Refraction Of The Wings

They fell through the tunnel, a tangle mass of claws and furs.

“AHHHHHH!!!!!!!” Sky yelled. She was not the only one, everyone else was yelling too. At least Tsukoyumi had the sense to keep his mouth shut.

The next thing they know, they shoot through an opening and landed in a wide open space. Before they could untangle themselves, hands were grabbing and dragging them away. Sky looked up and saw huge cylindrical shaped tubes set up around the space.

They were thrown in there and for Sky, a loud sound coming from the speaker was sounded.

Through her watering eyes, she saw the woman standing on a platform, surveying her friends and her.

She would never follow their wishes, ever.

As if the person had read her mind, a harsh voice screeched from the speaker above, “Surrender to it, Untouchable. Now, let us see what you can really do.”

“Never! You’ll regret it if you change me!” Sky snarled harshly.

The voice laughed, “You think so? Well, maybe we should stop here…”

A sigh of relief escaped from her.

Without warning, the ringing sound intensified. Seeing no way to escape, Sky succumbed to it, kneeling over and grasping her head. She felt her nails shaped into claws, felt her lips change into beaks. With an earthy cry, a blinding light exploded out from her and shattered the glass around her. Bodies were thrown about as the sheer force of the light blew them apart.

Sky embraced her wild instinct and climbed out from the tube. Straightening up, she strode over to the group of men where most of them were dead now, with only one of them twitching. She growled and lifted the man up. He gasped and struggled under her deathly grip. With a hiss, Sky snapped the man’s neck with her claw; he fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Turning away, she said to no one in particular.

“We’re not Untouchables. We’re the Protectors.”

She quickly looked up and saw that the woman had disappeared. Her friends were trying to get out from the shattered tubes.
“Wow, Sky, that was, wow.” Sean yelled as he rushed over.

A cold voice sounded out. “You can’t escape.”

Whirling around, they saw the woman in front of them.

Raising her hands, Sean was pulled towards her.

His friends yelled in fright, Sky was stunned. She tried to pull Sean back but the force was too strong.

“Ian!”

Ian leaped forwards and ran towards the woman, determined to suck away her powers. With just a glance from that witch, he found himself crumpled to the ground, twitching in pain.

Jian hurled a wave of ice to the woman but the wave stopped just a few feet in front of the woman.

Meanwhile, Sean was struggling to pull himself free.

“Give up. No one can go against my powers.” The woman snickered, her scaly face full of malice.

Suddenly, the woman was knocked off her feet. Sean pulled himself free and came running back.

“What the-”

A wind is gradually building up.

“Han?” Sky yelled over the howling wind.

“It’s not me!”

Sean was frozen, his eyes out of focus as he looked at the gust of wind.

“Wind manipulation!” Jian whispered in awe.

The woman struggled to get up but she was pinned down by the air around her.

“Kill her now!” Sean yelled.

Even as he said it, the wind suddenly stopped and the woman got back up to her feet.

“Sean?”

It was then Sky saw Han has his hand placed on Sean’s shoulder. As they looked on, Sean suddenly faced the group, his face blank.

“Kill them instead.” Han whispered.

“Han? What do you mean by that?” Jian shouted.

“Reality warping.” Han said. “I worked here. I’ve always been here.”

“Betrayer!” Eliza shrieked.

Han laughed softly. “It doesn’t matter what you call me. My job is to kill all of you.”

Sean raised his hands up.

“Tsukoyumi!”

Tsukoyumi instantly let out a wave of sonic boom. It knocked the wave of wind away. The door suddenly opened and a group of masked people came in.

As if that was the signal, all hell broke loose as everyone began to fight at once. Sky found herself facing an opponent which also has the same powers as her. She screamed and lunged at him. He reacted just as fast, dodging her claws.

On the other side, Jian repeatedly flung himself to one side as his opponent hurled solid mass at him.

Andrew braced himself as his opponent slammed herself against him.

Sky was knocked to the wall and winced as her ribs cracked. Bubbles of blood began to trickle out from her mouth. She healed herself and saw a horrifying sight.

Just right behind her opponent, the woman had Serene by her neck. Before Eliza could help her, the woman tosses Serene towards the wall.

The crack was audible amidst the chaos. Serene crumpled to the ground in a pool of blood, her skull cracked open.

