Corruption

On a grassy cliff of Angel’s Haven’s shoreline, Katniss and Zoe were inched towards the edge by an opposing force. Even with their combined years of fighting abilities, the enormity of the group attacking them forced closer and closer to an afternoon swim with razor rocks. The fifteen hooded figures didn’t stop until the ledge fell out from under the girls.

Mid fall, every molecule in their bodies were ripped apart and transported to craft dozens of kilometers above the small peninsula town. The two laid unconscious on two metal beds. Two more hooded figures were in wait to strap them down.

When the two were safely restrained, the owner of the ship and an associate to enter their cell. The associate's five-inch heels clicked as she walked between the beds. She started an ominous chant in Latin while she placed a crimson glowing pendant in their hands. In a midst of green, she closed their fists around the pendants causing the girls to have seizure-like tremors.

The stain on their restraints lasted only a few minutes before the two eased back. With this part of their task done, the owner and his associate left them to rest. 

Within the hour, a hooded figure dragged the very much awake Katniss and Zoe to the bridge. Once the bridge doors opened, he shoved them through. The owner, his female associate, and another turned towards their guest. The owner rose from his seat while the two girls stood to their feet. 

Katniss played with her blonde braided hair as she looked him up and down. “Lord Servus, right? Long-time no see.”

“A long while General Boday,” Servus replied, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“Too long for my taste,” Zoe added, baring her teeth.

“Nice to see you too, Major,” he said, with a smile.

“Don’t talk that tone. Josie’s right -” Katniss leaned against Zoe - “You're the one that got the bodies of a six-year-old -” she put her hand on her chest then swung her hand towards Zoe - “and a ten-year-old for us, the greatest military minds of the Millenium.”

“It might not seem beneficial, but they have many appeals plus, on Earth, you be nothing but invisible.” 

“I guess that’s worth the inconvenience.” She strutted around him, running her hand over the armrest of his chair.

“With that handled. Business?”

“Sure, but first…” She sat in his chair. “Kill that sad excuse for a henchman that brought us here than we can talk.”

In an underground bunker once used by the pirates in the area, a modern alarm system was wailing. Six teenagers ran into a room with a semicircle of monitors at the center. “What’s going on, Esther?” the first one in the room asked a young woman already in the room.

“Still trying to find out, Tyson,” she answered, tapping on the middle screen.

“An unknown entity is causing havoc in the park,” a short automaton said as he entered the room from the other door.

"Where in the park, 24?" Tommy asked, feeling a sense of deja vu.

“Fountain side.”

It hit Tommy like a wrecking ball. Lord Severus had released another member of Arbutus Brigade like he had weeks before with him. He couldn't let this happen to another innocent bystander.

"Let's go," Tyson ordered, pulling Tommy out of his head as well as pulling a pendant similar to Katniss and Zoe’s, minus the glow, from under his shirt.

Due to the power of the pendant, they arrived to the park dressed in traditional Arbutus dress similar including tunics for the two girls, doublets for the boys, and all with volto masks. The park was eerily empty for a warm autumn day after a long day in school. The only sound besides their footsteps on the sun-deprived grass was a slight rattling of the leaves and the wind playing together. 

When they got to the fountain, all there was was destruction. Benches were turned over or smashed to pieces. Some of the neighboring trees were uprooted. Most frightening of all was the unnatural sailfinning of the ground. But no sign of the entity that caused all of this.

A ricocheting echo of a slow booming clapping made them jump. The sound transferred location, each following a path of a circle. The clapping grew faster. Laughter started.

All of their gazes jolted towards the fountain when they heard an equally loud thudding sound. The saw a cloaked figure walking on the base of the fountain’s half-nude female Angel statue. Her arm-bracer covered hand caressed the statue, and her knee-high boots kicked out from the cloak as she walked around it.

“Who are you?” Tyson asked, taking a step closer. 

“If you want to know that-” she walked closer with the bottom of the fountain rising to meet her feet - “than you’re gonna have to catch me first.”

In the blink of an eye, she bolted. They chased.

She did very little to hinder them. If they got too close, she would force a tree to uproot or telekinetically throw a hunk of earth in their way. None of her obstacles even came close to hitting any of them.

As they ran closer to the edge of the park, Tyson was ganging up on her. He almost could touch her with an outstretched hand when she created a wall of earth between them.

Starting with his right hand, Tyson's whole side rammed into the wall. 

"Are you alright?" Linda asked, examining his reddening digits.

"Yes-" he gingerly relieved his hand from her grasp. "We need a new tactic. Bobby, Diego with me. Linda, Kim, and Tommy take the other way. Maybe we can get her before she gets near the community center or anyone else."

He limped a step. Then paused. “Move out!”

They merged into groups and began the chase again. 

She hadn’t gotten far. Kim, Linda, and Tommy made up the distance by the time she got to the community center’s parking lot. The other three cut her off. She was between them and the building, but she was smiling ear to ear. "Oof, you got me," she laughed, raising her hands.

As the thrill of the chase died, it was all too apparent she didn't care. It was all too easy. All too convenient. 

"Why are you distracting us?" Tyson asked. 

She cocked her head. "Oh, what gave you that impression, oh wise one."

"What game are you playing?" Tommy said, balling his fists.

"My lord is getting smarter. and that's all you need to know, all you need to worry about." She sent a shock through the ground, knocking them all to the ground, like turtles on their backs. "As promised, the names Glen, Major Josie Glen. I doubt my friend will be as accommodating as you have been to her!" She jerked her arm up with a rectangular device in her hand.

She slowly faded before their eyes. In her absence, they started to rise.

"Accommodating?" Bobby asked, with his engineering mind spinning out. "We haven't met anyone else?"

"What have we done but chase a wild goose?" Kim rubbed the back of her head.

"Maybe it's what we haven't been doing," Linda said.

Tommy's gaze shot towards her. "The Command Center!"

When they arrived, it was most certainly not how they left it. Shards of the monitors littered the floor. The wiring hung from the walls and computers like vines in the rainforest. 24 was repeatedly running himself into the wall.

They gazed in horror. 

Kim couldn't find the strength to leave the doorway. Bobby and Linda shut down 24. Tyson slowly spun himself around in the middle of the room. Tommy backed himself into the back wall, and Diego stared him down.

"How did you know?" he asked.

Tommy couldn't look at his face.

"How did you know!" He grasped Tommy's jacket.

"I-i-i… Corporal Boday was supposed to do this. He never got that far, " he answered, getting Diego to release him. 

"Guys!" Kim said, shaking like a leaf in a hurricane. "Where's Esther?"

They all looked around. She wasn't in the control room. She wasn't in the base.

Esther woke up, with a shooting pain emanating from her head. The room was barely light. She didn't notice she was on a bed until a voice rang out. "Good evening, Princess." 

Her gaze slid to the doorway. Lord Severus was there, on the other side of a force field, with a smirk on his face.

"Welcome to the Fey. You're going to be here a while."

He left her, letting what he said sink in. He met with the Major and another hooded figure. "Excellent job, you two." he clasped his hands together.

The two touched their pendants, making them shrink and change back to their usual child selves. 

"No problem," Katniss said, "all went according to plan."