The Rose and Her Thorns
Sunni Amyx; she was a fairly normal girl by most means. She liked to play basketball, loved her drums and her baby brothers. The only thing about Sunni that wasn't stereotype teenager was the fact that her father was a millionaire. Combine that with eight little brothers and you got Sunni Anne Amyx.
Tall and athletic, Sunni crept through the wooden halls of her family's mansion on silent ninja feet. She was wearing a pair of dark wash jeans, artfully ripped and worn to perfection, with a green tank-top to boot. Bare feet padded across the floor silently, passing the twin's room. They were sleeping in their beds, completely oblivious to the world around them. Sunni's long curly blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail, sweat running into her eyes.
It was like an oven in there. Sunni moved faster, now running as silently as possible to check on her younger brothers. Jaylon was sleeping soundly, his mahogany brown hair plastered to his head and his stuffed replica of his dog tucked under his arm. Camden; he was sprawled out on his back, his round face red as he fought a foe in his dreams.
Jasper's room came next, the painted clowns on the wall staring down at the fourteen year old with hate. To be perfectly honest, Sunni was unnerved by the stupid things. They made her skin crawl worse than her father did. Thankfully, the chubby three year old was still there, his caramel colored hair made darker by all the sweat pouring through it.
Sighing with relief, Sunni took off, her hazel-green eyes shining in the darkness that surrounded her. It was five o'clock in the morning, so no one was awake at the time except for her. Well, that was what she thought anyways.
Tiptoeing quietly, Sunni made her way to the nursery were her three youngest brothers slept. Entering the large and airy room, Sunni made out the two cradles and the small toddler bed. With her stealthy ninja-like silence, the girl crept over to the bed where the oldest of the three slept.
Miles was snoring softly, a thumb stuck in his mouth. Thick hair, the color of dark chocolate, swirled in waves around the one-year-old's head as he slept. The little boy may have been adopted, but he looked just like Sunni's uncle used to.
The next crib contained Hayden, her actual biological brother. The nine month old was dead to the world, fiery red hair haloing his head in the dim light. They were closed peacefully right now, but Sunni knew that he had their mother's eyes; a green so deep that they looked like emeralds flecked with black crystals.
Sunni fully expected to find her other adopted brother, Howard, in the last crib. But he wasn't there. Fear gripped Sunni's heart in an icy vice, choking her and nearly making her cry. He was at it again. Why couldn't Dad just give it a rest?
Rage quickly replaced the fear and Sunni forgot all about stealth, running through the manor towards the library. Ripping open the door, the teen selected the proper book on the shelf to open the laboratory. Bare feet slapped against the sterile floors of the lab, making the bright white of the tile less than pristine.
There! Her dad was standing there, Howard in the chamber before him, the little six month old blond sobbing frantically. The poor thing couldn't even sit up yet without help, and now Dad was running his experimental power-inducing technology on him!
The big red button; that was what started the process. She'd seen it so many times before on her other brothers. The twins, Eli and Gabe, couldn't even look at the door of the library without bursting into tears after their turn as test subjects. Jaylon, Camden, and Jasper wouldn't even look at their father any more, preferring to stay in the comforting arms of their big sister. Hayden had been too young to remember much about his experiment, and his father was too much of a coward to try anything on his strongest child, so Howard was obviously the best choice.
Sunni screamed; a long drawn out, "NO!" that didn't have any effect on her father's decision to test her youngest brother.
The machine started, a glass dome coming down to cover the table on which Howard was placed. Sunni ran up to the glass, pounding on it with her fists and crying. A snarl formed in her throat as she turned to her father.
The man was 6'5" tall, with a svelte frame and well chiseled face. Thick, dish-water blond hair framed his eyes, which were a cold, metallic blue. Ice with flecks of fire, her mother had once described them as. Right now, the ice overcame the fire, freezing Sunni to the spot with the power of their hatred. Insanity also lied in their depths, only egging on the already confident man.
His voice rang on the sterile air, deep and menacing with a sharp edge to it. "Why are you up girl? Shouldn't you be in bed where you belong?"
"Daddy stop it please! You're hurting Howie!"
