"Guys!"
An excited scream bounded from the walls of the mansion. It was large, concrete white, with blue windows on the outside and paired with elegant black framing. Living in it was the 21 residents...
"I think I've had the dream..." The Puerto Rican boy stepped into the living room. His body, plastered with sweat due to the intensity of his dream, was tanned naturally and perfectly skinny. His hair was pitch black and was styled in a swift across his face, a tad spiky on top as well. He had beautiful brown eyes, and his collarbones jutted out as well. Overall, he was gorgeous.
"... That determines our 22nd member!"
Did you ever get the feeling where you were in the most trouble and no one will ever forgive you?
That's precisely how a certain girl felt.
Her name? Names aren't important right now, we shall discuss those later, but this girl just happened to be the most wanted criminal in La Grange, Illinois. The Devil of La Grange, she was dubbed.
The prison was heavily unresponsive to its surroundings, the only thing the guards focused on were the prisoners. Anything moved, they shot. Anything breathed, they shot. Anything touched them... You get the picture.
The girl was hidden from the world on the very top of the prison's tower, in the very last cell saved for "Special Criminals."
She was very, very special indeed.
Her kind is known as a Bender, a being that is able to bend its surroundings at will due to their special ability to control the vibrations they are able to sense. They can tune in or out of the vibrations as they please, and they can even use "Second Sight", in which they are able to be able to see their world in the viewing of the vibrations. What limits do they have? None. A Bender can control absolutely anything at will. If they are far, far, far more advanced, they can even control people. She was highly skilled, but it will take many years for her to finally be able to master that level of intensity. Although, she has no competition, for there can only be one Bender in the world at a time. Once she dies, another shall be immediately born.
Due to this, the girl was suspended in the air by cold, hard chains that dug into her wrists and proceeded to force them to bleed, her hands and feet were also capped in hard metal gloves so that she couldn't feel the vibrations and find a way to escape. Her head was lowered, and her mind was rushing with wonderments of defeat.
The beeping of the pass code on the outside was sounded and a man entered, proceeding to approach the girl. His hair was gray and thinning, paired with a pointy nose and pale skin. He also had gray eyes.
The girl`s bangs obscured her vision since she was currently viewing the ground, yet she was aware the man was in the room. Although she understood his presence, she didn't speak.
Her hair was long, past her waist at the most, and beautiful. It flowed like river water, solemnly and thick. It was the color of dirty blonde, just a hint of brown. Her skin was a tad pale, and her face was quite oval shaped. She was curvy as well with a medium sized chest. Her laser-like turquoise eyes were hidden by her hair.
"So..." the man stated proudly, obviously playing the role of a drummer in this case: His aim was to beat the drum so that it would make a sound, but this drum wasn't very cooperative and didn't make a noise.
He walked a little closer, "So you are the Devil of LaGrange."
He smiled a sharp, yellow smile. She still didn`t say anything.
"Yes, indeed you are... After all these years of you wandering our streets, stealing our food, and harming our people, we've finally caught you... What else should we expect from Hunts Clan filth... From your unforgivable crimes, you'll surely be here the rest of your life. In that case, do you have any last words?" he asked her, smirking now. She was still completely silent, I'm not even sure if she was breathing.
Finally, with her own little smirk on her face, she took a deep breath and stated the word, "Fuck." As she did, she looked deep into his eyes. Her eyes were intense and focused, and hinted slight childishness.
The man was taken aback at first, but to shield his anger, he continued to smirk."What a dirty word...You need punishment." Then, he hauled backwards and punched her in the face.
As the force of the impact wore off, she twisted her head back into place slowly, her eyes once again hidden from view by her bangs. She smirked at the ground.
"Due to your foul language and disrespect to the manager AND founder of this establishment, you'll receive fifty lashings from our punishment specialist. I guess I'll keep you alive...but just barely." His devilish smile stabbed her pride like daggers. He proceeded to exit the bland room lit by torches.
