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Post by Athena Diorio on Oct 7, 2012 3:14:45 GMT -5
A cold breeze rolled through the streets of a horribly run down town. It slightly resembled Bronx, New York. But lately, everything looked the same, abandoned and left to fend for itself. Doors barely hung on their hinges, trashcans were knocked over in the street, and many of the cars looked as though they hadn't moved in years.
The scent of death tinged the air, but no person, living or dead could be seen. As though they were all hidden away. Sort of.
A girl, barefoot and standing about five foot eight inches in a kitchen chopped up some carrots on the cutting board. Her hand moved smoothly, like she was an expert chef. Scooping up the remnants of some carrots, along with other vegetables, she dumped them into a large pot, which sat on the stove. Some sort of broth was already inside the pot, so all of the pieces made a soft "plunk" noise as they dove into their doom.
"Now, where are some matches?" The girl asked herself, spinning on her heels, glancing about the kitchen. You would think she would know exactly where everything was in her own home, right? But only, it wasn't hers.
This house was the fifth one she had raided this week, but she never did check to see if the stove even worked, or even had gas. Or even where the matches were!
"Found them!" She exclaimed happily, pulling out a drawer and seeing a box of matches laying on their side beside a flashlight and cork screw.
She turned to the stove, brushing back her dirty blonde hair she crouched down to turn on the stove, and to check if it had gas.
"Click". Nothing happened, the gas didn't even sound or look like it was on.
"Damn it Athena! You should have checked the fucking stove before you started making all of this! Now you have to carry the whole damn pot to another house just to cook it!" She screamed at herself, throwing down the box if matches on the countertop in frustration.
The girl huffed, grabbing a few matches and shoving them into her jeans pocket, all while calling herself a dumbass and other things.
"You've been doing this for ten years now! What is wrong with you!" She growled, picking up the pot and the knife she had been using to cut the vegetables.
But, it wasn't a knife. It was a soft white, and it shimmered gold in the light that shone through the blinds in the kitchen. Was that...a feather?
There was no possible way a feather could cut through those carrots like butter, right?
But it did. This girl was no ordinary girl. Her back was adorned with massive wings, which looked almost angelic. Her feet were a deep blue, like the sea.
She stomped out of the house, the pot held at her side.
"All the way over there...with this huge pot of soup..." The girl complained as she began walking down the sidewalk, and into the street. She stumbled on the curb, some broth splashing up and onto her black leather jacket and tank top, which made her growl even more.
"Oh. My. God! What is wrong with me today?!" She snapped, her yellow eyes narrowing as she neared the house across the street. She shifted the pot to where it rested on her hip, and held onto it with her right hand. Using her left, she tried wiggling the doorknob to get it to open. She sighed, then turned to the side slightly and outstretched her wing. The door busted open, and nearly off its hinges.
"Honey I'm home!" She called jokingly, stepping inside, not expecting any sort of reply.
All of the humans would be in some other part of this town. The part where there would definitely be no sort of resources for the gifted. And even in the sewers. But definitely not here. Unless they were hunting Athena, like many of the Berserkers were. Since she was the last Diorio alive.
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Post by Maris Henley on Oct 7, 2012 14:22:46 GMT -5
Maris didn't consider herself a Berserker, since she had yet to contract the disease, nor was she Gifted, she was just Maris, a survivor. Everyday she left the Bunker to go topside for five hours to explore and bring back information on the state of the world.
Today was no different than any other day she was dressed in her armoured, insulated, dark gray morphsuit. It covered every inch of her skin, allowing nothing to touch her directly, and clung to her form, accenting the slight curves of her lean five four frame. Her weight never changed because the Bunker feed her the exact amount her body needed, no more no less. Her wavy red hair was tucked into the hood. Her gray eyes were hidden behind infrared goggles that sat just above her breathing apparatus. Though she was outside, the outside didn't touch her anywhere.
She vaulted over a large concert divider in the old interstate, before the end would have been busy with cars zooming up and down at a dizzying pace. Now the black top was cracked and being reclaimed slowly by nature. It could be considered beautiful to some, but to most it was just a reminder of all the was lost.
