Hi, I gladly welcome you to the next part of Phoenix story.I'm very sorry for the long wait, but I've been quite busy latly and I have gotten ill again, so it took unexpectedly long for this chapter to be finished.
Three years have passed since she met Spitfire and she still hasn't entered Genesis. Well, who would be surprised about that. XD
Well, if there are any questions popping up while reading feel free to ask me. ^^ HAVE FUN!
Chapter one: Whisper
It is said that once the sky has been ruled by four birds: the eagle, the falcon, the goshawk and the phoenix. The feathers of the Phoenix hadn't been on fire back then, he was a bird with simply beautiful red feathers. But the sky fell for him which made the sun, the wife of the sky, jealous of that certain bird. One day she called out to him and asked him to come near her because she wanted to tell him something. The phoenix flew higher and as he got nearer to the sun, she set his feathers on fire. The phoenix screamed in pain and fell down from the sky, who was forced to helplessly watch the beloved bird falling towards the earth. But the people who were living on the earth looked up as they heard the phoenix screaming. They were caught by this never seen before beauty of the burning feathers and laid out a trap to catch the phoenix who got caught in their net. The falcon noticed what was happening and hurried to help his friend, but was also caught by the people. They didn't understand the pain of the phoenix and put him into a cage for everybody to be seen. As time went by the phoenix turned into a human-form. This way he didn't have to suffer the pain of the burning feathers; he didn't scream anymore and so the falcon, who had been able to free himself, couldn't hear him anymore. First he thought his dear friend was dead, but he couldn't believe that and swore to himself that he would never give up searching till he had found the phoenix.
But the falcon wasn't the only one who was looking for the phoenix; the wind was searching the earth as well and he had sworn to himself to make the phoenix his own to protect him from any pain which could be caused by the sky.
"Listen to me, dear phoenix, I'll free your wings from those heavy chains if you give me your heart in exchange", the wind was whispering.
"Whisper? Is that really the team's name?"
Phoenix raised her view which was filled with confusion to look straight into Spitfire's eyes, but the Flame King only took another sip of coffee and nodded.
"What's wrong with the name?", he asked absent-minded while looking at some documents which were lying on the kitchen table. They contained detailed Data about the members of said team called 'Whisper'. Phoenix snorted and took a closer look at the photography of a sticker from that team which had been found at the entrance of a skater park.
"Dunno, seems kinda . . . lame, don't you think? I mean – oh, wait!"
She had spotted something at the left upper edge of the symbol, there were five little words which she hadn't noticed before. "So . . . much . . . more . . . than . . . a – oh, than a whisper. Now I'm getting it . . . it says that the team called Whisper is so much more than a whisper."
Spitfire looked up with an amused grin on his face. "Doesn't seem to be that lame anymore, hm?"
Phoenix stuck out her tongue which made Spitfire chuckle.
"Anyway", he mentioned, "I'd like you to watch a certain match for me . . ."
With these words he took some sheets of paper out of the bag which was standing right next to the kitchen table. The red-haired girl eyed him sceptically. "I'm not going to babysit Simca again . . . I'm always ending up in trouble which she had caused", she stated. The Flame King sighed.
"It's not babysitting, Phoenix, I just wanted you to prevent a worst case scenario from happening." The girl pouted and mumbled: "I still got chased by those damn Rezboa Dogs the whole night . . . . for nothing."
Spitfire chuckled again and took another sip of coffee. "Quit whining – the battle I'd like you to observe has nothing to do with the swallow." Phoenix didn't believe that at all. "Almost every AT-battle on the whole island has something to do with Simca", she stated matter-of-factly.
"Almost", the red-haired man countered and Phoenix gave in. She sighed annoyed and rolled her eyes. "Whatever – what's the deal for tonight?"
Spitfire smiled and didn't even try to hide his satisfaction about winning that 'battle'. "Okay, I'd like to watch the match of that rookie Simca is so very interested into lately." With these words he raised a certain sheet of paper. Phoenix took a closer look at the photo and raised an eyebrow. "I still can't believe that she's going so very crazy over that kid. I'd say that he's nothing more than a middle-school punk." She shrugged and returned the paper to Spitfire. "But whatever, what am I supposed to do?"
"I'd like you to observe a match of the Team 'Whisper' . . . They're not participating in the Parts War, so, it's gonna be an Underground Race – set on the Shinjuku highway, starting at midnight."