Her smirk disappeared. To demonstrate exactly what she could do, she broke her toe right through the metal boot covering her foot with all of her strength in melting metals. Then, reaching her way down to the floor all the way until her toe touched the ground, she gently whipped her toe backwards. Immediately, the man flew back as quick as a whip and hit the brick wall with a sickening thud.
"Damn you BENDER!" He jumped from the ground, face red and angry, then dashed up to her and hit her over and over again. Once again, she said nothing as he hit her. Not even a scream.
"Bad girl, bad girl." he tusked her, smirking that annoying yet terrifying smirk of his.
"You," He pointed to two guards guarding either side of the room, "Raise her chains. And replace her boots and gloves with the stronger metal."
The guards nodded and ran to the cranks that rose the chains higher off the ground. Then, they reached into the secret compartment in the back of the stone walls of the room, filled with metal boots and gloves similar to what she was wearing. They carefully chose two of each from the pile, slipped the ones she was wearing off, and replaced them swiftly. They turned and bowed to the man, and hurried back to their positions. With one last laugh, then man exited.
The girl sighed as the metal doors closed, and the two guards followed him out to guard the external part of the door.
As soon as they left, the girl burst out crying.
- - -
"Where is she?"
A rustle in the bush just yards away from the prison sounded. There was a crack, the sound of a blow, an "Ow!", until at last, four teenagers heads popped out. There were three boys and one girl, all were fifteen years old.
"Why would our 22nd member end up in a place like this?" One of the boys whispered roughly.
His hair was brown, short, and spiked. He was tanned with childish, joker-like brown eyes. He wore a white, plain dress shirt, and jeans. With it, he wore Vans shoes. He was also of the Asian race.
"Hush, Joseph." The girl mused.
She was of the Belarusian roots, so her voice had a slight accent, but other than that it was very high pitched. She had a round, cute face, a nice curvy body, olive skin, small and bright brown eyes, and shoulder-brushing straight brunette hair. She wore a green, waitress like shirt with a V neck, sleeve-less, and long bright green gloves with it. They were poufy at the tops, and there was white lacing in the space of the V neck by her breasts. She wore a green skirt along with it and brown penny loafers, paired with long green socks.
"I guess we have to go in there, eh, Natalia? Never thought we'd end up in this place..." Another one of the boys chuckled, addressing the girl. This boy was the one who had the "Dream" in the beginning. He was the highly attractive Puerto Rican boy, who wore a black dress jacket over his messy white dress shirt, messy red tie that was slung about his shoulders, and black jeans. He wore plain black shoes with it.
"Hey, Christian, since in each of the 23's dreams, the next member is of the opposite sex, this person we're looking for is a girl, right? I wonder if she's cute!" A boy of around 5'1, which was very short for these teens age, talked to the dreamer boy. His hair was bright blonde, short and well kept, and his eyes were a pretty shade of blue. A freckle was placed under one of his eyes and he held premature looks since he was so short. He wore a red and black plaid shirt that was unbuttoned and had a black undershirt underneath, along with normal jeans and sneakers. He also had cartilage piercings up his ears to "Make him look older."
"Matt! You're not hitting on our newest member, for God's sake!" Joseph snapped to the blonde haired boy.
"Quiet, all of you!" Natalia shushed them all, then turned to face the prison. Her eyes flashed suddenly as she began to literally analyze the data of the jail.
"This is La Grange's most heavily guarded prisons, world renowned as well, known for its fact that no prisoner has ever escaped from its clutches before and all have died horrible deaths by the guards. Only the worst of the worst criminals are sent here." She observed, took a deep breath, and continued, "The prison is called The House of Pain." She mumbled, taking in as much info as she could.
