• “-and what’d the pig say to the donkey?”
    “Gods this is the dumbest joke in history?” Amaya quipped, rolling her single visible eye. She gave her best friend, Croy-li, a look that told him she wasn’t up for stupid jokes at the moment.
    “Geeze, what’s got you’re bowstrings in a knot?” Croy-li asked, blowing his newly dyed teal, thick, shoulder length hair away from his ember eyes, where it had been imitating Amaya’s “emo” look.
    Croy-li watched in wonder as his (crush and) best friend’s expression morphed from a simply disdained look to a petulant pout, “I have loads of homework and Vlad’s been getting on my back about going back to The City. Not to mention all my teachers have been saying the same asinine thing: ‘You’re capable of better.’ I’m so sick of everybody being on my back! I’m tempted to drop out and off the face of Earth.”
    Croy-li turned his attention forward, knowing she was just venting. She didn’t really mean any of it, and she didn’t expect an answer from him. He was used to it, but that didn’t keep it from getting old. They walked in silence for a few minutes before either decided to speak again. Ever since the Fight---their brawl that had been preceded by a verbal confrontation about humans and non-human---these moments were coming more and more often and becoming more drawn out.
    “So, are we still doing the job tonight?” Croy-li asked, breaking the disconcerting silence.
    A grin formed across Amaya’s face, attacking the cerulean eyes, “Course, Cole,” she said in a joyful tone, using the nickname he allowed only her to use.
    “Good. Hey Aimee,” Croy-li said as they turned the corner, nearing Amaya’s manor. Amaya looked at him with her visible black eyebrow raised, “I was wondering if we might bring Kelly along.”
    “Yeah, sure, if we tape her mouth shut,” Amaya replied jokingly, believing him to be kidding.
    “Aimee, I’m serious…” he said, cutting through her laughter.
    Amaya’s eye narrowed and her laughter turned harsh before stopping abruptly, “No, we can’t bring your girlfriend, “she snapped.
    Croy-li stared at her, stopping in his tracks, “Aimee, what’s wrong with you? I just thought you might like help.”
    “Oh? So now I need help, well sorry if I don’t do things fast and well enough for you, Mister do nothing!”
    Croy-li was shocked at the negative reaction, “Calm down Amaya, I never meant you were incompetent, I just---”
    “Well it doesn’t even matter cuz Hynnkel’d never let his precious little sister go on an assassination anyway!”
    Croy-li frowned at the use of Hynnkel’s full name rather than ‘Hynnky’, that meant she was really out of it. He could literally see the dark magic seeping into her eyes, darkening her bright blue orbs. That was never a good thing. He had to end the progressively hostile conversation before it could come to an apex.
    He turned his back on her, like he had seen Khale do many a time when he was finished conversing. His teenage pride, however, made him want to have the last word, “He lets you,”
    “I’m not his sister, I’m his cousin,” she spat out the word as if it were the source of her unhappiness.
    Maybe it is… Croy-li thought, I mean her parents---well her mother is dead. Her brother is with her worst enemy and never sees her. What if the isolation is killing her? I mean she has me and that rag-tag, girl power gang of hers, but the only family she knows of are cousins…I may be wrong, but regardless, she should know. No matter what Hynnkel or Bart say, it’s her right. Hell, it may help with her memory.
    Convincing himself he was right, he turned back to Amaya, “Hynnkel is your brother because Lord Riff is your father.” The words spilled out before he could notice her eye was back to its sparkling blue. The mere mention of Lord Riff caused her eyes to dull.
    “Well then…“ she said, falteringly, “I---I guess…” her voice gained an icy confidence, “Well then it’s quite ironic he’s our target, then.”
    Croy-li’s face paled, “We---we’re assassinating Lord Riff? Ai---”
    “What’s all this talk of assassinating?” Hynnkel’s voice asked, coming from seemingly nowhere. He noticed how Croy-li quickly pulled one of his inventions from his pocket with a screwdriver, once he got over the shock of Hynnkel’s sudden appearance, and immersed himself, guiltily, into tightening and loosening the screws, moving wires, etc. He also noticed how Amaya looked at him as if it were the first time she was really seeing him. Lastly he noticed how neither answered his question.
    Bart appeared beside him in his phantom form, gave the scene a once over, and looked at Hynnkel, “Geeze, Kel, what’d you catch them doing, making out? I haven’t seen Croy-li look this guilty since I caught him hacking into my data!”
    The statement caused Croy-li to blush and work even harder on fixing the perfectly working prototype.
    Hynnkel shrugged, “I just came up to hear something about an assassination…”
    Amaya abruptly gasped, “You guys…you guys aren’t---You’re gonna scare people! You know humans can’t be expected to walk around comfortably, seeing freaks on the street!”