"Sounds interesting", Phoenix mumbled while chewing on a slice of dry bread. "Do you have any further information about that team except from the photograph of their emblem-sticker and a bit of the personal data of their riders?"
"Well, this exactly is the reason why I'm asking you to watch the battle."
The girl stopped chewing for a moment and pierced Spitfire with her eyes. "You're kidding, right? The team's no participant in the Parts War – why the hell shall I gather information about them . . . are you scared I'd do something stupid if I've got nothing to do?"
"Not at all . . . but the leader of that team is a very skilled rider of then Wind Road."
Phoenix narrowed her eyebrows. "Oh and the only person who'd ever be interested in a skilled rider is our beloved Pinky."
Spitfire sighed and emptied his cup of coffee. "Okay, you've got that one, but Simca is not the one who wants to know something about that rider."
The red-haired girl eyed him sceptically, but this time she looked at him with serious eyes and he thought that he could almost see a glance of fear . . . almost.
Phoenix herself had tried out the Wind Road when starting ATs, but it never worked out good enough. It wasn't because of the fact that she didn't have enough talent – she just couldn't grab the wind, she couldn't spread her wings at the right moment . . . not to mention that she couldn't spread her real wings at all. It was still bugging her though she had shown a great potential in following Spitfire on the Flame Road. But Spitfire was always looking for skilled riders of the ind Road who could be teaching Phoenix.
"Tch . . . whatever; I'm going to watch that battle, but only because you asked me to." She rose from her chair and stormed out of the kitchen. Spitfire let her rush out and just slightly smiled as he recognized that Pheonix had grabbed the two sheets paper with the data of the team called 'Whisper' which had been lying on the table.
Name: Joy Fields
Age: 14
Rank: Captain
Phoenix sat outside on the balcony of Spitfire's apartment as the dawn tainted the sky with tones of red and purple. It had been about three years since Spitfire had picked her up from the streets and still she felt like a ball thrown around in this world of ATs without knowing where to turn to – she wasn't even sure if she really hadn't become one of Simca's experiments. "Damn, this sucks . . .", Phoenix muttered to herself and bit the nail of her thumb. Then she looked at the picture on the sheet of paper in her hand. It did show a young girl with long, white hair and clear, ice-blue eyes; the smile on her lips didn't warm up the expression in her eyes at all. Wind Road, hmmm . . . an amused smiled was formed on her lips. There really must be a cold wind blowing when someone as young as her managed to become the leader of such a great team.
Phoenix didn't know that this battle would be the first step into the right direction.
The night-sky was of a clear ultramarine blue and thousands of twinkling stars were looking down on Phoenix as she left the apartment. Spitfire had already left two hours ago, so she had switched off all the lights and she had controlled twice if every window was closed.
"What a weird night", she whispered as she was slowly rolling down the street. Although spring was almost already over, the breeze blowing was oddly freezing. Phoenix lowered her face so that her nose was completely hidden by the scarf which was lying on her shoulders. The starting point of the race between Whisper and another team called Dashing Moon was almost empty except of the team members though Phoenix honestly doubted that the whole teams were there. These underground races were only about money. Sure those teams had gotten emblems and their stickers could also be found all over their area, but they didn't give a damn about the Trophaeum. Behind these battle there were always stuck-up guys with too much free time on their hands. The police had had put a closer eye on underground car races, but controlling these kinds of AT-battles was way harder.
Soon Phoenix had spotted the teams leader Joy; well, she wasn't very hard to be found because of her shining white hair and her clothes were white, too, except of those thin, light-blue lines running across the fabric. Her piercing clear-blue eyes were observing the surrounding and after a while she recognized Phoenix sitting at the edge of a near-by building. The red-haired girl returned the girl's view without blinking an eye. There really was something odd about that girl, but she couldn't quite put a finger on it by now. Joy titled her head slightly and smiled and the thing which sent chills all over Phoenix' body was the fact that this smile reached her eyes and made them shine like fresh fallen snow. Then she turned towards a female rider who had approached her and seemed to be asking her leader something.
"Weird girl", Phoenix whispered. She let her gaze wander over the different riders and didn't feel much of a surprise as she noticed about five men wearing black suits standing a bit off the scene in front of two big limos. She narrowed her eyebrows and clenched her teeth as she saw them exchanging money as pointing at Joy down on the street at the starting line. It made her angry and she didn't know why.
