Forum Thread

5 couldn't handle being in here for long. It felt too foreign and caging. Truth be told, she only felt right being in The Community, surrounded by people like her. No, she couldn't say that. The Outside was free. The Outside was never as controlling as The Community. No matter what she wouldn't allow herself to miss it. The only reason she even wanted to go back was to figure out what was going on, and how to stop it. All she had was the cryptic message from 1, and could she even believe him? The die-hard loyalist to the Masked Man? Then again, the Masked Man was always saying how no one would leave until he decreed so...Gah, 5 needed air. Not wanting to rescue the idiots who had tried to steal from this place, she stalked outside, leaning her head against one of the glass windows, balancing on one foot. The boy from the Walmart Parking lot noticed her getting up and went to follow her. "Hey, you okay?" 5 glanced at him. "Yeah, why?" "You seem kind of down.."

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Loni had just booked it out of the building with the food she had grabbed, going around to the back of the building to eat (hopefully) without getting caught.

Kaida had eventually found her way to the Walmart parking lot and had gone towards the Starbucks

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7 stood up and grinned with a wave towards Kaida. "Hey! Glad to see you found your way back!" That put her mind at ease. If Kaida was here then the others must be too (if there were others, still not quite sure who stayed on the bus-). It seemed like the walmart boy wasn't going to help them so they might as well leave before "the police" arrive. "I'll go get the others inside the shop, I think we should get going." 7 didn't wait for anyone's response as she eagerly went to retrieve her friends. She couldn't shake the sense that something bad was going to happen and wanted to leave as soon as possible. She grabbed Marusaki's hand and turned to Jonathan "Kaida is here now so we should leave.. before the police come." She left pulling Marusaki along, still too impatient to wait for anyone to give their word.

Twelve blinked at the lady wearing odd clothing behind a desk, whom he assumed had created the circle. The word 'pay' was new to him, though he vaguely remembered it from elsewhere.. His eyes lit up as a lightbulb lit in his head.
"Ohh, you mean, like, with those little silver circles!" This caused him to pause again as he realised that he didn't have any. He stared at the woman for a moment, before returning the cookie to it's place on the counter, spitting out the chewed up crumbs he had yet to swallow. It was at this point that Seven approached him. 'Police' was another word to add to his list of unknown randomly assembled letters. Despite his lack of knowledge, he understood enough; 'poh-lice' were bad. With a slight nod, he turned back to the counter, patting his newly assembled cookie and giving the lady a warm smile, before following Marusaki and Buffy from the Star Bucks.
Outside, everyone seemed somewhat tense and distressed. He glanced around, searching for the disturbance but failing to look up. Shrugging it off, he stretched his arms before striding over to Five, who appeared to be conversing with a young man. A frown crossed Jake's face; he had learned not to allow anyone the benefit of his trust until he had found good reason to. This person was no different.
He stalled several feet away from Mora and the Walmart worker, listening to their conversation with his hands in his pockets. Nothing appeared to be out of order yet - other than their lives, of course.

Gradually, they came. He didn't know which one was which, aside from the purple tinted blur. Yes, that was 5. If nothing else, she had to die. Everything aside from his targets was irrelevant. 19's chillingly minuscule pupils flickered across the scene briefly; little was seen by the boy, but enough was perceived, albeit foggily, for him to proceed with his mission. Dropping down on one knee, he touched one hand to the roof and held the other out in front of him, palm turned to the sky, fingers curling inwards like claws. He began to raise it slowly, his face still hauntingly expressionless.
Quietly, steadily, a car parked a little ways down the street from the traitors began to rise into the air.

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At first, 5 was simply making awkward small talk with Seymour, unsure how to respond without blowing her cover. It apeared that this was Seymour's first time talking with a girl, as his side of the conversation was equally hesitant. She had a bad feeling, however, and paused mid-sentence. Seymour raised an eyebrow. "You-" His eyes widened. "What the heck? That car is moving off the ground!" 5 whipped around. What in the world? It had to be someone in the Community who was doing this. 5 may not be a native of the Outside, but moving cars into the air didn't seem natural. Her eyes moving around, she looked for a sign of who could be doing this. She spotted a dark blur atop a building, and her eyes narrowed. What was that?

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Kaida turned around to face the car, quickly changing into dragon form and backed up towards the Starbucks, raising her front legs to appear larger. She coughed a little bit, before firing a snowball from her mouth at the car.

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The car was barely rattled by the snowball, the only result being a soft thunk at it hit the side mirror.

When the object 19 was lifting reached an altitude of six feet, the boy made a swiping motion from left to right with his raised hand. The large black blur shot across his vision. Something odd rose in the back of his mind, a vague sense of regret. It didn't remain for long, however, and was quickly swept away by a wave of fog.