    Croy-li looked from his invention to look at the men. Unlike Amaya, who felt a surge of anger, a surge of pride went through him. Hynnkel’s panther tail was hanging out of his pants, dangling behind him tentatively. His elfin ears showed, since his coarse, black hair was pushed back behind them. His spoors were visible, rather than hidden behind scarves or makeup, those three simple lines on each cheek. As for Bartholomew, he was transparent and permeable, nothing else was needed.
    Croy-li glared at Amaya, “Oh, so being different is being a freak? And you, with your anti-conformity speeches, HA! You’re front row in the conformity seminar!”
    Amaya hissed at him, turning back to face with her black hair flying from her face for a miniscule moment before settling around it again, “Just because I happen to care about humans safety and comfort doesn’t mean I’m a conformist! You people can’t see how fear rules our nation!”
    “Oh, I can see clearly. You’re the one who can’t see, if you don’t realize the fear is coming from ‘non-humans’. The humans have us in the palm of their hand. They say play hide ‘n‘ seek, we make ourselves humans.”
    With each heated sentence, the two looked more and more liable to tear each others’ heads off. Bartholomew and Hynnkel were about to intervene when a squadron of police came from the shadows, surrounding them. Croy-li and Amaya didn’t, however, until they were smacked on the heads by Hynnkel.
    “Step away from the children! I repeat, step away from the children with your hands on the backs of your heads! Hands on the backs of your heads!”
    “Wow, someone likes repetition,” Amaya muttered under her breath before looking for the children they were supposed to be stepping away from. It didn’t dawn on her even as Bartholomew and Hynnkel stepped in deliberate, large steps away from her and Croy-li. It didn’t even click as the guns moved further away, staying trained on the men. Even Croy-li’s furious expression didn’t meant anything to her.
    It was only when one of the officers walked to her and caressed her hand in a deliberate(ly *****) motion meant to calm her, “There, there, my dear, everything will be fine. We need to know your name and address so we can contact you.”
    Then she realized she and Croy-li were the children. Closing her eyes as she relished in their good luck, and thanking her lucky stars, she smiled, “Thank you so much!” she exclaimed, hugging the officer. The officer had no problem hugging her back, or holding up her weight. Croy-li’s eyes narrowed in disgust towards the officer and disbelief at his best friend.
    Hynnkel snorted as he was roughly drug to one of the cars, Just how did I know she was going to use that get out of jail free card? Manipulative little brat, he thought, though the endeared expression on his face showed he was happy she was getting off the hook.
    “Don’t do anything stupid!” Bartholomew called to his apprentice before the Phant-Net caught him, solidifying his form.
    Croy-li made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a snort Bart’s way, but wisely stayed silent.
    “I---I thought they were going to rape us. At first, I thought only me, but the one with the tail look kinda gay,” Amaya babbled, sorting through her jumbled, somewhat defunct, memory for the fake names the police knew them by.
    Croy-li choked on a laugh, Man, if Kel heard that, she is so dead when he gets out! he thought before coming to the babbler, Amaya’s rescue, “I’m Cory Lee, and she’s my cousin, Anna Lee. Ignore her babbling, she does that after she’s been scared,” he said, deliberately pulling her from the officers arms.
    **
    Amaya scowled, looking at the paper the next day, “Blu is such an imbecile!” she yelled, before silently fuming at the table. She was annoyed by quite a bit this morning, not the least, being that Croy-li had disappeared sometime during the night, before the job, leaving her with Kelly and unable to do the job.
    Her cousin--- No, half sister, she mentally corrected herself, Kelly, came down the stairs in her everyday-wear of jeans and a t-shirt with her hair sticking up at odd ends.
    “I told you not to stick you finger in the electric socket, Kelly. Just look what it did to your hair. Did it fry any of those valuable, scarce brain cells as well?” Amaya quipped, as a smirk settled on her lips.
    Did I do something to her lately? Kelly asked herself, mentally, Cuz lately she’s always been on my case. Not to mention that smirk seems to be her default expression with me.
    Taking a cup of coffee, Kelly looked around. She took a sip before tentatively asking, “Where…is everyone?”
    Amaya looked at her condescendingly before showing her the front page picture of the newspaper. The picture showed Blu, Bart, and Hynnkel in a cramped jail cell, shackled down. Right beneath it, on the first line of the article, Kelly made out the word Hakinato, meaning they knew who Hynnkel was.
    Kelly leaped to her feet, “We have to save them! Where’s Cole?!”
    Amaya froze in her seat, looking as though Kelly had just slapped her across the face. Croy-li didn’t let just anyone call him Cole, (up until today, she had only been aware of one person he allowed, her) and nobody called him that without his permission. Her smirk turned into pursed lips and she glared abhorrently at the fourteen year old, “We are not going to do anything. If you want to end up like Blu in that cage, go ahead and be my guest and try getting them out with your novice lock picking skills. But I can assure you that I won’t let you out.”
    Kelly’s wide eyes narrowed to slits and her fists clenched, “Fine, be that way! Nobody expected a manipulative, haughty, condescending brat like you to help anyway! Oh, and by the way? Nobody likes you! The reason they keep you around is so they don’t wake up one morning to find your arrow in their back!”