PENG!
The sound of the pistol did cut the night in two with a flashy lightning. The wheels of the ATs of the running riders were spinning like crazy, smoke rose from the street and the air was filled with the smell of burnt rubber. The two chosen riders took off like speeding bullets as they heard the pistol's sound. A cool breeze blew through Phoenix' flaming red hair and it almost seemed like the wind was following the two racers.
They would win; she knew it. An amused smile was formed on Joy's lips as she watched the riders disappearing at the first turn of the highway. A hissing sound pulled her out of her thoughts as one of the riders who were placed along the race course got in touch with her.
"They reached and right they passed the first check point", the scratchy voice out of her headset reported.
"'kay, who's passed the check point first?", she asked with business-woman-tone.
"That jackass from Dashing Moon . . . 0,0143 seconds earlier."
Though the rider on the other end of the line seemed too be clearly upset about that fact, it actually made a creepy smile appear on Joy's face. "Thanks", she answered shortly and the connection was cut off. I don't have to worry, Julia is a very experienced rider and falling behind is exactly her style in getting over with such a long distance race. She'd be an idiot if she wouldn't take advantage of the enemies wind shadow in the beginning. Joy took a deep breath and looked up at the unexpected audience on that nearby rooftop. Flaming red hair, piercing, red eyes and that broken wing shadow behind her. There was no chance for a mistake it was definitely her. Joy chuckled. Found you, little phoenix.
"Which school she attends?" Spitfire looked up at Phoenix with an honestly confused look in his eyes. "But just yesterday you clearly stated the Whisper wouldn't be interesting, not even if it was the last fucking team on earth – to say it with your words."
"So what? I simply wanna know which school she goes to, that's all", Phoenix shot back with a grumpy tone in her voice. Spitfire sighed and slightly shook his head as he stood up from the couch and walked over to his room where he was keeping the data-sheets of every team that could be interesting in any way to Genesis. He pulled out few little notes and looked them through searching for the information Phoenix desired.
"Uhm . . . that would be Shinonome Eastside", he mentioned after a while. "Oh, sure, now I remember how I had gotten the information about that team in the first place – it's the same school as that crow-boy attends."
Phoenix only shrugged and took the little yellow paper from Spitfire. Then she grabbed her jacket and left the apartment.
"Where are you going?"
"Taking a walk!"
"You are the most stubborn girl on earth", Spitfire shouted after her, but the door had been already closed. But she still had been able to to hear him because soon after he had shouted, Phoenix punched the door from the outside and yelled back: "I'M NOT!"
Then she took off towards the shinonome eastside middle school. Well, of course she had no idea were that school was, but there was still one hour left till school would end and considering the speed with which she could search the city it should be possible to arrive before the last lesson. The only fact which would be still luck, was if the girl would stay till the end of school today.
She found the middle school about fifteen minutes before the bell rang. The building was actually nothing special; three ashlar-formed concrete blocks and at the top of the main building there was a giant clock which seemed to be stuck on half past eight. Phoenix shrugged and took a step forward as she noticed a sticker of an AT-team at the entrance gate.
"Kings of the night . . .?", she muttered under her breath, but then she took a closer look at the other sticker which was overlapping the one she read before. There was a poorly sketched crow on it with a speech bubble over her head, but Phoenix couldn't read was was written in there. Geez, that's the worst handwriting I've ever seen . . . the red-haired girl thought and grimaced in disgust as suddenly an odd thought entered her mind.
"Don't tell me that's the emblem of that crow-kid, Simca is so all over lately." With these words she turned to finally entered the school ground, but suddenly there rushed a boy outside the building, holding a little box in his hands and screaming "MATSUTAKE MUSHROOM!". Phoenix looked after him and decided to wait on top of the small walls surrounding the the entrance gate. She took off her ATs because wearing them on enemy's territory was never a good idea even if the enemy's team was nothing more than a bunch of stuck-up middle school-punks. After stuffing her ATs into the bag she had brought with her, she put on a pair of simple sneakers and waited for the bell to ring.
Fifteen minutes later pupils started leaving the school building and heading towards the entrance gate, where Phoenix was sitting about a meter above their heads. She ignored every puzzled look and every mumbling because she might seemed being relaxed on the outside, but every single muscle in her body was tensed. Her heart was racing like crazy and she hadn't even spotted that white-haired girl yet. "Damn . . .", she mumbled while chewing her lower lip. What did that girl have that it threw her out of her balance so easily?