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Now 5 couldn't decide which was more terrifying-the fact that she had just seen a car levitate, or that the dark form on the building appeared to be hurling the car into the air and-oh, right for her. Now that wasn't good. "What are you doing? G-get out of the way!" Seymour said urgently, trying to pull her back. 5 realized what was going on, and tried to hurry out of the way. The force of the car smashing into the ground just inches from 5's feet sent both her and Seymour flying, smacking against the ground. If it wasn't for Seymour managing to stop 5, she might have hit the ground hard. "You okay?" "Yeah," 5 gasped. She straightened up. "Listen, you have to get out of here. NOW." Frightened by the look on 5's face and the fact that he had almost been crushed by a flying car, the boy nodded hurriedly before fleeing the scene. 5 stared back at the dark form on the top of the building. The best she could do was get closer. She took off running down the street, jumping and shape-shifting midair, before flying up. Surprisingly, she was able to become a larger bird than before, the extra use of her ability seemed to be strengthening it. Now that she was getting closer, to 5's horror, she realized that it was the boy that she had seen the night before the escape. She knew she couldn't trust him! She was hesitant to attack though, and simply hovered in midair.

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Marusaki watched in horror as the events played out. She knew her powers would be of no use here. She ran until she came to an alleyway, and saw a ghost cat. She looked at it, and decided to shove it back into it’s body, so she could have it stop the fight. “No one can resist the adorableness of a cat!” She thought, bringing it out into the middle of the fight.

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19's haunting eyes followed the bird-like blur into the air, staring straight at it, their depths emotionless, the pupils the only outward sign of what was happening to him mentally. Without a word, without any hesitation, he stepped off the roof of the building, dropping half a foot before his boots hit a solid platform of air. As he strode through the sky towards the figure, with each step he whipped up more and more wind around him. As the air currents picked up speed, shattered glass from the car below was caught up and whisked around, albeit unintentionally. Shards of it grazed the boy's skin, but he took no notice. With a pushing motion, he thrust his right hand towards 5, sending a shockwave through the air straight towards the figure.

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Breeze and her mother sat together, watching some house renovating show. The girl was thoroughly disinterested; don't get it wrong, she loved spending time with the woman, but watching two guys break down walls, encounter a problem, fix the problem, and hate on the backyard? Just why? "Mom," she began, turning. "I'm going to go walk around, get a sense for the city. Okay?" Something flickered through the woman's eyes, and she immediately shook her head. "Not on your own, you're not. I'm going with you." That was fair. Breeze didn't exactly have the best track record with going out on her own. As her mom grabbed her purse, the girl glanced down at the black paracord bracelet on her right arm and couldn't help but wonder yet again how life would look if her brother was still with them.

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7 went pale as she froze to the spot. The whistling of the angry wind tossing the car sounded so familiar to her... it was the wind boy wasn’t it? What could she do? She had little energy to spare for the sky, besides wind could easily beat fog and hail. She shook her head and ran back into the starbucks and peeped out through the window. She’ll have to protect 5 she decided. Fight fire with fire.. well wind with wind. She hoped the sky spirits had enough mind of their own to be able to protect 5 even if 7 couldn’t give more than one command: protect the purple bird. She slumped down beneath the window exhausted and too afraid to look.

It seemed like time had frozen. For a split second, maybe it was 5's bird form, maybe it was the fear coursing through her, but 5 could see everything stop. The shards of glass spinning through the air, the semi-transparent forms of the wind spirits, 19's cold, emotionless form. But in a rush, everything was happening. The roar of the wind filled 5's tiny bird ears, and she was thrown through the air once more. A small voice in her head remarked that she seemed to get tossed around a lot today. She tried to flap her wings to stay in the air, but it felt like they were getting torn off. The shockwave sent her through the air, smashing against the side of a building. "That's...gonna hurt," she thought weakly, trying to stay in the air despite the pain raging through her wings. If only she could figure out a way to get him on the ground, maybe then she could take him down. The sky was clearly his turf.

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Kaida, not really noticing that she was a little bit bigger than her dragon form normally was, had shot a snowball at 19, hoping to get him away from 5 for at least a moment.

Loni had rushed out from behind the building after eating the pastry. "Great, the Masked Man sent out another one of his attack dogs after us..."

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Marusaki looked around, realizing she didn’t know where to go and help. She decided to look around for more ghosts to help with whatever was happening. She found a few bird ghosts, and she shoved them back into their bodies, and had them help 5.

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A bit of shrapnel sliced through the black paracord bracelet on 19's arm. The tattered keepsake spun away, carried off to who-knows-where. The boy's sleeves were becoming progressively more and more torn and tattered, and one perfectly positioned shard blew past the left diagonally, slicing the sleeve and revealing the linear scar that traced down that arm. If it hadn't been clear already that 19 wasn't himself, his reaction, or rather lack of one, to this would have made it clear. Whereas previously he would have been horrified and embarrassed at his own scar, now he didn't even acknowledge the occurrence. He just stood there, staring emotionlessly at the being that he could only view simply as 5. In his mind, this wasn't a person or a living thing, just a number. A number that, like the others present, must be eliminated. The reanimated birds that flew towards the growing windstorm were quickly tossed away by the raging wind. The snowball thrown by the dragon didn't come close to reaching him. Behind him, a new, undamaged car was lifted into the air, floating menacingly as he prepared to once again lob it at his opponent. It was so, so painful, though... Exercising his powers like this was exhausting, and every bone in his body screamed for him to stop. His mind wouldn't let him, though. He had to do this. He had to eliminate the traitors.