    Amaya’s fists clenched and she blinked back pathetic tears, “I’m going to kill you,” she breathed simply, but in a decisive manner.
    “Not if I kill you first!” Kelly exclaimed as her hands became heavy bear paws with the claws extended.
    Amaya hissed, “This is why humans hate Aelfe!” she exclaimed, merely trying to buy time for her own hands to morph into puma paws with her claws extended.
    “I thought you didn’t remember how to use your Aelfe magic,” Kelly sneered.
    “You know what they say about assuming,” Amaya said, right before leaping in Kelly’s direction, fully intending on ripping open the older girls chest.
    **
    Nolando hadn’t understood Croy-li’s need to get back to Amaya and Kelly as quickly as possible, until he walked in to see the thirteen and fourteen year old at each others’ necks, literally. Although Amaya had the experience and speed, no one ever said she was without her faults (actually they did, but they were wrong): she was clumsy, smaller, and not nearly as strong as the bear Aelfe. As for Kelly, while she was more graceful, larger, and stronger, she was slower and didn’t have as much experience dealing out people’s deaths (which was a good thing). To sum it up, Amaya was having her first fair fight---only problems being whom it was against and that it was a fight to the finish.
    Croy-li stared in horror at the two as Nolando sighed, “This was not how I imagined our meeting to go, but what’s done is done,” he muttered.
    A matter that would’ve taken Croy-li about twenty minutes with his gadgets and even Hynnkel at least five minutes, took Nolando seconds. Two quick swats distributed to both girls got their attention, and his very presence did the rest, pacifying the two. Amaya couldn’t remember exactly who he was, but her mind yelled for her to do as he said, or rather what he didn’t say, but obviously meant.
    Kelly’s eyes flickered between Nolando, the floor, and Croy-li. Finally her eyes settled on her crush, Croy-li, “Traitor,” both girls said before exchanging evil glares. They may not agree on much at the moment, but there were definitely a few things:
    Right now, Cole/Croy-li was a traitor, for bringing Nolando here.
    Nolando had the personality and demeanor that either made you want to do what he said, or kill him. Amaya had tried the latter, didn’t work out so well, so they were sticking to the prior. (Even though Amaya didn’t remember the attempt.
    Hynnkel would look funny in a pink tutu.
    Croy-li shrugged, “He’s the only person I could think of---no, scratch that, that I know of that you both listen to.”
    **
    Amaya stretched out liked a cat, while sitting casually on the main power line. In moments, she’d out it, leaving the jail powerless, and making it easy---for Amaya, anyway---to break in and break at least three prisoners out.
    Croy-li watched her from the ground, shivering when her single eye glanced at him with the eerie cat-slit pupil, the one so much like her other, mutated, left eye. Her smile, however, warmed him, reminding him of their old times. The sneaking, the cutting power, the breaking in---only back then, there weren’t innocent lives depending on their combined skills to save them. It normally wasn’t their job, they were assassins.
    A movement out of the corner of his eyes caused Croy-li to focus on their surrounding area, rather than Amaya and their past. Pulling out his Area to Person Scan (APS), he scanned the area. The scan came back as an error, too quickly to have been the actual reading, meaning something was going terribly wrong.
    “Croy-li, look out!” Amaya yelled. Croy-li turned to her, just in time, because a laser carved a hole in the silonium wall where his head had been only moment before.
    “Drop your weapons! I repeat, drop your weapons. Put you hands behind your heads, hands behind your heads!”
    Amaya, still up on the wires, put her hand to her cheek, resting her head, “Oh goody, more repetition,” she muttered caustically. Quickly, pulling a dagger from its sheath under her shirt, she cut the wire.
    Everything was black. Everything except the surreal blue light coming from a single cat eye.
    **
    “Aimee, that was way too close,” Croy-li called over his shoulder to Amaya. He ran ahead of her with his Light Flash Scanner to check for officers. They were surprised to find only fifteen guards, which, in the dark, Amaya had an advantage over, and took out quickly.
    The two were going from hall to hall, quickly glancing in the cells. After about fifty cells, without familiar faces, the stopped really looking. This was the reason they nearly ran past (actually they did, but they went back) the cell they were looking for.
    This is how it went: run, pause, glance, run “AMAYA!”, double check, “Oh, didn’t see you.”
    Amaya ran after Croy-li and grabbed him, pulling him back, and pointed at the cage. Croy-li blinked, confused, before shining the LFS into the cage. Sure enough, there stood Hynnkel, Blu, and Bartholomew, with shackles lying on the floor behind them.
    “Eh heh…guess we kinda missed ‘em,” he said with a sheepish smile that said ‘Oops, my bad.’ Pulling out his lock pick, he set it in front of the lock, about to open it.
    “Wait!” Kelly yelled, coming from a new direction, “It’s a trap!”
    Amaya and Croy-li exchanged glances, then looked at Kelly, “Huh?”