Sunni rushed over to him, trying to push back the man that she had called Daddy since she was only a year old. Said man pulled her back from him, slapping her hard across the face. "Howard will be fine. My serum will only make him stronger."
"Daddy please! He's only six months old and you're torturing him!"
To emphasize her point, Sunni banged on the glass, which was filling up with a white gaseous substance. Howard was positively howling now, thrashing about and coughing as the serum took effect. His muscles were taught underneath his skin, knotted and contorted in a manner that was bound to be torturous.
Sunni was sobbing herself, horrified by the sight of her youngest brother being experimented on like a common lab rat. She turned back to her father, the man's eyes sharply disapproving of her behavior.
Where was the man she used to know? Where was the tall, strong dad who used to tuck her in at night and tell her tales of princes and dragons? What happened to the cuddly bear that loved dogs and would laugh at stupid things like deer-in-the-headlights jokes?
"Daddy, what happened to you? You've not been yourself since Mom died."
Fury turned the icy blue to a steel gray and perfect rows of white teeth ground together in agitation. "I'm not different! I'm stronger, more powerful; I'm not weak like you and your brothers. This serum is going to make you tough. It's here to make you grow up and be responsible and act mature."
Sunni shook her head, shutting her eyes as tears started to pour from them. She spoke slowly and calmly, not wanting to provoke her father's explosive temper. "Dad, just because we have powers doesn't mean that we can become adults overnight. You're traumatizing them! You're making those boys suffer in ways that I can't possibly fathom! Please, you have the power to make this stop! Just stop and go back to the way the way you were before. Please Daddy!"
The machine suddenly stopped whirring, retracting its glass to reveal a now incredibly pale Howard. His eyes were still blue, but they were metallic and sharp as a razor. Howard lifted his hands, revealing light glow around them as he slammed them into the wood beneath his back. Tendrils of wood and leaves began to sprout from it, extending and growing for a full minute before finally stopping.
The pulsating energy around Howard's hands finally ebbed, the metallic edge in his eyes leaving as well. Sunni rushed over to the small baby, lifting him with carefully practiced hands and cradling him gently. Her father was ecstatic, insane glee radiating off of him.
"This is perfect! Simply marvelous! I've created a child that can rejuvenate and regenerate the natural world around him at will!"
Sunni's voice was just as icy as her dad's had been not a moment before as she spoke. "You're not my Dad anymore. You're a cruel and insane monster and I'm calling the police."
That effectively shut him up. The cold was back again, even stronger this time. Sunni's father approached her, moving slowly in a menacing stalk. Sunni pressed Howard into her chest, fear reflecting in her hazel eyes.
"You're not calling the police on me child. Not unless you can do it telepathically you won't!"
With that, the tall man launched himself at his daughter, grabbing her arms in an iron vice and wrenching the baby from her grasp. He then lifted her, slamming her down onto the now tendril-covered table with enough force to bounce her skull off of it.
Taking the opportunity, the insane chemist pressed the red button, the thick glass dome descending over his only daughter. She was starting to stir, but it was too late by then. The dome was securely in place and the serum was starting to fill the chamber.
Sunni pounded on the glass as the gas started to enter her nose and mouth. It burned like hell, making her cough and wretch. The girl was forced to give up her insane pounding as she started to get light headed, the white mist around her swirling in complex patterns and shapes. Fire seemed to be raging its way through her blood stream, and Sunni could feel the change coming over her.
Power; it boiled and swirled through the teen's blood. Long blond hair darkened, turning to the deep bottomless black of outer space. Her eyes, once that beautiful shade of hazel, where now a bright amber, like a wolf's and her canines began to lengthen and strengthen into ripping fangs. Renewed strength coursed through Sunni now and she smiled as the gas began to dissipate.
The glass dome rose away, revealing the crouched form of his daughter to Mr. Amyx. He grinned; an insane smile that could give the Joker a run for his money, and rubbed his hands together. His giddiness was quickly replaced by horror as Sunni looked up, bright amber eyes glowing under curtains of black hair. She grinned, revealing canines that were at least two inches long.
"Good-bye Dad."
And with that final growl, the mutated teen pounced; ripping into her father like a dog would a piece of meat. The canines made short work of his tender flesh, shredding arteries in the man's neck as if they were tissue paper.
