she'd done was quite the accomplishment, seeing as how utterly spent she felt.

Despite his alcohol-induced haze, the man's beady eyed widened greatly, stunned for the moment. Sobering rapidly, he whirled to watch her leave, a shakey finger followed her path, sent all attention riveting to her t-shirt clad back as his stuttered words branded her, marked her for the rest gathered. "...One of them. She's one of \them!\"

Cryptic, perhaps, to any aside from the crowd, but as his voice caught the meaning sank in all too clearly. It was only a moment later when bodies rushed after her the distraught young lady to the cries of "Get her!" Somehow, she heard this, hazel orbs full of fear when she turned her head to view the undesirable throng closing in.

"Oh, no..." Was all she managed before her survival instincts took over and, tired as she was, she still managed to break into a full run, dashing down alleys, around corners, through the maze of back streets. She was severely out-numbered though, and handicapped in that she didn't know the passageways as well, indeed at /all,/ as those chasing her. Five minutes later found the girl at a dead end, no where to go, stymied. Her back pressed against an old brick wall, she faced her attackers, full of adreneline, soaked in sweat and unable to catch her breath. They were still a bit away, but closing swiftly; she could hear their shouts, questions asked, directions given, guesses made... the tromp of their poorly covered feet. Hemmed in, brick wall also immediately to the right and left, alleyway narrow, she panted, wept and waited.

It was a strange thrumming sound that caught her attention two seconds later, on her right, and as she peered closer to the wall she noticed it vibrating. Black brows furrowed into a confused and terrified frown, but she had no time to conjecture before the wall opened up, the rock parting and two hands reached out to grab her. One covered her mouth to stifle any screams, the other latching onto her arm, yanking at her. The hole continued to grow through it all until it was big enough to allow her small frame to fit through, and she was pulled forcibly inside, behind the bricks which sealed themselves over scant moments before the desperate mob turned the corner and found nothing.

Behind the wall, utter darkness met her, though she heard the fading cries of those chasing as they chose a new direction to pursue. Terrified, exhausted and confused, the young woman didn't know what to do or to expect. Were her saviours even here anymore? Perhaps it was a lifetime of good breeding which prompted her words there in the pitch blackness, offered in short, gasping breaths. She was too tired anymore to ignite even the smallest flame or perhaps it was simple desperation, grasping to fill that dreadful unlit silence. "Tha-- thank you for saving my life..."

Out of the inky darkness before her whispers krept in response, so low as to make the speaker inidentifiable in sex. "What makes you think--" Another voice, she thought but wasn't sure, completed the sentence. "/We/ won't kill you?"

Her eyes widened to immense proportions, almost comically if they could be seen, and she stumbled backwards, back into that dead end, mirrored outside, where she'd been trapped. She managed some kind of gasp or small noise, words lost to her now, throat choked off as tissues restricted. It was becoming too much.

Odd sounds forced her to pause, strange for here and now, somehow wrong or wonderfully right. The obvious titter of laughter, giggling, a snort, and the abrupt flicker of a lit zippo. Now the panicked girl could see her rescuers, both of them. Standing about five feet before her position were two broadly grinning young people. On her left, a dusky-skinned woman, halfcaste, with odd violet eyes and dark auburn hair. She appeared to be in her early twenties. Shoulder to shoulder with that one, huddled close to the flame just barely illuminated either of them smiled a young man barely sixteen. His long strawberry-blonde hair kept off his face by a bandana, his rock-brown eyes warm. "Just kidding!" beamed the swarthy female.

"Dude, you should see the look on your face..!" laughed the boy.

Hazel eyes flashed in the low light, the saved girl indignant, despite it all. "That wasn't funny."

"Get some humor, jeez," he muttered back. Then he turned to face the darkness ahead, unconcerned by the lack of light and started off.

The mulatto woman gave an apologetic smile, the shadows accentuating the actions of her facial muscles. "Sorry about that. But you know, if you don't laugh you cry. C'mon." Then she, too, spun to leave.

Panic now assuaging, subsumed by some other emotion she couldn't identify, the girl hesitated only a moment before dashing to follow that fading flame. "...Wait..!"

A few seconds into the march, she followed blindly because there was no other choice, she blurted a question into the thick shadows. "Who are you?"