    Kelly caught up to them, breathing hard, “They…knew…The humans knew someone would come for them. If you use the HFPX, you’ll all be stuck in there…” she gasped, “The guards in the lounge were talkin’ about it.”
    Croy-li sighed, and held his hand out to Amaya as he put the HFPX in his pocket. Amaya glanced at the other, then at Croy-li, her expression saying ‘But they’re watching.’ Croy-li looked at Amaya, with his hand still outstretched. She sighed and out of one of her many hidden pockets, she pulled a pair of gold and black gloves too big for her, and too thin to be of any protective value.
    Croy-li swiftly slipped them onto his fingers and opened the override code panel. Glancing at the others, his fingers flew over the keys, entering the obscene, twenty-one character code.
    Kelly frowned, “How’d you know the code?” she asked.
    Amaya glanced at her spitefully, wrapping her arms around Croy-li’s shoulders possessively, “He didn’t. His fingers can crack any code.”
    Blu was the first to meekly leave the cell. She looked at the three outside the cell, “What was with the whole glove drama?” she asked.
    “To keep my DNA off of the keys,” he lied, glancing away from her. Amaya grimaced at his tell-tale lying sign and hoped the situation was deemed too dire for the others to take it at any face value.
    Hynnkel and Bartholomew left their cell as well, glancing around, “We have to get out of here, quick.”
    Croy-li and the girls nodded, and began running through the labyrinth of halls towards the exit. Amaya froze, her ears catching the sound of a plasma gun being cocked. She turned, mid-stride, back to the men. Bartholomew and Hynnkel were freeing the nonhuman prisoners and certain human ones. There was a plasma gun aimed at Bartholomew and no one but she saw it.
    “Bart!” she tried to call out, only to feel her voice die in the back of her throat. She ran back to them, fully aware she couldn’t make it in time. Please, please. I don’t care if I’m hurt, just let me save him… she thought, racing to him. The moment the thought had left her mind, she was grasping either side of Bart, hugging him close to her, in the way of the shot. She felt the plasma hit her full on in the back the same moment she realized Bartholomew wasn’t in his solid form, yet she was quite obviously holding onto him---clutching in fact.
    How queer…I hope he’s okay were her only thoughts as she began to plunge through the phantom, on her glide to crash with the floor. She heard voices call out her name, and then everything went black.
    **
    Amaya opened her eyes to see Croy-li above her, his forehead leaning on her own, “Cole…where are we?” she asked, not recognizing the warm, bright room..
    Croy-li opened his eyes wearily, “Aimee!” he exclaimed, now full of energy and euphoria, as he sat up quickly, “Ugh…” he groaned, through clenched teeth. He clutched his abdomen in pain.
    Sitting upright quickly, Amaya grimaced as the fabric rubbed against her tender back, “Cole, what happened?”
    “Well…after you passed out, the guard tried shooting Bart again. I saved him, don’t worry. So I was shot in the abdomen. Unlike you, I didn’t pass out, but I was kinda paralyzed for a few minutes. Pandemonium broke out and the idiot took another shot at Bart. Kelly tripped over me and was in the way of that shot. By then, Kel found the guard and broke the gun.”
    Amaya closed her eyes, “Did the people get away? The other prisoners, I mean.”
    Croy-li nodded, “Yeah, they’re hiding right now.”
    “Good…now back to my first question, where am I?”
    Croy-li made a face, more from annoyance than pain, “Kay’s Domain.”
    “We’re…how’d we get here?”
    Croy-li pursed his lips, “Apparently, Khale used my own technology so I automatically come here when I’m in a life-threatening situation…at least if I’ve passed out.”
    “…so he…did it so you wouldn’t die…is that a bad thing?”
    Croy-li groaned and changed the subject so as to avoid one of their frequent arguments, “Kelly got hit on the arm, she was lucky.”
    Amaya’s lips twisted into an annoyed expression, “I hope it hurts,” she said snidely.
    Croy-li stared at her in reproach, and opened his mouth to reply, when a sharp rap on the door made both teenagers look up, “Come in?” Amaya called hesitantly, looking from the door to Croy-li and back.
    The door creaked open and Croy-li’s hand flashed over, combing hair into Amaya’s left eye before the person at the door had a full view of her face. Khale stood in the doorway, his face shadowed. For a brief moment, the two feared he had seen her left eye. Finally he looked up, and they saw he had a holo-visor over his eyes, meaning he saw nothing.
    “Okay, we meet at Fountaine d’Amor in three hours. Pass the information onto all non-humans and our human helpers.” Khale pressed his sensor button, next to his right eye, with his right finger, ending the conversation and making the visor retract to become sunglasses.
    He pushed them up to show his cadet blue eyes, which scrutinized the two soundly. He leaned back against the doorframe, “I see you’re awake. Are you two feeling better?” he asked them.
