A New World

Marny was the first one to spot the small raccoon. Its eyes bugged with fear as it found itself face to face with an angry looking Manticore. Marny morphed back to human form with a gasp of exclamation.
“Holly!”

The raccoon trembled slightly, and the air shimmered around her before the animal changed into a scared, tired and hungry looking Holly. Mary and Natalie smiled at their friend while Allyssianne looked at her with a strange look on her face.
“Is that... blood?” The sorceress asked, looking at Holly’s sleeve, where there was a very dark stain on her white uniform, and something glistening red. The girl grimaced.
“Yeah, it’s stopped bleeding though, I think...”
“Let us see.” Allyssianne said.

Holly reluctantly rolled up her torn sleeve to show a large rip in the muscle and flesh. Allyssianne took one look at it and turned to the fire, starting to melt a pot of snow over the flames. The three girls teamed together to help clean and bandage her bleeding wound with strips torn from the bottom of the cloaks.

Once they had finished, they gave Holly some of the leftover meat from their dinner. As she ate, she told the trio why she had come to join them. She had set off with Illianna, and they had travelled for several days until things had started to go wrong.

Illianna had been walking in front, Holly lagging behind, tired out. They came within sight of a rundown city. It was dark, and Holly didn’t bother to look at the signs bearing the name of the town. She was too tired to think, but there was some sort of nagging feeling in the back of her mind that something wasn’t right, as it had been for the last three days. Lara had felt the same thing, and that’s why she had left them about twenty kilometres back, turning to try and find the others. Holly had stayed, truly believing that Illianna could get her out of the mess she found herself in. She had learnt to ignore the nagging feeling, when Illianna said that she was just being paranoid, and her mind turned to concentrate on her hunger and tiredness. Even the normally ever-present topic of boys wasn’t in the foremost of her mind, ever since she had met the others and their iron-hard will to rescue the boys trapped in Cairo.

Illianna continued to march on, and Holly tried doggedly to keep up as the other girl passed over the border into the city. That’s when the first alarm bells started to ring in her head. There was something eerily familiar about this city, a fleeting memory of fear. She walked past the rundown bell tower, seeing its bell lying on its side.
“Illi?” Holly asked, slightly scared.
“We’re nearly there.” The other girl replied without so much as turning round.
“No, where are we?”
“Somewhere.”

Holly stopped dead, and folded her arms. Her face was stubborn, the tiredness having vanished as an adrenaline rush started to creep through her muscles. She looked around, and saw the that they were in the Red Square. She pushed her fear back down into herself.
“I’m not going any further until you tell me.”

Illianna stopped as well, and Holly heard a small click. Illianna turned round and pointed a small colt pistol at Holly’s heart. There was o pity, no sorrow, no remorse in her eyes, just wells of cold, steely determination.
“Come on Holly, don’t make me shoot you.”
Holly swallowed hard, fear welling up in her mind again, threatening to take over.
Illianna put her finger on the trigger, threatening to shoot.
Holly’s mind screamed at her to run, to get as far away from Illianna as she possible could.
Illianna took aim, looking down the short barrel of the gun.
Holly could do nothing by stare, feet stuck to the ground. She stared at Illianna, disbelieving that someone she considered a friend would be capable of shooting her. With a millisecond’s notice, anger started to boil within Holly’s mind, and her feet came unstuck from the ground. She turned and fled back the way they had come.
A shot rang through the Square as Illianna squeezed the trigger, and fired the shot.
Holly felt the tearing, searing, burning pain in her arm and heard the dull thunk of metal on wood as the bullet hit a building in front of her. Something scarlet splattered onto the snow beside her, and a warm liquid ran down her arm, and Holly knew that she hadn’t been spared from the bullet. She turned a corner quickly, the forest back in sight again, and left Illianna far behind.

That's really good! I love the new chapters Keep it up YAY

LucyXX

Yeah.

Hollyyyyyyy

shes the coolest

tha's brillante'

Holly stared into the fire, biting her lip. She couldn’t believe that she had trusted Illianna, and had been betrayed. It seemed so... unreal. She sighed, closing her eyes.

Only a few minutes later, there was a rustling in the bushes, and the little group leapt to alert, taking defensive positions. They relaxed slightly as an ermine poked its head out of the leaves and blinked at them.
“Oh look, guess we’re having ferret for breakfast.” Allyssianne said.
“It’s an ERMINE Ally!” Said a very disgruntled Lara, as she morphed back into her human form. “They’re not as evil!”
“Whatever,” Allyssianne replied, “G’night.” She morphed into a wolf and curled up next to the fire, falling asleep as the others followed her example.

