Disclaimer: I own nothing besides my own characters and concepts.
Summary: Starting high school is an obstacle, but having aliens attacking the city while being a part of a secret organization is just not normal for a teenage girl to go through. Rachel had always lived a life of secret and mystery. But can she keep being part of an anti-government organization a secret as she makes new friends? They tell her this is only the beginning. She isn't too sure she wants to know the what the future holds.
"The Rising,"
Chapter 1 "Beginnings"
It was a quiet summer day. A couple with a small girl ran up and down the boardwalk as they held onto her bike until they let go. The girl giggled as she rode her bike unknowingly without either of her parents hanging on. The bike swayed and dove straight first into the nearest bush.
"Daddy! You said you would hold on!" whined the little girl getting up off the ground.
"You have to learn to ride by yourself," he said pulling the bike out of the bush.
"But I can't," pouted the little girl crossing her arms.
"You can and you will," said the man pulling the girl back on the bike.
"I don't want to," said the girl refusing to budge.
"You can compete in a Vovinam competition, but you can't ride a bike," said the father unimpressed.
"That's not fair! Vovinam is easy!" said the little girl.
"But it wasn't always easy," said the father "if you can learn to do flips and kicks in the air you can learn to ride a bike. Now peddle."
The mother looked distantly at the water as if in deep thought. The father smiled as the little girl took off down the boardwalk without anyone help her at all. He shook his head. His daughter was so very predictable.
A young man and woman held hand standing outside of an electronics store. The glass window was broken, but the TVs were still playing. Images of rows and rows of cribs inside of laboratories flashed across the screen. Horrible and graphic experimentation on young children forcing them to do awful things. Such displayed showed a child killing a man, crushing his insides apparently, without laying even a finger on him. Then it flashed to a man and woman in white coats pleading for people to save the children before being public executed.
"This country has gone mad," said the man.
"James! Shhhh! Don't let anyone hear you talking like that. It's dangerous enough to just be out," said the woman.
"Sherry, you worry too much," said James kicking some glass with his feet. People scuttled between buildings watching the sky and peeking around every corner as if the sky was going to fall on them and behind every corner was thug waiting to jump them.
"You don't worry enough," said Sherry.
"Those kids aren't much different from us. Part of secret groups trying to protect people, who would rat us out to better themselves," said Sherry.
"It doesn't matter what they'll do. It our job to protect," said James.
"We can't even live together if we both are teaching because they say it's too dangerous. How much must we sacrifice?" Sherry said.
"Times will change. It won't stay this way forever," James replied kicking some more glass with his feet.
"You know that are offering money to anyone willing to take care of those children. It would make saving up money to move to Panorama city and make a name of our selves so they'll accept the marriage," said the Sherry.
"Hmm," James said. It would solve some of their problems. But that didn't seem fair to do to a child that has suffered enough and what about when they have children of their own. That's an extra mouth to feed.
"We can just send them to the academy you teach at once they get older or we have kids of our own," said Sherry, as if she could read his mind.
"Doesn't seem wrong to you though? I mean you saw what they did to those poor kids," said James.
"We'll make up some story for them when that time comes. We must think about our own survival. The child will understand when they grow up," said Sherry "they'll be glad we took care of them at all."
It was the early morning. Sherry and James, eight years older, sat at the breakfast table drinking tea. James pushed his light brown hair out of eyes while he read the newspaper and Sherry was watching the news on the small television that was sitting on the counter twirling her blond hair.
"The child is nothing but trouble," said Sherry "I got another call form the school yesterday."
"Sherry, we signed the agreement. She's only child she can't control her abilities," said James.
"Don't patronize me James. They said she'd be able to control it by now," said Sherry.
"She's a happy little girl. She is doing well in school and has lots of friends. What more do you want," said James. Sherry didn't respond to her husband and drew her attention back to the news.
An eight-year-old girl sat in the middle of stairs with her knees pulled up to her chest. Silent tears rolled down her cheeks. She slowly crept back up the stairs like a crab and ran back into her bedroom.
"Rachel! Are you going to sleep all day?" called Sherry from the bottom of the stairs. She sighed as she didn't get a response.
"She isn't responding," huffed Sherry flopping back down in the chair.
"It's Saturday. Leave her be," said James.
Rachel picked up her stuffed dog. It was a small black and white dog. She had named it Toto after the Wizard of Oz movie. She held it to her chest playing with its ears. She breathed deeply as objects floated around her room. Her English book floated by, a copy of a Nancy Drew novel hovered around the dresser, toiletries rotated themselves around the room. She closed her eyes tightly hoping when she opened them this would all be a dream and she's just a normal kid somewhere having a strange dream. But that never happened no matter how hard she tried.