The two she'd followed hadn't been the most courteous, neglecting to introduce themselves in favor of playing possession games, like who was going to hold the brass lighter. They'd tugged at it many times, the female trying to keep hold, the male vying for ownership. More than once the flame died in the rushes of motion, or a tiny, muted yelp had escaped either's lips as flesh hit fire. It was a game only friends played, those little things companions did to antagonize one another just to be annoying and help pass the time. "Huh?" The dark lady paused to glance back at the girl, not having heard the question. At that moment, the young man knocked the lighter from her hands. The flame snuffed, the place was enveloped in black. From it snaked a feminine voice. "Heath, you idiot!"

"Hang on, I'll find it... it's here somewhere, couldn't have gone far..." A petulant sigh of exasperation as the older woman waited. The brown-haired girl froze in the darkness, could hear the clink of of the lighter against the floor (what there was of it, mostly compact earth and pebbles) as the young man kicked it around a few times in his search. "Dammit! Where the hell..?"

She could picture the other woman standing with arms folded, rolling her eyes. "You should have waited while I'd grabbed the flashlight, but oooh no..."

"We didn't have time!" He snarled, sound muffled, like he was bent over, crouched to cast about with fingers rather than feet.

That sigh again. "Men! Anyway..." Her voice becomes more direct, the other girl notes, as she'd turned to face her. "I'm Jakorri or Jakki. Whichever. The /idiot/ is Heath."

Some grumbling in the dark from a youthful tenor, and the saved teenager pipes up in a clear alto. "I'm Lyeth. Um, thanks again for saving my life and all that..."

"Oh, no problemo," Heath muttered and Lyeth heard the sound of flesh brushing over gravel. "We're getting damn good at it. Should start charging a fee."

"Lyeth, eh?" Jakki smiled in the blackness. "Sounds Shakespearean. "And thy lips shall lyeth not..." Or something."

"Or Biblical. Thou shalt not lyeth with the beasts of the field. Eleventh commandment." Heath curled his fingers around something flat, square and metal. With a small crow of triumph, he announced, "Stop your grinning and drop your linen. Found it."

It was Lyeth's turn to sigh. "Yes, yes, I've heard them all, trust me. I don't know where my parents came up with the name..." She trailed off, pained. The zippo flickered back to life.

"Onward and upward my friends!" Heath called quietly, leading the way by the faint light.

Lyeth tried again. "Sorry. If I wasn't so tired, I could have..."

Jakorri cut in. "S'okay. We all have our limits, 'specially in the beginning. You'll get stronger the more you practice."

"You um, you know a lot about this... stuff, Jakki?"

Before Jakorri could answer, Heath carelessly tossed his own opinion out. "Yeah, man! She's our den mother!"

"Our..?" Lyeth's voice held some strain in it.

"Yes," Jakorri sighed and smiled back at Lyeth. "It's not just us down here. You'll see in a moment. But needless to say we've all dealt with this before. Heath was the first I ever found. After him was Leanne, then Kevin, Chris... and well, it goes on. Too many for my little apartment, so we moved down here and kept finding more. You're number twenty-three. Over the past few years, though trial and error mostly, we've learned a few things. We'll try and help you if you like."

Lyeth wasn't exactly sure what of what Jakkori spoke, her expression echoing her confusion. "Help..? I don't--"

"You kinda caught us at a bad time, actually," This came from Heath. "We're in the middle of packing, and thanks to you we'll really have to rush now."

"Heath," a violet glare, admonishing, and Jakorri levels her voice, pitched more pleasantly for their guest. "You see, what happened there wasn't an accident or a... random event. It--" She broke off as Heath paused before what seemed like a solid wall. Lyeth let out a small, dispairing noise... another dead end... then gasped as the young man found some kind of switch, perhaps, and the wall slid to the side. A splash of brightness and the flurry of activity greeted them, spilled over from the chamber which lay beyond. Voices, too, a low murmuring from the occupants inside, many voices. The click of the zippo as Heath shut the casing, the flame, now eclipsed anyway, dying out even as the boy slipped in, as does Jakorri, glancing back at Lyeth in invitation. She ignores the hazel-eyed girl's wide-eyed shock. "It's been a problem for us for awhile now. There's a ...certain interest group which pays those vagrants for information, in case they ever see soemthing really out of the ordinary, like tonight. Lots of 'em are junkies or always drunk so no one believes what they see. No one but them. They wanted to turn you over for money, selling you. Luckily, we got to you first." she trailed off as she scanned the room over, watching activity a moment. "Heath, give Steph a hand, will you?"