Sunni stood as her father bled to death, horror and sanity creeping into her eyes as she realized what she had just done. Crimson coated her face, chest and arms, giving evidence as to what had just taken place. She stepped away from the body, crying and changing back into what she had looked like before the mutation.
Shaking, Sunni lifted Howard from where her late father had placed him on a cart and rushed up the stairs. It was almost six in the morning, still early enough for her to have plenty of time to get ready. The pounding of her heart and what she had last said to her father reverberated through her ears as Sunni placed Howard back in his crib, a fresh change of clothes now placed on the baby.
Sunni ran into the bathroom, washing the blood from her face and arms frantically with hot water. Good-bye Dad. Good-bye Dad. Good-bye Dad.
That single sentence played over and over again in her ears as she scrubbed, removing the physical evidence of where she had mauled her own father. Sunni looked at herself in the mirror when she was finally clean, noting the singular difference that remained when she changed back. Her eyes; they still sparkled with a familiar amber backdrop, another color mixed in with the bright hazel and green.
Sunni closed her eyes and stripped, throwing the soiled clothes into a trash bag she pulled from under the sink. She ran to her bedroom, the familiar dark purple of the walls and bedspread doing little to soothe her. Dressing in comfortable clothes, Sunni could now set her mind to what she really needed to do; call the cops and get the hell out of there.
Numbness filled Sunni to the core as she packed all of her clothes and her perfume into a suitcase. It was all over. This life of luxury would never again be for her and her brothers. They were going to have to run to some slum in the middle of Gotham, never to return to the mansion they called home.
She lifted the suitcase with surprising ease, carrying it with one arm down the grand marble staircase and into the foyer. Sunni sat it down by the door, running back up to pack the boys' bags as well. The work went fast, as Sunni's mind was in a fog. She moved swiftly, silently, and methodically like a ninja, not wanting to disturb the others.
Each time there was a new suitcase; she brought it down the stairs and sat it by the door. Each time she returned to pack another one. It was almost seven by the time she got done, so Sunni was sure the boys would be waking up any time now. She shrugged. Might as well wake the twins up and tell them what happened. It'd make the whole process a lot quicker.
Running up the stairs on socked feet, Sunni entered the domain of Eli and Gabe fearlessly, ignoring the piles of dirty clothes that littered the floor around her feet. Throwing open the curtains, she turned back to the beds and placed her hands on her hips.
"Wake up you two. We're leaving in an hour."
Eli groaned and looked up at her, his electric blue eyes bleary and his white-blond hair tousled. "Why are we leaving?"
"Because Dad's dead and I killed him; does that answer your question?"
Eli's eyes widened and he leapt out of bed, reaching his older sister in less time than it took for you to blink. "What do you mean you killed Dad?"
"I mean just what I said. I killed Dad in a blind rage after he mutated me and Howard. Now get dressed and help me wake up the others."
It only took a few seconds for Eli to dress and be ready to help. Poor Gabe didn't have the luxury of super speed, so it took him a few minutes to get ready and be able to help. Sunni didn't comment on anything. She dressed the babies in stony silence.
She left the twins in charge of the others as she went into the garage, carrying all the suitcases with relative ease. Five vehicles were all lined in a row before her; a Dodge Charger, a Ford Mustang, a black Trans-Am, a Jaguar, and a Cadillac Escalade. She would've killed to be able to take some of the former cars instead of the Cadillac, but Sunni had no choice. That SUV was the only thing that could carry all of their stuff and them without being conspicuous.
Popping the trunk, Sunni quickly loaded the back with their suitcases and ran back inside the house. It was the end of November, a November in Gotham tended to be harsh and unforgiving. The boys were all dressed and ready; bleary eyed and half asleep maybe, but ready.
Sunni grabbed her winter coat from the rack just next to the door. "Alright boys! Let's move it out!"
With that, the children made their way into the garage, loading into the Cadillac, though not without some difficulty. Gabe used his multiplication mutation to create copies of himself so he could help load in more than one kid.
Finally, after ten minutes and many obstacles, Sunni got into the driver's seat of the car and started it up. She pulled out of the garage, not turning to look back at the place she and her brothers once called home. That was just a memory now, and she wasn't about to be one of those reminiscent people that only looked back.