"Crossing I-465." She radioed in her position through her headset. Her large gun was strapped to her back and bumped against her as she continued across the lanes. Her smaller hand held gun rested in her palms, safety off. She was in what was considered no mans land between the Berserkers territory and the Gifteds. She had no specific directions on where to head today she was still deciding which area was best to explore.
For the moment Maris walked the line, figuratively, keeping to the relative safety of no mans land. She went past empty storefronts carefully watching the shadowy depths behind the smashed out windows. Bodies decayed all around her, bodies that didn't make it to the mass graves were resorted to. It was sights like those that made her glad to not be able to smell. She could only imagine the stink would be overwhelming. She stepped gingerly over corpses the littered the blood stained sidewalk.
"Those poor people." She took pictures as she went with her goggles, refusing to let her eyes rest on the corpses faces always fearful she'd recognize a face, which was highly unlikely. As Maris continued photographing she strayed off towards the gifteds area. Soon she heard swearing then.
"Honey I'm home!"
"Fuck." Maris cussed under her breath as she quickly dropped to the ground looking at her surroundings while she did so. How the hell did she let herself wander so far without realizing. She wasn't supposed to be encountering people today. She hid herself while she still had a view of the house she'd deduced the voice had come from. "Probably Gifted." She whispered as she turned the heat filter on her goggles on. "Definitely gifted." Maris concluded as she saw the heat signature of wings sprouted from the persons back.
Maris was torn between leaving or sticking around to research the gifted, from a safe distance of course.
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Post by Ayden Fenberg on Oct 7, 2012 16:14:14 GMT -5
Ayden sat very still, listening to the noises of the sewers. There was no water flowing here, as there sometimes was in the sewers of other cities. There was no squeak of rats of rustle of other vermin. It was quiet, the only sounds the movement and whispers of the other people like himself as they tried to find bedding, food, anything that could be of use. The nomadic group was always restless when they hit a new area, especially a city where there might be those damn glow-eyes.
.
Though he was a younger member of the group, Ayden had his own way of dealing with the stress of hitting a new place. He sat with large sculpted wooden table leg across his lap, a series of twisted pieces of metal at his side. His fingers roamed the wooden surface, finding possible cracks in the wood where the metal might fit. Then he put the head of the leg against his mouth and began to suck and nibble on it, like some sort of pacifier. One of the older members had told him long ago that this was the best way to soften the wood and keep it from splitting if you wanted to inlay metal into it.
A small child turned a pair of red eyes on him and studied what he was doing. Ayden stopped and watched him back, the two of them exchanging looks of curiosity. Ayden was likely one of the most deformed looking in the group, and seeing a survivor so young was…unusual to say the least. Maybe this city hadn’t been hit quite as hard after all, even though they hadn’t found many new members here yet. The child’s mother caught on to the staring battle, and with a nervous glance at Ayden, shooed the child away to another part of the chamber. Ayden shrugged and went back to chewing on the table leg.
After inserting twisted spikes of scrap, Ayden thought his new weapon looked pretty damn menacing. He stood and swung the thing a few times, liking the whoosh noise it made as it cut through the air. He nodded, and a rare smile crept onto his lips. He gave a strange whistle from his split lips.
“Hey Frank, think this’ll do?” he called to an older man who was crouched, possibly urinating, in a corner.
The man looked up, then stood and brushed off his clothes, though there was really no point with all the grime down here. He strode to where Ayden was standing and took the club from him. He too gave it a few swings, then nodded and gave it back.
“Another masterpiece, kid,” he said in a gravely voice. “Want to test it out?”
“Ah, scouting or foraging?” Ayden asked with a sigh. Either it was time to see what was up there, or the masses were getting hungry. Either way, he was the spryest of the group and the most likely to volunteer for this sort of thing. The older man shrugged.
“Whichever you like. I just think we need to get topside for a while. See what there is.”
Ayden nodded. He slung the club through a ratty cloth bag on his back, filled with a few tins of cat-food and a few stones, just in case. He gave the other man a hearty handshake goodbye and went to the ladder leading up to the sewer grate above. He expertly climbed it and set a shoulder against the grate, gritting his teeth and pushing with all his might. With a rusty creak, the grate shifted up, then to the side and sunlight poured in. Many shielded there eyes as Ayden climbed up and out into the city street.