Natalia Belankino had a strange power. She was actually what was known as a Cyborg, half computer, half man, but she was only about .5% computer due to a small SIM card inserted and living in her brain. All of her nerve ends that involved her five senses were connected to the SIM card, and she could take in about any load of information and basically work inside herself like a computer. All she had to do was hear, touch, taste, smell, or see something, and she would know everything about it if she willed herself to. Their materials they're made from, weaknesses, personality, even their thoughts... She could even know the exact date, exact time, and how they would die if it was a person.
"I wish they didn`t have as much guards, that would make our lives so much easier." Christian sighed his words through his mouth and placed his hands in his pockets, obviously modeling the cool, ladies man type.
Natalia ignored him and took everything in like a drink of water, each information, and quickly mapped out their escape plan through her head and inserted it in the back of her memory. Then, she looked for the girl.
Miss Meghan Hunts... Where could you- Suddenly, her computer-sensed eyes hit heat. Heat as in body heat of the exact cell type they were looking for. She turned her computer self off, and gazed at the girl in chains, gasping. She was pretty.
"The girl's up there!" She said, pointing to the very top floor, "Let's move."
"Are we making the right choice?" Joseph asked nervously, "After the situation with Trevor, we have to be HIGHLY cautious about who is the real 21st member."
Matt nodded in agreement.
"Guys, I can assure you that she's the one." Christian whispered absently, he was focusing his gorgeous brown eyes up to the top floor window. As his eyes hit her, he gasped silently and felt his cheeks grow pink. She was prettier in real life than in the dream, and in the dream she was very cute.
"I`m sure it's her, she`s the girl we`re looking for." Christian said solemnly.
Natalia pointed, "There are spikes up the sides, we can climb up using them to our advantage." She said. The rest nodded. Silently and slowly, they snuck to the side of the tower and began to climb.
After climbing awhile, they finally reached the window, likewise checking to make sure no one was there. Natalia leapt like a skillful cat to a small silver box on the far side of the wall, opened it, and began typing in keys fast as lightning. The screen lit up, and she shut off the alarms. Then, taking a deep breath, Christian pulled his hand back while balling it into a fist and jutted it into the window, cracking it open. He pulled back his bleeding fist and winced, yet he still reached inside and opened the metal framed window easily with his strength. He motioned for the rest to follow and they all leapt inside the torch lit room.
the girl looked up and gazed at the four, tear streaks had stained her face.
At first, her eyes held a strange look of curiosity. Then, she locked eyes with Christian, and immediately turned hostile."You!" she shouted, "You're the one I saw a few weeks ago and attempted to mug." She snarled.
A flashback appeared featuring Christian, who was strolling home from the grocery store through a dark alley. Money in hand, whistling tunes to himself, flying through the air... Wait, what is this trickery...? The ground had been pulled out from underneath him and he was slammed into a wall.
From the shadows, the girl sauntered into the light, wearing her usual street outfit: A tiny white cloth skirt that just barely went past the top part white bandaged, garter styled band around her right leg. She had on a white bandeau shirt with brown bordering the top and bottom. A small red hoodie-like thing was wrapped around her neck. She also wore long red gloves that were held up by the strap attached to her middle fingers, and were laced up in black lace in the back. The right side of her skirt also had a lacy covering over the fabric in the same style as her gloves. A brown fanny pack was around her waist and attached around her back in the shape of an X. She wore no shoes.
She walked in front of him, taking a small white fan with a black marking on it from a pouch on her fanny pack waist strap, and used it to lift up his chin until his brown eyes were gazing into her turquoise ones. He was cute, she had to admit, but she showed no mercy.
Noticing his stuffed wallet, she remarked, "What luck to run into someone who's wealthy." She laughed cruelly."Now come on, give me your money!" she screamed at him, lifting him up with just the fan by his chin, she smirked in the devilish trademark she was well known for at him.
The boy was stunned from slamming his head into the wall, and everything she had just said went right through him. His vision finally focused and he gazed at her. Wait a second, he recognized her: The same powerful eyes and long hair... It was the girl from THE dream, the 22nd member!