They looked like a rather strange bunch, A wolf, with a doe’s head resting on its back, a Manticore curled up between the doe’s legs, head resting on its stomach. The ermine was curled up between the Manticore’s jaw and chest. The raccoon finished off the gang, lying under the Manticore’s front paws and next to the wolf. They hadn’t thought to put anyone on guard duty that night, they were too tired to think about the consequences. Anyway, no one had attacked them so far during the night, so they had no reason to expect the silenced rifles that poked through the bushes around the clearing. Brightly coloured darts were fired from them, hitting the sleeping animals. There was barely a twitch from any of them, and none of them awoke. Several men dressed in dark camouflage stepped out towards them, gathering the animals and taking them away.

Suspense.

Its killing me!

Tha's great!

The girls came round in a cell, not unlike the one they had vacated not so long ago. It was bright at the girls opened their eyes, too bright. At first, they merely thought that snow had fallen during the night, and decided to get up and stretch. Allyssianne tried to yawn, but found that a heavy muzzle had been placed over her snout, preventing her from opening her mouth. A deep growl emanated from her throat as she also fought against a collar, alerting the others to the situation. Natalie reared up onto her hind legs, battling the ropes around her head and legs. Marny whipped her spiked tail from side to side in an attempt to slice through the ties holding her down on her side. Lara threw herself against the bars of the cage she was stuck in, and surprisingly, Holly just sat there in her own cage, not doing much.

The door opened, revealing three people who walked into the cell. One, seemingly the leader, was unarmed, but the other two, guards, were armed.
“Welcome!” The first man declared, arms outstretched as if to welcome them, but the gesture was met with steely silence and glares. He seemed undeterred, and signalled for the two guards to untie or release the animals. A boy leant against the doorway, about fourteen in age, with blond hair and grey eyes. As soon as he had appeared, an aura of calm swept over the angry animals, soothing all the worries and calming the stress.

The girls were released one by one, and they soon morphed back to their human forms, relaxed.
“Thank you Alex.” The leader said, smiling at the boy. “Now, I understand that you are all wound up after your time spent with the Association, and your journey in the wilderness. I must admit you survived extremely well. I will leave you to rest.”

The man left the room, Alex following him. As soon as the strange boy had left, the wave of calm disappeared as well, and Allyssianne started to pace frantically. The others watched her, lost in their own thoughts.

DUN DUN DUN!

Two days passed before the man came back again, and the girls were in the middle of a meal when he knocked and entered. He smiled at them, but the girls were wary, and his smile faded at the blank looks he was getting.
“I’m going to come straight to the point here. I need you to help me.”
“With what?” Lara asked suspiciously.
“With bringing the Association down. I understand that one of your number is still with them.”
“Only the traitor.” Holly muttered.
“Traitor?”
“Illianna.” Marny clarified.
“Anyway, will you help us bring them down and save your friend? Either way, we’ll get you safely back to your families.”

The girls conferred in low voices for a few moments, before the agreement was reached. They would help.

Two guards brought the boys to see them, and then the three adults left. Allyssianne made the first move, hugging Jamie tightly.
“You do know that she’s never going to let you go now?” Marny warned jokingly, and Allyssianne glared at her friend, and let go of the boy. Jamie gave a pretend gasp of air before smiling at Allyssianne.
“Sorry, but do you know if there was a girl in Moscow, red hair, called Illianna?” Asked one boy, the same one that the girls had seen two days prior.
“This is Alex,” Jamie explained, “Illianna is his sister.”
“You mean the traitor?” Lara clarified.
“She’s not a traitor!” Alex snarled.
“Eh, yeah! She tried to kill me!” Holly spat.

A seemingly endless fog of sadness drifted over the teenagers assembled in the cell as Alex lamented his sister’s choice. It lasted for a few minutes before one boy, with pale blond hair and almost red eyes recovered.
“Alex! Snap out of it!”
The fog vanished as Alex shook his head. “Sorry Daniel.” He murmured before looking determined. “We have to get Illi out of there.”
“Count me out.” Lara and Holly said at the same time. None of the others seemed too keen on the idea until Allyssianne stepped forwards.
“I’ll go.”

WOW! This one's good

NATTTTTAAAALIEEE IS LOST LOL

LucyXX

right we need more up or i'm definatelly not getting any sleep tonight!!!
lol

Alba xx

Despite the protests and the bullet wound in her shoulder, Allyssianne wouldn’t be budged from her decision. She went and saw the leader of the base, and put her plan to him. The man, Jack was his name, wasn’t too happy about the idea either, but saw no other alternative. She would be allowed to go.