Lyeth peered over to where Jakorri looks. A young blonde girl, Lyeth's age, tried to pull a large trunk from the corner. "No gifts." Jakorri stated it firmly. Lyeth blinked as Heath headed over the girl to help her. The dusky-skinned young woman flicked her eyes back to the paler one. "Sometimes, they can trace us that way, we figured out. We took a big risk helping you, 'cause we're not sure they actually have us pinpointed yet."

"I'm sorry, but you have me totally confused..." Lyeth admitted quietly, hazel eyes taking in the scene before her, trying to process it all.

Jakorri nodded, understanding and took in a deep breath, trying to formulate words more carefully."Every one of us here has some kind of gift, a... power, I guess you could call it. I prefer the word talent, personally. Some of us have more than one," she paused a moment and Lyeth took the time to visually scan the place. It was underground, she realized, a slight grade downward in her path to here, one she barely noticed. Almost a cavern hewn, or shaped, from the earth outside the derelict buildings, it was vast, spanning, with many rooms the doors of which were a sheet or a curtain. There were chairs and some second-hand furniture, pieces of carpet remnants about. Nothing fancy, and almost like a low-grade youth hostel all on one floor. For the number of young adults present, it was obvious many shared rooms. Most of the possessions the youths harbored were being left behind, Lyeth noticed. Each one packing only a single bag or small suitcase. Her glance flitted over to Heath and Steph, where the two were judiciously sifting through the trunk, Steph nodding or shaking her head when Heath held up an item for inspection. The nods went into one pile, the shakes into another and Steph busied herself carefully placing what she was taking into a backpack. All around her this happened, some pausing in their efforts to offer the newcomer a curious, cursory glance, but most were too engrossed in their tasks to notice. Despite the activity in the place, it was very quiet. Jakorri went on.

"This isn't the best time to try and explain this, but... I can see you need to know," She was watching Lyeth intently, almost as if reading her, voice soft. "Stephanie, who Heath is helping, is what's called a precognative. She's allowed us to keep one step ahead of our... hunters. Bonnie over there, see the twins? She's the one with shorter hair. she can manipulate the electromagnetic field. Her sister, Erica, is a pyrokinetic, sort of, who channels solar energy." Lyeth looked over to see two red heads, identical twins, sorting through personal items. "Tayla, one of our youngest, can channel ambient cosmic energies. Chris plays on probibility fields, his talent choosing the least... lucky... option. Talysen can weave with water, Leanne is our healer, and little Stevie is our agriculturist," A fond smile on a very young black boy busy in the corner. "He controls the growth of plants." Jakki again fixes her probing violet gaze on Lyeth. "You're a pyrokinetic. Heath shapes rock. Kevin stores solar energy and converts it into electricity. We all have something."

Lyeth shakes her head once, then again, vigorously. "I'm sorry, this is all too... fantastic. I mean, I'm supposed to believe this crap? It sounds like you pulled it off a bad episode of Star Trek or Misfits of Science. You're spouting garbage." She paused, then blinked. "Sorry. I mean--"

Jakorri laughed lightly. "Imagine how we felt and still feel about it all. But yes, I'd expect you to believe a little more readily than others since you flew here on white flames," a pointed look. Lyeth frowns.

"How do you know all this? How do you know what I--?"

"My gift. I see things, auras, and they tell me a lot. A lot more than you'd imagine." I know why you're here, her look says. I know what happened. She didn't speak it aloud, but Lyeth sensed the unspoken knowledge, glancing away. Jakorri smiled.

"It isn't easy, none of it is. Or ever will be, I suspect. We've come to learn our hunters call themselves Guardians or Guards. Of what, we don't know yet. But on occasion, we've been spotted and chased. We have to run, and they'll call us... strange things. Names. I don't think they know our actual names so they have to make ones up for us, for their files, I guess, because they do gather and keep information on us individually. I've heard them refer to Bonnie as Corona, Erica as Flare, Kevin as Livewire, Steph as Tarot, Tayla as Starchilde, myself as Aura and so on." She frowns a moment. "They call Heath Mica, though he can't shape anything crystaline. Anyway, most of us have these... filenames. The guards have them, too, and they have different groups or squads for different uses. Trackers, Hunters, scientists, and the like. Our filenames have remained constant, they refer to us as the same everytime, and they cater to our talents individually. The more they learn, the harder it is to avoid them. We don't know everything yet, or even close to it; what we discover is piecemeal, either by listening or my auras catching something, or Steph sees a vision. But we're gathering intelligence even as they are."