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Post by Colton Mcleod on Oct 8, 2012 21:20:46 GMT -5
Looking around the town, well you could really call it a town with it looking like people having been around in ages. The houses were falling apart, windows broken and the door opened from the people who do walk around searching for... well just about anything they could find. You would look for food, supplies and even people. Sure their was the normal people which you would see wearing just about everything to keep them from turning into a Berserkers which was the person who had been infected.So what was he, he wasn't a person who was in hiding and try to stay away from the crazy infection. Well he was what people would call gifted, but he liked to think of it as a curse. He though this whole thing was a curse to the world, and the lucky people were the was that were still humans. Sure before this had all happened you had the people who would dream about having power or being a "super hero" but what was so great about this? Really nothing to him. He had gotten use to it because he had to.
Colton didn't mind the strength he gotten, he didn't mind the power. It was the fact he change into a freaky lizard thing, or at least that what he though he looked like. He would stay in human form and never really change unless he need to. Colton was one who you couldn't tell he was gifted unless he need to shape shift just to save his neck, and well their was also if you pissed him off he couldn't control himself from changing no matter how hard he tried.
Colton looked around the quite town, it had always been quite. He wanted to change that by finding someone anyone really. Instead of being on the ground he had decide you could see better if you were on the roofs of a house. Every now and then you had to watched were you stepped or were you decide to jump because well it might just collapse from under you. That had never been fun but it happened and you just dealt with it, so far he hadn't gotten hurt that bad so their was no reason to stop. Colton ran and jumped to the next house and grabbed a hold of it so he could make his way to the top and look around. He sat at the very top of the roof looking around again. Getting no where, he decide to head down five or six houses just so he wouldn't be in one spot the whole time. Colton made his way down the street on top of the houses. When he had gotten to a spot where he decide to stop and look around he sat down trying to stay out of site if someone did come.
Colton closed his eyes for a bit, and well lost track of time. When he opened them he yawned and rubbed his blue eyes and then his fixed his dirty blonde hair. He looked down the road he saw a girl who was defiantly human looking at then house next to him. She had so gear on to keep her safe or something. He wonder what had brought her this far down her into the gifted area. She had obviously found something, Colton moved closer to see what she was doing, but he tired his best to stay quite and not be seen by her or whatever she had found if it was a gifted.
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Post by Athena Diorio on Oct 8, 2012 22:15:10 GMT -5
The angelic girl stepped inside the house, glancing about to see what sort of state it was in. She could definitely smell death in the air, knowing it was probably upstairs. Many of the humans locked theirselves on their homes, trying to save themselves from the Blue Plague. But they ended up contracting the disease anyways, since factories stopped making anything other than purified water, since purifying the water did nothing to get rid of the virus.
Athena looked at the floor, and saw how broken glass was scattered everywhere. She sighed, pulling back her wings and spreading them out. With her wings stretched out, she truly looked supernatural, as though she didn't belong in this world. But then again, none of the gifteds really belonged here.
Throwing her wings forward, a large gust of wind blowing through the house now. The old walls creaked, the glass threw itself away from Athena, and a chair fell over in the entryway.
"Oops" she giggled, stepping forward and making her way down the hallway. She looked to the room at her left, and saw that it was the living room. She stopped for a moment to study the family pictures that hung on the wall. A mother and father held onto eachother lovingly, while their three children, a teenage boy, and what looked like twin sisters, smiled widely.
Athena frowned, and tore her eyes away from the picture as she forced herself to keep on walking.
Yes, Athena felt guilty that her family was responsible for releasing this virus, even though it was just a mistake on Magnus' part, she was now blamed for all of it. Berserkers, and a few humans called her the angel of death.
She soon found the kitchen, which was the second room on the left, and stepped inside.
She nearly threw up her breakfast the moment she saw the rotting corpse sitting in a chair.
"Oh god. Why?" She choked, stepping back quickly and escaping the smell.
Athena swiftly made her way out of the home, the pot of soup still in tow. Once on the houses porch, she looked down at her lunch.