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5 stared him down, her yellow bird eyes blinking slowly. Her inhuman face gave away none of the pain that was raging inside her. She couldn't take this to the ground, Cloud Boy clearly wanted to off her first and wouldn't have a care if he hurt any of the others. But she couldn't stay in the air for long, it would kill her slowly. She saw the bracelet tumble away and watched his reaction-or rather, lack of one. That was strange. He didn't even seem to notice it was missing. But she did notice the car, which made her hesitate. Would he actually kill her? Another member of The Community? Granted, she wasn't a loved member, but didn't that mean anything? Why was he acting so...inhumane?

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11 came out of the shadows, creating shadow birds and sending them into the air to disguise 5. They would be pretty obvious from up close, but from a distance, you probably couldn’t tell the difference. Natasha spoke to the shadows, telling one of them to go stalk Tempest, and the other to aid Marusaki, Kaida and Mora. Natasha realised, she didn’t feel as drained as she normally would. I must be improving. She thought to herself. Her sixth sense, however, told her something was not right with Tempest. Tempest had tried to help them, and the last time she saw him.....Oh wait, it was when 1 shot him with the stun gun, wasn’t it? Something must have had happened for this to occur....Tempest didn’t seem to be in control, in a sense. Natasha snapped out of it, however, and went back to fighting.

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It was then that 7 realized: normally in these circumstances stances she would have blacked out by now due to exhaustion... but the fact that she didn’t made her grin. Not that she’s been in “these circumstances” before. But running around all day and giving multiple commands under stress.. not to mention the weather actually obeying her. I guess a bit of stress can help you grow huh? She sighed. The horrified looks of the consumers and employees were starting to nerve her.

The winds shifted creating an updraft under 5, hopefully to release some of the stress of flying. A another draft of wind formed in front of the car. The furious torrent of wind fought for control of the vehicle and pushed it back towards the ground. The wind would not fight against their brethren for long however and it was unclear how long they’d keep the car stationary. If stationary at all that is, but the fight between free will and forced control would at least result in a slow ascent.

Perhaps it was because of his unfailing memory of that night that Twelve was cowering behind a wall, his hands covering his ears and his body shaking violently, though it could just as easily have been simple fear at the boy he had once assumed harmless; though fear in itself was never simple, Jonathan reasoned. His clenched fists did little to mute the valiant roaring of the wind, the howling song that had been terrorising him for years, despite his somewhat monotous endeavours to rid himself of the phobia. Whining a little, he attempted to open his eyes, which he managed with an immense struggle.
The sight only made the tremors jolting through his body become apparently more violent, if that were possible. Splinters of glass and shrapnel were taking flight, unsettled by the vigorous winds. Several civilians were huddled next to him, desperately clinging on to their slender hope of life. This struck a sour cord in Jonathan; innocent people should not be suffering because of the escapee's mistakes.
Realising that it could be the last he ever took, he drew in a large breath, though it was slightly diluted by ancient dusts. Somewhat hesitantly, he stood, stumbling around a corner to see a sight that was.. unsettling, to say the least. The crazy wind man had what appeared to be a purple bird pinned to a building, and was taking aim at it with a car. Several other flying animals were attempting to attack Tempest through the typhoon to no avail. Almost immediately, Jake realised what he needed to do.
His eyes had a red tint about them - he was trying to ignore the screaming terror inside himself, though from how he looked, it was obvious that he couldn't last much longer in the winds.
Barely managing to avoid a flying coffee container, Twelve considered his options. He could leave, which was probably what the rest of the group had done, seeing as they weren't within his sight. There was something rather off about the bird, though. He had never seen many birds - they didn't visit the Community very often - but he knew enough about them to realise that purple birds were rare. It then occurred to him that Mora was a shapeshifter.
His body acted before his mind, his arm locking around the neck of the person that now happened to be in front of him - Nineteen. It would appear that, upon teleporting, he had upsetted his stomach and was about to lose his breakfast. As long as it was over the traitor, Jonathan was happy.
He secured his arm around Tempest's neck by grabbing it with his right had, so he had Nineteen in a headlock. Shrapnel and shards of glass were now piercing his skin, causing him to grit his teeth and growl a bit. Only now had his mind caught up with his actions; he didn't know if the apparently floating boy would be able to support his weight. If not, he supposed they would fall, but Jonathan was sure of his ability to land on top of the traitor.