"So... you're leaving here because they found you? Because of me?"

"Yes and no and yes. They're getting far too close for us to stay. Your appearance tonight helped pinpoint us all the more, but we were going to leave anyway. We're moving to Washington. Wanna come?"

Lyeth chuckles, thinking the last was a joke, but she quiets when Jakorri's serious gaze proves otherwise. She minces a moment, then asks," Why D.C.?

"Not D.C. State. All the way on the other side, near Idaho. Spokane, to be exact."

"There's a Washington State?" Incredulous. Lyeth's never heard of it before. Idaho, yes, potatoes and all, but--\

Jakki grins. "I get that all the time. I figure it's pretty darn far from Chicago and this area, so maybe we'll be safer from these clowns who call us unnaturals as a general category term. I don't like being called unnatural, thank you very much. It's de--" She was cut off by the nervous murmuring of her name.

"Jakorri..." Stephanie had paused, looking at her "Den Mother' with wide blue eyes, all at once frightened and alarmed. Without a word, Jakorri glanced from the girl to Heath in narrow-eyed question. His expression one of searching, eyes unfocused, elsewhere. Shortly, he nodded.

"Exit 5. They're here," he confirmed. Lyeth cast her gaze about. Everyone had stopped, staring now at the dusky-skinned leader, waiting anxiously for her command. With preternatural calm Lyeth could scarcely believe, the woman gave the orders.

"You know what to do. Just as we've planned it. Go with what you have ready, leave all else behind. Make sure you have your money and your tickets, take the routes I gave you. Meet at the rendez-vous point. Be quiet and be careful. Go now."

Everything else was abandoned as the kids complied, scared and anxious. Obviously, it's a situation and contingency well-prepared for and practiced. In groups of two or three they filed out, each group in a separate direction, vanishing into hidden places and egresses. Jakki motions to Heath and another young man who stayed behind, waiting. "Kevin, Heath, you know what to do. Seal the exits, distract the hunters and cover our tails. Don't get captured or killed or I'll be very upset with you, is that clear?"

Kevin, a tall youth with very long, pinstraight blonde hair and wide brown eyes, apparently into heavy metal by his clothing choice, grinned and saluted. "Yes ma'am."

Heath nodded, looking a bit more subdued. "As vodka. Got it."

Jakorri bent over to heft a black sack across her shoulder, a large carry-on bag, and gazed solidly at the boys a moment. "Be careful, fellas. We'll wait as long as we can, but the plane leaves when it leaves. Please be on it," Then she turns to Lyeth. "Coming?"

It was all happening so fast... and now she was forced to make a split-second decision to leave her home or risk capture, maybe worse. If this was a nightmare, she'd really appreciate waking up. Weighing the options, she hesitates only a second more --- move to upstate New York and live with cousin or grandmother, or-- "Coming." She has a hard time accepting her choice even as she speaks. Jakorri nods and smiles.

"A wise move. Let's go," she starts off and Lyeth follows with trepidation, no material possessions and no money. She'd learn later that Jakorri had quite a bit of capitol, in several accounts, some Swiss, and fully intends on supporting them all for some time. Thank you, Al Capone, Jakorri will say, And thank God we got to his vault before Geraldo. Though Xaara shouldn't have left her 7-Up bottle behind, the only thing Geraldo unearthed before millions of viewers.

Heath swiftly moved to a rock wall, scant seconds after Jakorri and Lyeth exit the cavern. Hollowed out under half a block of abandoned, burnt-out crack houses, even the police avoided this neighborhood. It was good in which to hide but horrible in which to raise kids. His hands lay palm-flat to the smooth, shaped surface and his gifts are engaged... power flows out, sealing all the hidden exits the youths employed to escape. "Oops. Shoulda checked to see if anyone was using 'em first, I guess..." He twisted to find Kevin's location and spots his best friend near the last point of escape, the trap door cut into the ceiling which led into the buildings above them. Kevin paused to look back."C'mon, man. We don't have much time."

Heath gestured at the wooden ladders leading to the door. "Well, get going then."\

"Could be awfully dangerous," Kevin narrowed his eyes upward, judging. "You go first."