"Maybe I could just eat you now since my luck today isn't really working out" she talked to the soup. Yes, she did seem a little off, but the only way for her to keep herself somewhat sane was to talk to herself, and the objects around her.
"Yes, yes. I think I'll just enjoy this right now" she smiled, stepping off the porch. She sat down on the steps, and set her pot and feather to the side.
She dipped her hand into the soup, and began to sip the chilled broth from her cupped hand. She picked out a piece of green bean and a small slice of carrot, popping them in her mouth.
"Yum" she sighed.
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Post by Maris Henley on Oct 9, 2012 11:00:51 GMT -5
Maris zoomed her googles vision in on the open door, the gifted was still inside. She itched to investigate further and Curiosity was beginning to get the better of her. Her muscles ached to move and it was a rush of relief when she tightened then slowly rising up from her crouched position.
"I'll on move a little closer. " Maris told herself as she creeped forward carefully. She held her gun firmly in both hands in front of her, elbows locked, prepared to raise it up quickly if need be.
Then to many thing occurred at once for her brain to analyze. First the sewer grate cover to her left on the street rattled and the shoved open. It was the Bunker Dwellers belief that only Berserkers made use of the sewer systems. Berserkers were tough competition for the top of Maris's "People Not to Run Into" list. Many hated Maris just as much as they hated the Gifted. Blind hatred, addicted to revenge.
Mere seconds after the sewer grate opened Maris's ear picked up a scraping sound of shingles to her above right. Her eyes flicked up in her sweeping scan and she caught the distinct heat signature of another body.
"Shit." she spat and Started to turn to far them head on. But the moment her head started to turn there was movement at her original focal point, the door. There she was the gifted that was Maris was investigating.
"Blow me." She said with exhaspedation as she made eye contact with Athena. She was in a ton of trouble
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Post by Ayden Fenberg on Oct 9, 2012 13:09:44 GMT -5
Ayden sat for a moment on the street next to the manhole, just letting his eyes adjust to the outside world. The air was thick with dust, maybe smoke here, and the muted sunlight poured over deteriorating buildings and parked cars. He grimaced at a convertible near him, a baby blue one. He’d been studying for a license when all this hit, and he wondered if he’d have been a good driver. Up until now he hadn’t had the balls to steal a car yet. Or the time really.
Strange, he noted, that he paid attention to the cars now more than he did to the human bones and rotted flesh that dotted the landscape.
He hoisted the club over one shoulder and scanned the nearby buildings, trying to decide which one would yield the best results. At first, everything seemed quiet and still. Then he heard a rustle in a house across the street. He waited, very still, watching to see if it was an animal, a glow-eyes. Nothing emerged, but he heard the mutter of a voice somewhere there. Despite himself, Ayden felt a smile creep across his deformed list.
“Well, what have we here?” he almost purred to himself.
His mission of finding food completely forgotten, Ayden moved slowly to the sidewalk, then from hiding place to hiding place towards the source of the noise. He could feel his breath coming heavy and hot, the adrenalin levels slowly rising as he inched ever nearer. He found a hospitable bush near a house, and paused there to try to take in everything.
He searched and easily found the form of a young girl, without shoes and seemingly untouched by the plague. He didn’t let his sight fool him though, that was a dirty glow-eyes to be sure of it. She seemed to be just eating now, sitting and talking to herself. Damn those creatures could be strange. Ayden resisted the urge to run at her, club swinging. He didn’t know what her powers were, she might kill him in an instant. Not worth the risk, he decided. Best to sit tight and see what-
Then there was another form, though he couldn’t be sure if this was a male or a female. It wore a gasmask and carried…a gun? Well, that was a rare sight. Ayden licked his lips and shifted restlessly in his hiding place. Whether that was a gifted or not, he wanted that gun. Maybe the glow-eyes would kill the other being, then he could go swipe the gun. After all, glow-eyes didn’t have any use for them a lot of the time, so maybe she’d leave it there for him to scavenge.
Ayden tensed his muscles and slipped his hand around the handle of the club, squeezing tightly. He held his breath and waited to see which way this thing was going to go.