"Tai, it's nearly noon you need to wake up," said James pushing open Tai's door.
"Go away," said Rachel.
The objects sped up as the spun around the room. She clenched the dog. Her eyes dilatate. Her breathing hitched.
"Wake up on the wrong side of the bed I see," said James not backing down or moving.
"Go away," Rachel repeated slowly.
"That's not a very nice thing to say to your father," said James firmly.
"Leave me alone! Just go away! I don't want to talk to you!" snapped Rachel. The drawers in the dresser flew open.
"Quit this tantrum right now," said James frowning.
"No! I'm tired of doing whatever you want me to do!" said Rachel. Nothing but trouble echoed inside of her head. If they wanted trouble, she'd give it to them.
"That's not how you talk to your father. You're grounded," said James.
"I don't care," said Rachel. She clenched her fits feeling like a bubble was about to burst inside of her. She could feel it growing and growing. The air was thick and heavy.
James was suddenly thrusted out of the doorway. The door slammed shut and locked. James tried to unlock it from the outside, but it wouldn't unlock. A wide variety of objects furiously flew around the room in a circle. Rachel buried her head in her knees. She hated being different. She hated these powers. Most of all she hated them right now. She was nothing more than a source of money to them. It stung. Worse than the time she broke her leg trying to roller blade.
"Do you even know what you have done?" snapped Sherry.
"Like you care," huffed Rachel. She sat in the back seat of their SUV. She had on black clothing with dark lipstick and eyeshadow on. She had her hair up in a big floppy high side ponytail.
"Despite whatever you think right now we do care. Would be picking you up right now if we didn't?" sighed James looking out his rearview mirror.
"What are you wearing on your face? You look like demented clown," said Sherry making a face.
"Sherry," said James warningly.
"Whatever," said Rachel rolling her eyes.
"That it! I don't know what is wrong with you but we have shown nothing but compassion and love to you. And you repay us by getting caught shoplifting looking like some sort of female greaser," said Sherry.
"What is a greaser?" muttered Rachel.
"Never mind that!"
"You don't care about me. You only took me because the government pays a lot of money for you to keep me. I know it's true! I heard you say something about a contract! You don't care about me! You just want your money!"
Several blocks of silence and tears brimmed in her eyes. She clenched her fists. Was that all she was worth? Was that really the only reason they kept her? She hadn't truly believed it completely, but maybe she gave them too much credit.
"We're sending you to live with family," said Sherry.
"Sherry, just shut up. We aren't sending her anywhere," said James glowering out the car windshield.
"Don't tell me to shut up," said Sherry crossing her arms.
"Stop talking to Rachel like you are. She's a kid. Guess what being a parent isn't sunshine and daises," said James.
"Like you are doing that great. She's your kid too," Sherry replied rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, you're right. Because it takes two of us to parent her and only one of us is acting like one," said James.
Tears rolled down her cheeks as she starred out the window. The makeup started to run making her eyes burn. She tried to wipe it away with her shirt. She curled herself into a ball in the backseat closing her eyes trying to bring down her breathing. She tried to tune out the bickering adults.
Squealing tires snapped her head up. A white van slammed into the side of their SUV. Her heart jumped straight into her throat. The driver's side front window shattered. She screamed covering her head. The car accelerated through a red light, over onto the sidewalk crashing into a pharmacy. Everything was fuzzy and blurry as she looked around. It was like looking through a dirty looking glass. She saw someone pulling her out of the car. Smoke clouded her vision more. She couldn't make out the person pulling her out.
"Dad! Mom!" Rachel said. Her voice was barely over a whisper. Someone laid her on the sidewalk. She coughed furiously gasping for air. Darkness slowly grew across her vision. She tried to focus on the tiniest bit of sunlight she could see, but the darkness engulfed her.
"We just heard back from Meyers and Lewis. They managed to locate the girl before they got her. They are taking her to our allies at the Pai Zhuq academy like you asked. They wiped the memories of her parents," said a man with black spiked hair in a suit walking into an office.
"And her memories?" asked a man looking out the widow of a skyscraper.
"We're left intact. She's too young for memory erasure. She's young enough where she is impressionable enough she I'll be loyal to the organization, but old enough to be an asset in a few years of training with the Pai Zhuq," said the spikey haired man.
"Good. And the other children?" said the man.
"Alphabet Soup has too many assets close to them. We can't get close to them. We are setting up headquarters in Stone Canyon, Ocean Bluff, Turtle Cove and Reefside," said the spiky haired man.
"It looks like the Rising might just work after all. The existing rivalries between those cities and Angel Grove will only help us with dealing with Alphabet Soup's stronghold on that city.
Author's Note: Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I did writing it. The first version was accidentally deleted, but I'm quite happy on how it turned out the second time.