    Croy-li crossed his arms over his chest, an act of defiance Amaya knew caused him pain, and gave his older brother a noncommittal grunt, which Khale took as an indication he was.
    Amaya shrugged, and felt the pain stroke down her back, too close to her spine for her comfort, “I was asleep, so I don’t know if this is a dull pain in comparison. I dunno if I feel better,” she told the demon Aelfe, rewarding his concern with an enamoring smile.
    A smile broke across Khale’s usually stoic features, “Good, I’ll take those both as signs of healing. I’m organizing a meeting for “non-humans” today. We need to deal with these humans’ haughtiness. They’re not the center of the universe, no matter how much they may believe it.”
    “No, you are, aren’t ya bro?” Croy-li goaded at his brother.
    Khale rolled his eyes and Amaya broke into the almost squabble with a confused question, “But…they are. Hello! The Heliocentric theory was proven wrong by the government when they realized the Geocentric was right. Earth’s the center cuz humans are on it, and when humans migrated, other places became the center of new galaxies. Cole, tell him, they taught us this stuff in Ethics when they were explaining why humans were superior and it was ethical for them to lord over us.”
    Croy-li simply rolled his eyes, indicating that they had already had this argument many times over and over again.
    Khale’s brows scrunched together, “What are you talking about?” he asked, confused.
    Amaya sighed agitatedly, It’s okay, it just wasn’t as widely known back when he was in school. They …they wouldn’t have taught it then, she convinced herself, batting away her incessant little doubts and the ‘They-lied-to-us’ siren.
    Once she cleared her mind, she looked at Khale, “Okay, the Heliocentric and Geocentric theories are theories on our galaxy---well, the universe before humans migrated. They were made by some now dead guys, Aristotle and Ptolemy---”
    “Actually, they were---”
    “Can it, Croy-li,” Khale demanded.
    Amaya went on regardless of the interruptions, “The Geocentric Theory was first, but there was no cold hard evidence for it back then. Then the Heliocentric Theory came along, sun’s gravitational force pulls planets to it, yada yada yada. But in recent years, it was realized that the humans presence on Earth makes it the center of the universe---galaxy. It’s their presence that makes the plants they live on habitable. If it weren’t for humans, nothing else could live.
    “So, it is the humans divine right to manipulate us as they see fit. It’s the Hominid Tenet. That’s why non-humans were made, to serve humans. It’s why animals and plants were made, to feed, to clothe, and to be pets to humans. We’re lucky they deem us fit to even pretend to be equals to them.”
    “Yeah, just until they decided they’re bored with us playing dress-up on our own and add leashes and collars to our collections of costumes. Ooh, or even better, maybe we’ll be their Dolls and Pets,” Croy-li replied scathingly.
    Khale held up a hand against Croy-li, telling him simultaneously to shut up and calm down, “Amaya, would you mind saying that same…speech at the meeting? Croy-li, you’ll have to be quiet throughout it, but afterwards you can lead the rally against it. Tell it to them straight, but make sure to use facts in addition to your personal opinions,” Khale said, without waiting for either to respond.
    Croy-li and Amaya stared at Khale as the usually dormant leader self made its presence known.
    “Um…okay?” they said, confused.
    **
    “The crowd is angry,” Soda said as her forest green eyes skimmed over the clashing black and red auras of the crowd. Her large harpie wings spread out---her instinct to fly when surrounded by the angry, gripping them--before her mental orders closed them.
    “We have to do something. You’ve heard what they teach the children in Ethics class,” Khale said, commanding all attention with just his voice; the angry chatter dissipated around him, leaving only respectful silence, “They jail us purely because we won’t demean ourselves by disguising ourselves as them. They attack children,” at this, he gestured at Amaya, Kelly, and Croy-li, “They attempted to save a friend and were shot by a plasma ray. The back, the abdomen, and shoulder, shot. They could’ve been severely injured. And they’re just children!”
    “I hope he remembers you’re one of those ‘just children’ the next time he thinks about flirting with you,” Hynnkel muttered into Amaya’s ear, shocking her with his sudden appearance. Amaya blushed and stuck her tongue out at him.
    “I say we revolt this oppressive rule. They rule us by fear of death. Yet are we not the creatures of their horror stories, the stars of their worst nightmares? I say we show them real fear.”
    Jazzie stood up on the stage, her hunter green eyes flashing with her seriousness and her auburn hair crackling with a new red intensity, “Non-humans! That’s what they’ve labeled us all. No vampires, werewolves, Aelfe, harpies, werecats, witches, or demons. No, just white, black, mixed, Asian, and non-humans. They respect the differences in other humans skin color but not our different races. We look different, act different, smell different, and have different powers. But we’re not as different as a few skin colors,” she said sarcastically, then emphatically continued, “I beg to differ. Hello! Do I look like a mermaid to you?!”
    Those in the audience cheered and applauded her, making an affirmative noise towards her point.