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Post by Athena Diorio on Oct 9, 2012 15:25:27 GMT -5
Grabbing the shinny feather that lay beside her pot of soup, she stuck the tip into a large piece of carrot she had apparently overlooked when slicing them up. The feather slid in smoothly, like there was almost nothing there.
Athena bit the carrot off of the feather she seemed to be using as an eating utensil now. The carrot crunched like it was supposed to, and the taste was fantastic as it danced on her tongue.
She not off the rest of the carrot, then began spinning the feather.
Stopping suddenly, Athena glanced over her shoulder, hearing the slight rustle of some leaves.
"Hello?" She called, standing up. Her wings shuddered slightly, a pearlescent shimmer was on her feathers. Her feathers shimmered sometimes because she felt threatened, and her wings were hardening like a built in shield.
Athena rubbed her fingers on the feather in her hand, and it softened back into a normal feather beneath her touch. Loosening her grip, she let the wind around her whisk the feather away.
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Post by Colton Mcleod on Oct 9, 2012 17:00:44 GMT -5
Colton looking at the girl in the suit, then he notice her draw a gun. Colton shifted himself a ways a bit just to make sure it wasn't him she saw, but before moved any farther he noticed a girl come out of the house she had been looking at. "Alright well it not me she see yet." He said in his head then move closer and then sat down, leaning up against the roof to relax and see what would happen.
Colton didn't really want anything to happen at all or at least he didn't want to see any fighting because a gifted vs a human could be a little unfair to some of the humans if they didn't know how much power the gifted had. He closed his eyes real quite and took in a quick breath, breathing in air. He remember breathing in the sweet air which was full of pollution from all the cars. He looked back at them raising one eye brow waiting to notice if the gifted had seen her, when she spoke Colton figure that she wasn't to positive that someone had been out there.
Colton grin and stood up a bit cracking his back he looked the other way from then the saw a guy. Colton's grin went away and now he just looked at him. He wasn't dress up in the kid of gear she had on, so maybe he was a gifted. No that couldn't, if he was a gifted he wouldn't need that club in his hand. Colton gulped and the cleared his throat. "Well he could make this more interesting." Colton mumbled.
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Post by Maris Henley on Oct 9, 2012 20:36:55 GMT -5
Maris sighed in relief, it seemed the angel gifted hadn't seen here. Now she just needed to be able to back away carefully. As quietly as she could Maris began to shift herself backwards her feet sliding just above the cracked pavement while she kept her gun aimed at the gifteds shoulder. Aim to disable not to kill. She took another step backwards shifting her weight backwards. Just one more step back and she would be able to turn and run to a safe distance.
"Blue Jay to Cardinal, Cardinal report your location." Her earpiece blared in her ear followed by a roaring wave of interference. Maris had missed her twenty minute check in time, in surprise Maris squeezed the trigger, her aim shifting leaving the bullet to whiz past the Athena's head and bury into the side of the house.
"Damnit!" Maris grabbed her ear trying to alleviate the constant strident tone that was emitting into her ear. Pop! and the noise stopped along with every other noise coming from her right side. Maris had just shot at a Gifted and popped her eardrum, there was no way she was getting out of this unscathed.
"Cardinal to the Nest, I think we have a problem."
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Post by Athena Diorio on Oct 9, 2012 20:53:19 GMT -5
Athena gasped, hearing something rush past her ear. Her muscles tensed, and she crouched. Her wings spread out wide, now they shimmered gold as they hardened into something as strong as diamonds.
She saw a figure of a woman in some sort of suit, speaking into a headset.
"Shit!" She mumbled, her toes curling as she realized the girl had shot at her.
There had to be more than one person around this house, since that girl didn't seem to be around any sort of bush or leaves. This was bad. Maybe all the non-infected people were finally coming after her, hoping to find some sort of closure.
She just hoped perhaps another gifted was nearby. Maybe she could put all the attention on them, so she could fly away.