Heath sighed and grumbled softly as he ascended the rungs, Kevin directly behind. Stopping, the rock shaper pressed fingertips to the ceiling when he was close enough, searching for vibrations. "I think it's safe," then he pushed the noiseless door upward, carefully, gaze cast about. Clear. He finished his climb, crawling from the entrance.

"Dude man, don't fart, okay?" Kevin whispered it, nose too close to Heath's rear as he followed suit, climbing the ladder.

"Shut up!" the elemental hissed. "They're close. Like in the next room."

Silence after that, the door left open and the two young men stealthily slid through the room, following the low voices they can now hear beyond. Positioning themselves behind walls on either side of an open doorway, Kevin to the left and Heath to the right, they took a short time to assess the situation. Six men in the room, what used to be a kitchen of sorts before something caught fire and gutted the apartment. It is only because the two youths knew the building the so well that they made no noise. The six hunters were stepping on creaking boards and stumbling over loose junk in the darkness that pervaded, sun down and no light.

"Go to night vision," one barked harshly, whispered. A whir in the dark as the visors altered their perceptions. These Hunters weren't equipped with much, not like they would be later, given a year or so. They wore mostly riot gear, no shields, helmets with visors that had some neat features, a tazer at their hips, and a shotgun. Low-tech, meant to apprehend, mostly. These were children they hunted, after all. Very few other weapons of protections were afforded the squads.

Heath hissed over to Kevin. "You take the four big ones. I'll get the two small ones."

"Okay!"

Sucker, thinks Heath, smiling even as he connects fngers to the floor, gift active. The floors had been adjusted when the unnaturals moved in... weak wood and burnt boards strengthened and covered over with hard-packed dirt, quite a bit of it. This is what Heath uses, shaping it, moving it, commanding the soil to stretch out, encase the six men's feet up to the ankle and harden into something akin to stone. The Hunters didn't even realize anything was happening until it was too late, some frozen in mid-stride, almost falling over if they hadn't been stuck. "Wha--?" One of them manages before Kevin steps into view, blazing in blue solar lightning. Aiming easily, he sends enough electricity arcing aout to render his four unconscious.

"What's the matter dudes? Shocked to see me? " Behind him, Heath groaned audibly.

"Will you shut up?? Gawd..." Corniest man alive, that Kevin. Heath's victims, his two small ones, drop their guns, startled. Easy as that, quick as that, it was over. Heath grins and stands to move by Kevin.

"Alright, M'man!" The boys clasped hands in manly, but hip, victory. "We had the tools, we had the talent."

"It's Milla Time," finished Heath. Neither pay attention, secure they won. One of the two hunters still conscious crouched down, managed to stretch and find hold of his shotgun. He raised it, aimed... the one next to him hisses.

"Are you crazy, Jack??" They're kids, his tone implies, And they'll let us live if we don-'t...The explosive sound of a shotgun going off in the enclosed area was deafening, echoing through the husk of the building and Kevin blinked, ears ringing, hand empty. Slowly, shocked, he looked down. Heath lay on the floor, grasp ripped from Kevin's and what was left of his shoulder looked not unlike raw ground beef. Kevin, frozen in position, swivels his head in slow motion towards the man rushing to reload his weapon. The other man, next to Jack, tries desperately to disclaim the action... Wasn't me, man. I didn't, I wouldn't... wife and kids... but Kevin didn't hear him. The other four, just starting to regain consciousness, blink, ears pained by the discharged gun.

Kevin took some quick, deep breaths, as if pumping himself up, gathering strength, nostrils flaring. Livid and furious, scared too, the muscles in his neck stood out in sharp relief, the murderous expression enough to make even Jack pause. "Oh, shi--"

Cobolt energy sizzled outward from the boy, washed out from him in a mini electrical storm, arcing like azure claws, consuming... the smell of ozone hung heavy in the air, the very air charged and weighted, but the smell of burning flesh is worse as Kevin's gift slices through each man, cooks them alive and in seconds. Then it was over, the blue flickered out, smoke layers thick. Six men dead, Heath on the floor. Kevin gathers his friend up after using his own shirt to staunch the blood and dress the wound. It was ugly and possibly lethal, but Leanne could fix it. The airport. Had to get to the airport. Holding onto Heath with one arm, slipped about his waist, Kevin stopped before the trapdoor, used the last of his stored sunlight and streaks a claw of energy down the hole to ignite whatever is in its path. Once he was satisfied, flames displaying themselves in a warm orange glow, the two stragglers departed.