That very evening, she boarded a helicopter that would drop her a few kilometres away from Moscow. Jamie and Marny were with her, Caleb having preferred not to accompany his sister. Allyssianne was just making a few last minute checks on her parachute.
“You can still turn around.” Jamie told her, but Allyssianne grimly shook her head.
“I have to bring her back.”
Jamie grabbed a spare parachute and strapped it on. “Then you’re not going alone” He said, “Marny, make sure the boys don’t kill each other.”

The hypnotist jokingly saluted the pair just before they jumped out of the helicopter, aiming to land in a small clearing just below them.

Jamie landed cleanly on the ground, and took off the parachute before looking around for Allyssianne. Seeing no parachute around, he started to worry slightly, but was reassured by the sound of swearing from the edge of the clearing. Striding towards the sound, he saw Allyssianne suspended from a tree, the ‘chute having caught on a branch. She was just undoing the final strap, and fell to the ground, where she picked herself up to see Jamie’s laughing face.
“No comment,” She warned, and pulled out a compass. Taking a reading, the sorceress then morphed into a wolf and loped away, followed by a sleek black panther.

Jamie relied on Allyssianne for the main part of the direction, because he didn’t know where he was going. She was carrying the bag with maps and the compass. He couldn’t help but notice the limp in Allyssianne’s foreleg getting steadily worse as she ran over the ground. He didn’t want to stop her and point it out, as she seemed so determined to complete this mission. He wondered why it meant so much to her.

Allyssianne trotted into the city, ducking and avoiding the busy streets. Her rough, thick coat was flecked with snow, but it didn’t bother her. Jamie, on the other hand, with his thin, sleek black coat was shivering slightly as the cold wind cut into him.

They stopped in the ruins of an old church, near the research centre. The two teenagers morphed back, and Allyssianne passed her backpack to Jamie.
“If I’m not back within 24 hours, then go home. Do you understand?”
“I won’t leave you!”
“You must.”

With those words, Allyssianne strode wearily towards the base. Jamie watched her go until he couldn’t see her any more. He took a blanket out of the bag, morphed into a panther, and lay down in a fairly warm pocket of air, blanket tucked around him to keep off the chill, to wait out the twenty four hours.

Allyssianne’s pace flagged as she approached the entrance gate, heavily guarded as always. She was glad that she had never changed out of the white uniform they had worn before escaping, despite the fact that it was now varying shades of brown and green as well as ripped in several places from the hard trek to the clearing where Jack had found them.

A guard jumped as he saw Allyssianne, and immediately pointed his gun between her eyes. The girl tiredly raised her hands in surrender before her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she collapsed in a heap on the ground. The guard, having recognised her as one of the Gifted, immediately radioed for back up. Several more armed men ran out of the base, and one picked the unconscious girl up and carried her inside.

Now lying on a bed in the medical wing of the base, Allyssianne came round again. There was a stabbing pain in her shoulder, where there was a scar from the bullet wound she had obtained a month or two back. She looked around groggily before coming back to her senses. Blade was there, watching her. She watched back, no expression on her face and no words escaping her mouth. As much as she hated his guts for locking them up for so long, she was back. She had returned to save Illianna, and she would complete this task, no matter the cost.

Blade watched her carefully as Illianna stepped into the room. Allyssianne made no move. Blade nodded curtly and left. Allyssianne laid her head back again before attempting to get up. Illianna walked towards her, and pressed down gently on her uninjured shoulder. Allyssianne narrowed her eyes.
“Don’t,” Illianna said. Allyssianne looked at her, and tried to move her arm, but it was strapped down. Panic started to creep up into her mind, paralyzing her.
“Calm down.” Illianna said quietly. Her voice gave Allyssianne something to hold on to until she could pull her mind back into sensible thinking.
“Why did you come back?” Illianna asked quietly.
Allyssianne sighed. “We debated about leaving you here, but Alex was really upset.”
Something sparked in Illianna’s eyes. “Alex? He’s alive? Is he ok? Tell me!”
“He’s fine,” Allyssianne assured the other girl. “He’s with the others.”
A weight seemed to be lifted from Illianna’s shoulders. “He’s my twin,” She said, “I haven’t seen him for three years now...”
“I can take you to see him.”
“You can’t...” Said a voice.