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Post by Ayden Fenberg on Oct 9, 2012 20:53:34 GMT -5
Ayden broke into a wide grin as the girl approached him. Ah, it seemed she hadn’t seen the strangely masked figure who was now slinking away. Well, that was a pity, no shiny new gun to toy around with. But now there was an even more tantalizing prospect: a lone glow-eyes coming towards him like nothing could possibly be more natural. His grip tightened on the club, his nails digging into the wood in anticipation. Just a little closer darling, he though. Just a little closer and I’ll be one more body closer to ridding the earth of filth like you.
He lifted the club to a ready position and poised to leap at her face with all he had. He took a deep breath and…
BANG!
Ayden nearly fell backwards onto the ground in surprise. The sound of a gunshot was unfamiliar to him, to say the least. What was more was that the bullet hadn’t been too far from his head. Was the shot at him? No, it was at the gifted. That masked figure was shooting at her!
“Son of a bitch,” he muttered to himself, shaking the noise out of his ears and mind.
Was that another human like him, hiding their face from gifted to keep unrecognized. Could this being be on his side. He couldn’t be sure, but he was half tempted to come out and see what happened. No, not yet. Not until he knew what this glow-eyes’ power was. Then would be the right time to strike. He steadied himself and his grin reemerged, even wider than before. It seemed there were going to be fireworks here after all.
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Post by Colton Mcleod on Oct 10, 2012 12:54:40 GMT -5
He study them all carefully, only one looked like they really was looking for a fight, the other looked like they would just defend them self if need. He decide that if they did start fighting that Colton would jump down and help or try and stop it. He didn't really know who to help but he should help a gifted just because they are alike, but what if the gifted had been winning. Maybe it would be best if he just stayed out of it and just walked off.
Colton looked at the guy with the club who looked like he was ready to use it. He stood up and just about ready to just about ready to jump down and walk away from everything but then Bang went the gun. Colton jumped up in shock and fell over. He grabbed onto the top of the roof dangling. "Shit" Colton yelled a little loud. Then though to himself, "Crap now they will know someone else is here great thinking Colton." Colton swung back and forth and then throw himself into the window breaking it. Colton tumbled to the ground and just about fell into a hole. leading to the bottom floor. Colton stood up brushing himself off. He looked at his right hair which had a small pieces of glass in it and one huge one. Blood was dripping blood down his arm, he moved his hand over and grabbed the glass out and tossed it on the ground. The blood started to go away and his arm healed up it still stung pretty bad but it was just a little scratch to him. Colton brushed all the little glass off and then walkover to look out the window.
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Post by Ayden Fenberg on Oct 10, 2012 15:15:09 GMT -5
Ayden's eyes shot up and focused on a small form dangling from a roof edge nearly right behind him. He squinted, trying to focus on what this was, human or otherwise. He felt his throat tighten as, with a smooth swing, the man flung himself through a glass window. From inside, there was a crash and shuffle. Ayden swallowed hard, trying to get that tightness in his chest to go away.
"Well, shit," he muttered.
Only a glow-eyes would do something like that. Broken glass could kill, as can a fall from two stories if you didn't land quite right. Why risk combining the two unless you were sure you weren't going to die? What was worse, was that meant this man's gift had to do with healing, maybe invulnerability to flesh wounds. Either way, a club wasn't the best plan for this one. And now he was in a house behind him, catching Ayden between two glow-eyes, neither of whom he could truly gauge the powers of.
He turned his eyes sharply on the one who'd shot the gun. Before long, maybe he'd have ally himself with that one. It might end up being his only shot at making it out of there intact.
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Post by Athena Diorio on Oct 10, 2012 15:21:33 GMT -5
Athena gasped, feeling a presence behind her, whipping her head around, she saw a man with a club. His face, so horribly scared it sent chills down her spine.
Her eyes jumped from the mans face, to his club, and back to his face. She could've had her face smashed it right then, but thanks to the woman with the gun, it scared the man off it seemed. She reached over to one of her wings, and plucked out a feather. It had already hardened over, so it felt like just another knife in her hand.
Athena kicked off the ground, and her wings began to beat the air beneath her, taking her about four feet into the air.
"I don't want any trouble!" She shouted, hoping she could reason with these two humans.
"I'll part my way, and you can part yours!" She looked from the deformed man to the girl with the gun.
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