"I`ve...FOUND YOU!" he screamed, now holding his arms outstretched."... Eh?" the girl questioned.
Christian sprang upwards, regaining full consciousness and enthusiastically leaping at her."I HAVE BEEN SEARCHING FOR YOU LONG AND FAR!" he screamed, his face turned into a broad smile. Sadly, when Christian is excited he unleashes everything he has inside of him.
Just before his arms would trap her in his grasp, the girl screamed and roundhouse kicked him into the stone wall. She, surprisingly, was scared by those types of people easily. She ran back into the shadows shrieking.
The flashback ends, reenter the prison room.
"What are you, stalking me?" She huffed in annoyance, flicking her head back and glaring at Christian.
He sighed."No..." He cautiously approached her, and she braced herself a little, not hiding the fact that he scared her.
"... I had a dream about you." He confessed.
The girl stared at Christian. She stared for a long time with a poker face. Suddenly she transformed into a firework: she burst into flames. "GUARDS!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, "GUARDS!" She screamed repetitively. Her eyes had the same look in them as a spooked horse.
"SHUSH!" Natalia darted over to the girl and placed her hand over her mouth, Natalia pulled away and sucked on her hand, holding back the tears. The girl had shocked her with electricity in the air!
The girl opened her mouth to scream again, but Joseph yelled, "Listen to him!"
She braced herself, smiled knowingly to the ground, and turned respectively to Christian, paying full attention.
"Yes, I KNOW this may sound weird, but... I know everything about you, Meghan Hunts." Christian shyly stared at the ground.
Ah, the girl's name is Meghan. Born to the Hunts Clan, a band of ruthless thieves and bandits who lived in the outskirts of La Grange, robbing everything and everyone carelessly. No one has ever harmed or captured the Hunts Clan, and great police officers fear them all. Meghan was the daughter of the two previous leaders. They were descended from a tribe of Native Americans and never adapted to regular lifestyle, so they continued in their tribal-like ways and transformed into the Hunts Clan, which was why Meghan was dressed so strangely. They even had their own language, so Meghan had the tiniest hint of an accent, but they were all required to learn English. She was exiled from the Hunts Clan two years ago when she was thirteen, and she has been living in the alleyways of La Grange ever since, stealing and even murdering to be able to survive.
"This will also be strange to you... You are destined to save the world." Christian took a deep breath, then continued, "Alongside the four of us and seventeen others."
Meghan was silent, then she cautiously gestured, "Go on..."
"... All of us are fifteen years old currently, and we will always be the exact same age as each other, because we were born at the exact same time, because we were specifically chosen for this. Each one of us, including you in everything of course, is a reincarnation of the special 'organization' known as The 23.
"Anyways, Ben was our first member and the smartest of us. Well, despite Natalia." Christian smiled charmingly at the angered Natalia,
"He received a message in his dreams, and intelligently accepted it. He had to destroy all records of his existence and live in the specialized house for all of us in the forest nearby La Grange. We all live there now due to this chain: Ben then had a dream of our second member, Hallie, telling him of all of her special abilities, personality, where she resides, her back-story, etc. He was then told he needed to go fetch her for the 23 to continue on. Luckily, Hallie lived right in La Grange, so he went to her house and explained everything to her. She went with him, destroying all records of her existence as well. Then Hallie had the dream about John. The rule is, when you have the dream of the next member, they will be the opposite sex of you. But, on occasion that rule will not apply.
"Then we grew. Now, we're down to you, who is the 22nd member. All we need now is you and the last member and we'll finally be complete... I was just recently found by Natalia, and I'm the 21st member." He gestured to Natalia who smiled at Meghan and waved. Meghan didn't smile back, just stared.
"... Prove it." She challenged.
"I know of your power, Bender." Christian stated.
Meghan's heart nearly stopped as she gasped."You...know?" She whispered, shocked.