Blade was leaning against the doorway again. Allyssianne cursed under her breath as she remembered the room of screens. He must have heard their conversation. He walked towards her, stopping a few metres away.
“We have removed the bullet from your shoulder, and installed a little device that will stop you having any more rebellious thoughts or plans.”
Allyssianne snarled at Blade. “You have no right to keep us here.”
“But I do,” Blade said with a small smile. “You see, I wiped your records clean. None of the Gifted exist in this world any more. Birth records, medical records, anything proving that you were ever there has been erased.”
Allyssianne was stunned. She watched him, her expression obviously betraying her thoughts judging by the pleased look on Blade’s face. Her eyes narrowed dangerously. “You’re talking out of your arse.”
Blade’s smile turned into a scowl as he took a small black remote out of his pocket. Adjusting something on it, he then tapped a switch.
Allyssianne gasped, electricity coursing through her nervous system, blinding her with pain. She twisted and struggled against the bonds, thinking that they were the reason for the surge. She begged Blade to stop the electricity, and he obliged a few moments later.
“You will address me as ‘sir’ or ‘master’.” He snarled.
Allyssianne summoned up her courage. She might manage to get herself thrown out. “You’re still talking out of your arse, sir.”
Blade flicked the switch again.

Love your writings my child Keep it up dudette
LucyXX

Haha

My Jenn wrote that

Haaaaa

OUR JENN!

YAYAYYAYAYAYYAYAYAYYAY JENN!

LucyXX

Allyssianne kicked out at the door of her new cell before hopping away, nursing her toes and making a mental note never to kick a reinforced steel door again. She looked around the cell again. Bare concrete walls and floors, about three metres by three. There was no furniture. Allyssianne curled up in a corner, and hoped Jamie was ok.

Allyssianne was still sitting in the corner, her knees tucked up to her chest when Illianna was thrown in as well. The girl lay there, shaking, for a few moments before she stood up and sat next to Allyssianne.
“How can we get out of here now?”
“There’s someone outside who can contact the others. We won’t be here for long...”

In the screen room, Blade scowled. Pressing a switch on the intercom, ordering a squad of guards to search the surrounding areas for anything suspicious.

Jamie pulled closer into his corner, listening to the church bells toll the twenty third hour since Shadow had gone in. His ears pricked up as he heard the sound of snow crunching under boot, and scrunched up in his corner. The radio was carefully between his paws, but he moved it under the blanket and tried to resemble a dead animal of some sort as the torches flashed over him. He held his breath as they walked by. They hadn’t seen him...

Jamie breathed out again, silently. That was a lucky break. He heard the bell toll the twenty fourth hour since Allyssianne had gone in, and with a heavy heart, he morphed back into his human self, and picked up the radio. He swallowed hard, and pressed transmit.
“Panzer to Hanger, Panzer to Hanger.”
“Hanger reading you,” Jack’s voice responded.
“Twenty-four hours past, no sign of Blackie.”
“Withdraw immediately, chopper sent to meet you.”
“We can’t leave her!”
“We don’t have another option. Hanger out.” And the radio went dead.
Back in GRAIL, Jack leant away from the radio equipment, his head in his hands.
“This was a stupid mission. I never should have authorised it!”
The Gifted were all gathered round, looking at each other. No one knew what to say.
“I put two Gifted at risk for the sake of one more.”
“Jack,” Alex said quietly, “it’s my sister. Ally seemed to know what she was doing.”
“Yeah,” Marny agreed, “No one could have seen this coming.”
“Gwen would have...” Jack murmured.
The Gifted looked at each other again, but said nothing. This wasn’t their territory.
“So what do we do?” Holly asked.
“We wait for Jamie to get back here, and then we plan our next move.”

Back in Moscow, Illianna watched from the sidelines as Allyssianne twitched on the concrete floor, Blade standing over her. She had never felt so helpless as she did now, watching one of her own friends, who had risked her neck to come back for her, tortured like this. In all her years at GH, she had only seen this spectacle once or twice.
“Where is GRAIL located!?” He demanded for the fourth time.
“I don’t know!” Allyssianne replied pleadingly.
Blade gritted his teeth, and twisted a small dial on the remote controlling the device he had implanted into her neck. The girl cried out, begging him breathlessly to stop, but he refused. She held her head tightly, the electricity sending wave after wave of pain through her.
“Tell me where they’re located!” He ordered.

No matter how high Blade twisted the dial, her answer never changed. Eventually, he gave up and left. Illianna waited for a few moments before kneeling next to Allyssianne, hugging her. Allyssianne closed her eyes, wishing she could leave, and go back to a normal life, life before she knew about her magic. Life when the only excitement was getting up in the morning to go to school. She even wanted to go back to those boring Monday morning lets-all-fall-asleep-because-it’s-eight-in-the-morning-in-history classes.