“No!!” Tomas yelled and rushed over but was stopped by one as fast as him. Sky doesn’t need to check to know Serene is already gone. With a how of rage, she landed a vicious slash on her opponent. He staggered back and before he could recover, Sky grabbed his wings and use all her strength to rip if off.

Blood splattered onto her face, momentarily blinding her. When she could see again, he was laying facedown, two huge gaping holes at where his wings had been.

Seeing this, Sky quickly retracted her wings back. Her wings are her weakness, no wonder it couldn’t heal as fast as her other wounds.

She heard a scream and saw Eliza being surrounded by people. Eliza tried to summon as many of her identical as possible. The woman just looked on with a bored expression on her face before snapping her fingers. Eliza coughed up a fountain of blood, spraying the white walls with scarlet droplets before dying herself.

Sky didn’t know what to do next, two of her friends had died; she must get to the woman as fast as possible.

The woman sensed what she was thinking and turned to face her. Sky moved menacingly to the woman, when a ball of fur flashed past her. Turning her head, she saw Aerie sinking her fangs into Zachery.

“Aerie!! What are you doing?!” Ian yelled. Aerie just replied with a snarl and continued to mutilate Zachery.

“Help!” Zachery tried to shield his head from the deadly fangs. Sky tried to help but it was too late, she watched helplessly as Aerie sank her teeth into Zachery’s neck. He gave a choked gurgle before going limp. Howling over his dead body, Aerie turned and lunged at Ian.

“No!” Sky tried to step in front of Ian but Aerie merely brushed by her before landing on Ian’s arm. He tried to push her off his deadly skin but it was of no avail.

With an animal cry, Aerie convulsed and was dead within seconds.

Sky gave a sob and looked at the bloody battlefield. Tomas had blood trickling out from his ears and nose, having caught in the way of Tsukoyumi’s massive sonic boom.

Her friends are killing each other! She thought desperately.

“Ian! Destroy Han! Do it!” She screamed as she rushed over to help Tomas.

“Stop. Enough.” A new voice rang out. Instantly, the masked people backed away. The remaining of Sky’s group staggered together. There were only herself, Tsukoyumi, Tomas, Andrew, Chris, Jian and Ian left. Chris and Jian seemed unhurt, having able to shield for themselves.

Sky saw a man has come to stand beside the woman. Han and Sean, still with the blank look on his face, stood there.

“Who are you?”

“I’m General Burke.” The man replied, his deep bass voice ringing throughout the room.

“What? Why?” Sky couldn’t find the right words to place her question.

“Sky, you are not in the real world anymore. You were in the reality warp, created by Han, who’s the real world.”

Sky was shocked. Not the real world? Then everything here, it’s not real?

“You liar!” She screamed. “This is real! Han’s standing there, right there! And my friends here, some are already dead!”

General Burke just shook his head. “Can you remember where were you before you were brought to here?”

“Of course I can! I was…” Sky fell silent. She racked her brains, what was she doing? Was she in school? Class? Home? Where did she go?

“You can’t. Because before that, you were already one of our subjects. Han had unleashed his powers before you even woke up. Everything you see here, including me, are all illusions of your mind.”

“It’s not true! Then why did you put me in the reality wrap if I were already your subjects?!”

“Training. It may be only in your mind, but it’s good as any real training.”

“No! It’s not true!” Sky yelled.

“Listen to me, the escapes, the foreign people you see, those were never real! Your friends here, yes they are real, but some did not make it.” He gestured towards Serene. “When you die here, you just die in the real world.”

Sky turned and looked at her surviving friends. All of them were just staring blankly ahead.

“They were already brought back to the real world, ready to serve us, just like you will be, soon.”

“NOOOO!!!” She screamed and everything just went dark.

***
She woke up feeling liquid all around her, she was breathing through a mask. Twisting around, she saw that she was back in the cylindrical tube. Her hands, wings were bound tightly.
She could vaguely make out her friends in other tubes, all looking as terrified too.

Sky saw Serene’s body was lifted out from the tube, her eyes still opened though lifeless, her mouth opened.

The people in white coat moved on to the next tube, beside Sky.

“Project Element 094-92, eliminated.”

Moments later, Zachery’s body was carried out from the room too.

It’s her turn.

She struggled as hard as she could, trying to break through the chains. Through muffled voices, she heard one of them said,

“Project Element 094-93, activated.”

The silent screams in her head was the last thing Sky heard.