"Yes." He nodded, "You can control anything: water, earth, fire, air, even humans. Anything in the entire world, just by feeling the vibrations, right?"
She nodded. "Yeah, I get it, I'm supposedly destined-for-greatness and what not... What's the point of you guys coming here though?" Meghan's tone clearly showed she was not impressed.
"Well, we are here to collect you to take back to our home to live with us. What we do is basically save the world from its challenges. We're charged with the duty to protect and preserve peace." Matt added, stepping in.
"This has been going on and on since the start of time. We're all reincarnations of the original 23 members. If you are to join us, you must swear that you will always be loyal to us, never turn a blind eye to a serious matter, and understand the rules of Soul Exchange." Christian said.
"... What." What Meghan has just said was more of a statement than a question.
"... All of our souls are connected. Once a 23 has accepted that they are a true member of the 23, their soul matches with the rest of the link. The Soul Resonance Room is where all of our souls meet when we go into Soul Resonance mode, which is when the 23 can perform their most powerful attacks. We're also able to become telekinetic when in this mode and be able to communicate through thought." Christian explained.
Meghan continued to stare.
"... It's all really complicated but you'll definitely get the hang of it..." Joseph attempted to explain to the cute girl.
"So... What do you say?" After this long, complicated explanation, Christian outstretched his palm for Meghan to take hold to. He smiled a very charming smile, his eyes lighting up brilliantly. Natalia, Joseph, and Matt smiled at her as well.
"Will you come with us?"
Meghan didn`t say anything for a long time. She just dangled from her chains, staring at the four teens.
Suddenly, her response was clear and ringing through the room.
She burst out laughing. In fact, her entire body was shaking from laughter.
"Who do you think I am, some oblivious bitch who'll believe anything?" She howled in laughter."You're all whack jobs, y'know?" She snickered, "None of this is real, and if you're playing a joke on me, this REALLY is funny."
"Honey, we aren't joking. This is a serious matter. No matter what, you have to come with us, please!" Natalia's eyes were bright with frustration, and she appeared very distressed that nothing was going as planned.
"No way in Hell, you whackos." She laughed loudly once more.
"Oh my gosh, this is tedious...Please?" Christian said, "No!" she smirked, obviously trolling them.
"Accept your destiny!" Matt yelled, now getting highly annoyed.
"I have given you my answer." Meghan was now just as annoyed as Matt, and she stared at the four of them with exhaustion in her eyes, yet such power as well. Yet, as soon as she had done that, the same devilish childlike look returned and she began cracking up again.
Christian didn`t say anything or move a muscle for a long time. The rest were staring at the floor in defeat, pondering what to do.
Finally, he burst, "ALRIGHT, YOU LITTLE BEOTCH! YOU ARE COMING WITH US WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT, YOU HEAR!? WE`RE DOING YOU A GREAT BIG FUCKING FAVOR HERE, AND THIS IS HOW YOU TREAT IT?! THIS IS SERIOUS! HAVE YOU NOT ACTUALLY REALIZED THAT WE'RE TAKING YOU OUT OF THIS PLACE!? NOW FACE THE FACTS AND COME WITH US!" He caught his breath, fuming and red faced. He knew that he and Meghan would have just a boatload of fun together...
Meghan was deeply surprised with Christian. By her observations, he was the cool yet immature one, likewise very loyal to his friends and protective of the ones he loves. Meghan began to think.
This is insane... they`re all whackos, but... Ah, they`re taking me out of here, right? Oh, yes indeed... she smirked to herself,
Excellent...I have a plan. Meghan, you are a genius. She praised herself.
Dramatically, she admitted her defeat.
"... I guess it would be worth it to give it a shot..." She sighed, mockingly looking at the floor in a falsely oblivious way. Finally, she looked at them, then she sighed."Alright," She smiled for the first time. She had a pretty smile, but little did they know, inside it held something much more.
"I'll join you."