    “Well…” the blond haired, blue eyed poster boy, Wyatt muttered, about to answer his cousins rhetorical question. Amaya erratically tackled him, sprawling him underneath her, a few steps away from his previous spot. Where he had been, only seconds before, was a crater in the ground, just barely missing the fountain.
    The non-humans scattered quickly, “The humans are attacking!” Midnight yelled in her boisterous voice, the sound picked up and echoed throughout the pandemonium.
    Amaya gasped in pain as she was thrown back against Fountaine d’Amor by a shot from one of the humans guns. The impact on her already damaged back, caused her to cough up blood. Correspondingly, three things happened:
    The catalyst of number two, a net fell over Amaya, simultaneously seeming to knock her down and out.
    Bart, Croy-li, Khale, and Shadow Kiss all ran to free Amaya and were electrocuted by the net, by such a high voltage, that they were all knocked unconscious,
    The humans surrounded their quarry on all sides, making their line of defense/offense visible to those inside of it.
    “All freaks on the ground, I repeat, all freaks on the ground!”
    Kelly paused, glancing at Amaya’s obviously unconscious form, she would’ve sworn she had heard something suspiciously like ‘Oh great, the repetitor again,’ come from her direction in her dry tone. Shaking her head, she turned back to the scene before her, only to feel a Para-out hit her directly in the chest. Her eyes widened moments before the paralyzer reached her veins. The impact of the shot knocked it too far in, and the poison used to paralyze her, got to her heart, stopping it in its tracks. She died before her body hit the ground.
    “I said everybody down!” the officer yelled, yes, the same one from their first encounter. The nonhumans made way for him as he walked straight to Amaya’s prostrate body, “Except you my dear, come on. Get up. We have work to do.”
    The nonhumans watched in alarm as Amaya stood up, pulling the net off of herself and stepped over the bodies of the males who had tried to save her.
    Hynnkel growled throatily towards his cousin/half-sister as she walked right up to the officer. Her friends stared at her in horror, not believing she was capable of betraying them thus.
    Amaya looked up at the officer in reproach, “You promised---”
    She was cut off by his finger being put to her lips, numbing them, “My little Aelfe, you should know better than to trust the word of a law official. Especially one who’s interested in a lesser breed.”
    Most of the nonhuman’s eyes narrowed (except the ones who were frightened out of their minds) and the sound of weapons being drawn and cocked filled the air. Midnight, Kyo, and Claw Ripper changed to their wolf forms, with teeth bared. Most Aelfe’s morphed into their full Aelfe forms, and elementalists and sorcerers drew their power up for a battle.
    Soda soared above and looked down at the people below, checking their auras for any traitors. She nearly dropped from the sky in heartbreak when she saw Kelly’s lifeless body emitting no aura, however she stayed silent about it, knowing it would do more harm and help to tell those below.
    Amaya overcame the numbing substance, “You used me? Do you have any idea who I am?!” she exclaimed, balling her hands into fists.
    The officer, Theodore, looked down at her in boredom, “Of course. If I’m to have a lesser breed, I might as well make it worth my time. You’re Amaya Hakinato, of the Ha clan. You’re also the Rainbow Death of Minnah. And lastly, you’re Zyanya Delaney of The City.”
    “What do you know of The City?” Amaya asked sharply.
    “Enough to destroy it once I’m done here. Now, my pet, do be a good girl like you’ve been lately, what with telling me who our valuable prisoners were, and telling me when you were going to break them out, and where this wonderful little rally was going to be. So go sit in the car.”
    Amaya practically felt the hatred the nonhumans were throwing at her and more than anything, the betrayal and hurt her friends were shoving her way. She didn’t even have to look to know who they expected her to side with. Theodore, also, didn’t have to wait to know who she would side with. He took her by the back of her head and kissed her, the numbing solution in his mouth spreading quickly and paralyzing her entire body.
    Wyatt frowned, watching the interaction with a different eye than the others. He had once been in the same position as her, seemingly betraying those he cared about accidentally, thinking it was in the name of good. So he knew the moment her body slackened that she was drugged. He moved with the speed vampires were known for, surprising his family by the sudden action from the normally lazy vampire.
    He grabbed Amaya before the other officers could get her to put her in the car. Pausing with her in his arms right in front of the Theodore, he snarled. In the blink of an eye, he was far away from the fountain.
    “Get all the unconscious over here!” he called, deciding it would be best to have those unable to defend themselves out of immediate danger. His twin, Kyle, cousin, Jazzie, and older twin brothers, Felix and Lex, moved Shadow Kiss, Croy-li, Khale, Bart, and Kelly. A figure hidden by a large cloak kneeled next to Kelly’s body.
    “So what are you, other than an arse?” Hynnkel asked, through clenched teeth, glaring at Theodore.
    “Other than missing my bride? I also happen to be in charge of the government.”
    Hynnkel raised an eyebrow more out of disgust than intrigue, changing his solar case into a solar blade, “Oh, really? Then I’ll enjoy killing you.”