"Hey, had Simca sent you here to observe Ikki?"
Phoenix lowered her gaze and her eyes met the ones of a skinny, blond guy with white beanie on his head who was staring up at her. "Why the heck should I act on the Pinky's order?", she shot back with anger boiling up inside of her. The boy seemed to be honestly surprised by her answer, but he picked up courage again. "So, why are you here?", did he want to know with a sceptical look in his eyes. Phoenix started getting annoyed by him. "It' none of you business, kid -"
"Oh, could it be that you're looking for me?"
Phoenix and that boy with the beanie turned their heads towards the direction where that other voice had come from. Flaming red orbs met with ice blue mirrors of a soul worth leading others. Phoenix took a deep breath. Suddenly there was a rather strong, cold wind blowing which made a shiver running down her spine. Joy didn't wait for an answer, she just turned towards the beanie-boy and mentioned:
"I guess, you can go now, Kazu, I'll handle this by myself."
The boy called Kazu took a last look at Phoenix who didn't pay any attention to him anymore. So he turned around and slowly started heading home or wherever he was about to go. "Well, if you wanna talk to me you might have to accompany on my way home because my mother is waiting for me", Joy said after a while and showed of the best innocent smile she could do. But Phoenix wasn't fooled by that, so Joy gave up and started walking away from the school. A dull sound behind told her that the red-haired girl was following her and a calculating grin appeared on her face.
"Why did you want to talk to me?", she asked as they were walking along the silently flowing river. Phoenix didn't answer right away, but then she opened her mouth.
"How did you become the team of such a great team?", she wanted to know. Her voice was calm and low. "I don't know . . . I guess I was born with some kind of organizational talent which was needed to arrange the different battles against the right teams. We aren't participants in the Parts War as you might know", Joy explained and shrugged, but then she continued:
"Okay, I've answered you question, now it is your time to answer mine."
Pheonix eyed her sceptically, but she didn't refuse doing so. Joy smiled again and it didn't reach her eyes again.
"I'd like to know if you know the legend about the four birds who once ruled the sky . . .?"
Phoenix stopped immediately and after a few steps Joy recognized that the other girl wouldn't start walking again, so she stopped, too, and looked back. The younger girl enjoyed the pure surprise in those beautiful red eyes.
"Who are you?", Phoenix asked with a confirmed voice which was suddenly cold as ice. It made Joy smile growing even wider. A strong wind started blowing and it was so cold that Phoenix felt er cheeks being tainted red. "I'm Joy Fields", the other girl stated matter-of-factly, but the sound of her voice did reach parts of Phoenix' which had started to breath again back at the day when she had found out about Spitfire's hidden piano. But they were still nothing more than cloudy pictures. It became harder to breath, the wind grew stronger, it got entangled in her long, red hair and it was drawing so hard that Phoenix had to close her eyes because of the pain. Her skin was hurting because of the cold and a tornado of pictures inside of her head was driving her mind completely crazy.
"I know who you are." Suddenly there was a whispering voice, but Phoenix didn't have the heart to open her eyes.
"Who are you?", the red-haired girl asked again, but this time there was pure desperation entering her voice.
"That doesn't matter right now", the voice responded. "All that matters at the moment is that I've found you . . . just listen to me, dear phoenix, I'll free your wings from those heavy chains if you give me your heart in exchange." Then Phoenix suddenly felt lips being pressed against her own, but they weren't warm and soft, they were cold and hard like shaped ice. Finally she managed to get back the control over her body and she pushed the other girl – at leas she thought that it was Joy's doing – away. Heavy breathing and shaking Pheonix sank down to the ground. Cold sweat was running down her spine and as she looked around her she recognized that she was completely alone at the waterside of the river. No other human being could be seen. Phoenix clenched her teeth.
"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!"
Then she calmed down a little and looked at her right hand which was still shaking, she noticed that her heart was beating like crazy. It was no unpleasant feeling. Breathless she looked up at the sky at closed her eyes for a short moment.
It felt like soaring up in the greatest heights of the sky.
Well, that's it for the first chapter ^^ hope you liked it. Any guesses who that white-haired girl could be?
Btw, the exams of the Abitur are coming up, so you might a little longer for the next chapters then when I was writing "Footprints in the Sand". u.u
See you at the next chapter ^^v
FreakyPumkin