The next morning, in Romania, where GRAIL was based, Jack walked into the room that had been set out for the Gifted to play in. Everyone could tell just by the look on his face that the news wasn’t good. He was holding a newspaper in his hands. Jamie looked up moodily from his book. He had been like that ever since he got back from Moscow. Marny stood up, and took the newspaper. On the page it had been opened to, there was a small picture of the Medical Research Centre that hid darker secrets in its sterile rooms. Marny read out the start of the article.
“In the early hours of this morning, a death was registered in the Moscow Medical Research Lab. Fifteen-year-old Allyssianne had been flown to the MMRL, suffering from a severe case of pneumonia lasting several weeks. The research staff did all they could to save her, but Allyssianne died at 4:03 this morning...”
“Rubbish!” Jamie yelled, throwing his book away. “She was fine just before she left!”
Jack rubbed his temples. “We need to get both of them out of there as soon as possible, but we have to consider that this case of pneumonia was just to cover up for her death in a different way...”


((NA: I'm going through editing this at the same time. GH is the bad side, GRAIL is the good side))

HOLLY CRAAAAAAAAAAAAP! put the rest up quiiiiiiiiick!!!

Alba xx

Allyssianne and Illianna sat on a helicopter two days later, flying out to Romania. They didn’t know where they were headed until they were half way there. Both girls were on edge. Blade was keeping their chips activated, but at a low frequency so that they had an uncomfortable reminder of their situation. Allyssianne moved her hands, trying to keep the blood circulating through the rope binding them together. She was nervous. Attacking the others? It was practically a suicide mission! Nevertheless, Blade had ordered them to carry out the task.

Marny was restless, and her Manticore side wasn’t helping. She paced around the room, trying to think. She looked at the other girls, worried. And her worries were confirmed by one of the guards yelling about an attack.

Allyssianne and Illianna were walking towards the GRAIL complex, faces impassive, flanked by several soldiers. Their white uniforms were torn in a few places. Allyssianne’s face contorted into a look of pain for a split second in reaction to the chip in her neck.

On the other side of the yard, the GRAIL side stood in a line, ready to face their friends. No one smiled, no one showed any emotion. An aura of fear descended on the GH side, causing the soldiers to shift restlessly. Allyssianne was battling the fear, but Illianna was completely unaffected. The two GH Gifted wanted to shout out what was happening to them, but they knew the price. Death.

The advancing party stopped about thirty metres away from the defending party, and the battle of nerves began. Blade’s voice whispered through communicators fixed in the girl’s ears, telling them to attack. No one moved. He repeated the order, his voice becoming more threatening, and then the electricity grew until Allyssianne obeyed. She raised a hand, and shot a bolt of magic at the line of Gifted opposite her.

The bolt of magic missed the intended target, but it sparked off the fight. Marny was the first to retaliate on the GRAIL side, leaping forwards, morphing as she went. The other Gifted started to take care of the accompanying soldiers. It didn’t take long, and the GRAIL side now advanced on the two Gifted.

Allyssianne and Illianna put their hands on their heads in surrender, knowing that it would be suicide to attempt to fight their friends, and that they would rather be held captive here than with Blade.
“Kill us...” Illianna said quietly.
“We’re not quite that pissed off at you,” Holly said, confused.
“If you don’t, he will,” Allyssianne murmured.
“He?” Caleb asked, but he didn’t get an answer as several GRAIL soldiers stormed out of the complex and took the pair inside.

The GRAIL Gifted were on a rota. Two of them watched over Illianna and Allyssianne at any given time. Marny and Holly were on duty when Blade made his move on the two he thought were under his control.

Allyssianne rubbed the back of her neck, feeling the chip become active. Illianna flinched. Then the realisation dawned on them as the voltage increased. Holly sprinted to find help as the two girls collapsed, trying not to scream. Marny knelt beside Allyssianne, reaching out to stop her thrashing. On contact with her friend, the electricity shot up her arm. She tried desperately to pull away, but she couldn’t. Holly ran back into the room, closely followed by Jack and two soldiers. Jack grabbed Marny, pulling her away while the two soldiers tied up Allyssianne and Illianna to limit their thrashing. Marny lay trembling on the ground, watching the two soldiers pick up her friends and stride away. Jack swiftly picked Marny up, following them.

Is this 'Jack' the same Jake that we know? If it is, i am now very satisfied! lol

Alba xx