    **
    Amaya blinked her eyes rapidly twenty-four times, to get the annoyingly dry feeling to go away. When she could finally see through her eyes, she noted she was in her bed. The clutter surrounding her affirmed it as she sat up, looking around. It was the first time in about a week she had awaken to be by herself. She was still trying to wear down the effects of the numbing drugs, but since all she seemed to be allowed to do was sleep, eat, and walk around her room, it didn’t seem like she would any time soon. They had taken her gadgets, her computer, her DS, her weapons, and anything else they thought she might be able to use against them.
    A few times Croy-li and Kelly had come to visit her, and they lightened her burdened heart. They understood what she had done, even though they didn’t quite forgive her nor agree with her reasoning, but they didn’t keep it as a barrier between her and them, like the others did. Hynnkel was her most frequent visitor, and he usually left with her either in tears or close to them. It was during one of those such visits that she had learned Kelly had died. Only the fact that Sahiid’s power had begun healing her the moment before she had died had saved her. That had killed Amaya’s animosity towards her immediately, and the two were at a confused crossroads. The light hurt Amaya’s eyes, causing her to close them. Wait…two things wrong with that statement. Eyes and light…the electric light doesn’t hurt my eyes…only the natural light. And…there’s no way both my eyes are showing… Amaya sat up to see the window unbarred and open to let sunlight and fresh air in, and Khale, Kel, and Bart standing at the edge of her bed.
    Amaya never liked to see the three of them together, because she knew from experience that it was nearly impossible to take on all three of them and survive. Her left eye twitched a lot, hurting her. She reached up to rub it, only to feel no hair in her way, meaning her gold and black eye was looking directly at the men. Panic reigned in her mind before she realized they probably saw her abnormal left eye when she was paralyzed with her eyes open for two days. Her heart pounded loudly in her chest as she tried to find some answer to the guys presence on their faces.
    “We need your help,” Khale said, crossing his arms over his chest, and refusing to look at Amaya.
    Kel was doing similar, leaving only Bart looking at Amaya, “We’re revolting against the humans.”
    Amaya nodded, not saying anything.
    “We need you to get your people on our side,” Hynnkel said
    “But Croy-li---”
    “We don’t mean your school friends, nor you City friends. We mean your others,” he said, stopping her before she could finish her question.
    She chewed on her lip, guessing they meant her shadier friends, the ones even Khale would be wary of befriending.
    “And we need your help getting into the Chief Commanders office and getting rid of him.”
    Amaya looked up sharply, “No, I lied, we didn’t kill him yet,” Hynnkel said miserably.
    Her eyes narrowed dangerously, “I have a score to settle with him anyway.”
    **
    “Are you sure you’re on our side, this time?” Croy-li asked Amaya as she pulled on her cerulean and black assassin outfit, “Cuz the last thing we need is for you to go all Brutus on us this time.”
    “…who?” Amaya asked, looking up from the blue, silk lacings on her black boot.
    Croy-li looked at Amaya incredulously, “You really never read the book, did you?”
    “What book?” Amaya asked, confused.
    “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, ya know, our summer reading homework.”
    “…so who’s Brutus?”
    “Never mind, it was an allusion wasted on you. Let’s put it simple, don’t back stab us this time.”
    Amaya nodded, glancing at Croy-li in his gold and black outfit, complete with the gloves she normally held onto for him. “We look like the Dragon Twisters again…” she said softly, hugging him lightly.
    Croy-li grinned, “Let’s just hope we’re still that good,” he said, hugging her back before parting. Holding her an arms length away from him by her shoulders he gazed into her eyes, “If I get you in there, do you think you can handle him?” he asked her, scrutinizing her face as she thought up her answer.
    She smirked, “I think me and Kelly can handle it.”
    Croy-li stared, “Wha---”
    Kelly came up, in a purple and black version of Amaya’s outfit, putting her finger to Croy-li’s lips, “Shh. We don’t want Nolando or Hynnkel hearing. They’d completely ruin it, and you know it.”
    “Ruin what?” Hynnkel and Nolando asked, coming from separate ways.
    “Um…nothing!” both girls exclaimed, smiling too widely for the smile to be real.
    “Croy-li?” the men asked, crossing their arms over their chests.
    Croy-li looked from one girl to the other, and lest he be labeled as a traitor again, decided to humor them, “They were telling vulgar jokes.”
    **
    The streets were overflowing with nonhumans. They shed their facades varying from human schoolteacher, like Midnight and Blu, to human supermodel, like Wyatt, Kyle, and Jazzie. The neighborhoods that only the previous nights had been called the Utopia for humans disrobed to reveal the majority of nonhuman population. Schools overflowed with children, who the day before had been the picture of innocence and humanity, now showing elongated ears or teeth, spoors, “mutated” limbs and etc. Humans who had been afraid of nonhumans only the night before realized their fears had been toyed with to create something that no longer existed. Jails were popped open and families were reunited. Humans and nonhumans joined peacefully.
    That is, until the police caught wind of what was happening all over the place. They were rushing to try to stop the interaction before it was too late, and only succeeded in showing humans what their government was doing, suppressing difference and spreading conformity.
    **
    Amaya strode to his desk, sais replacing her normal bow and arrow weaponry. Tilting her head, she pouted her lips upon seeing his cowering form, “Oh, and I was so hoping for an actual fight,” she said in a pouting, baby voice.
    Theodore turned quickly, “And that’s exactly what you shall get my dear,” he said, leaping up with his arms outstretched in a Spiderman position. It would have been comical to her, had she not known what was stored in his arm, rather than a spider web.
    “Kelly, DOWN!” she yelled, ducking down and rolling so she was shielded by the door. She grabbed Kelly’s legs, pulling her down beside her only milliseconds before his first jet of acid left his arm. The corrosive acid did nothing to the surrounding objects, as it was made to corrode only Aelfe skin.
    “I’m going to try to lead him away from you,” Amaya whispered to Kelly, throwing her the sais, which Kelly traded for with Amaya’s bow and quiver.
    Kelly shook her head, “I should, you can shoot him from behind.”
    Amaya took a deep breath and nodded. The two slowly stood up, looking for the maniacal man. They depended on their ears to make sure he didn’t move up on them or they didn’t walk into him. Kelly’s heart was beating faster than Amaya’s from adrenaline, but neither would deny they were frightened out of their minds at the moment.
    Finally they heard his voice, “Oh Amaya, my dear, do come out. I won’t hurt your adorable little cousin if you give yourself up.” The girls exchanged glances.
    “He expects us to fall for that?”
    “He thinks I’m younger than you???”
    “He thinks you’re adorable?”
    “Che, I am,” Kelly replied with a roll of her eyes.
    “Regardless of what you aren’t, we now know where he is.”
    Kelly shot forward, but Amaya caught her by the shoulder, giving her a hug, “In case this is the last chance I get, I’m sorry for how I’ve acted towards you. I really do like you.”
    “Yeah, same here, and I just got an idea…”
    **
    “Teddy, Teddy Bear, come and find me!” Amaya voice cried in a flirty tone over the intercom, “You can’t have my cousin, but I decided this is between me and you. She’s gone, now it’s just a game of hide ‘n’ seek, try and find me.”
    Theodore cursed mentally, he had been expecting the two of them to try and make him follow one, while the other shot him in the back. But apparently the Rainbow Death played by her own rules, that was what made her so dangerous. But still, there was power in numbers, and if she sent that cousin away, then she was at a great disadvantage since he was stronger, faster, taller, larger, and smarter than she. He had no doubts that she had really sent her cousin away, for she was still only a child and this really was a game to her.
    So he began searching. Every once in a while, he’d see black hair slipping past a corner, or maybe a tail hanging from a vent. Once he heard the sound of an arrow being cocked, and immediately ducked and took cover. It was getting dark, and with the power out and his officers out trying to save the humans from nonhuman influence, he knew the cat girl would soon be at the advantage.
    Maybe it was their carelessness, maybe it was the Gods smiling down upon him, but regardless of the reason for his fortune, he finally snuck up on the two of them. He was very surprised to see they had tricked him, that both were there. Even more so to see that everything he’d heard and seen had been coming from the Central Illusions Room. They had enjoyed making a fool of him, and now it was his turn.
    “Smile girls, you want to be remembered smiling, don’t you?” he said, his cold voice raising hair on the back of their necks. The two turned slowly and he was about to pull the trigger and spill out acid on them, when their horror filled expressions changed ever-so-minutely. Maybe if he hadn’t been human, there would’ve been enough time to suspend the inevitable. But with him being only human, he didn’t have enough time to turn before Nolando killed him.
    As he dropped to the ground, dead before impact with the ground, Nolando settled the to girls with a look, “Vulgar jokes, huh?”
    **
    Three months later it was all over. People had begun to live together, nonhumans (or as they were now called: vampires, werewolves, Aelfe, etc.) and humans, peacefully under the rule of the three Amaya feared pissing off: Hynnkel, Khale, and Bart. Amaya’s friends and family had slowly begun trusting her again.
    And so, just as in the beginning, we end with Croy-li and Amaya walking home from another long day at school.
    “So, what do you get when you cross an English teacher with a Chemistry teacher?” Croy-li asked, not looking any different than before the whole revolt and change in ruling.
    “I don’t know,” Amaya said, sighing in an annoyed fashion, wondering where her friend got all these lame jokes. Her rainbow bangs were once again covering her odd, left eye, but that was the only oddity she was hiding. Her cat tail hung freely from the hole made in her jeans for it, and her perfectly manicured nails grew to unusual lengths of five to eight inches.
    “An oxygenized idiot. An oxymoron, get it!?” Croy-li exclaimed, laughing at the horrible joke.
    Amaya stared at him, “What’d I say about lame jokes?” she asked threateningly.