A/N: Still a little short, but I believe changed for the better.
disclaimer: I own nothing but my OCs
Birthday Owls
The house lay in ruins. He could remember every second of his home's destruction. The giant red energy blast moving agonizingly slow in his mind but in reality moving at the speed of light striking the roof of the house. The one second where it appears that nothing happened. Then the explosion happened. The shockwave knocked him back and the flames grazed at his body.
The resulting dust cloud could be seen from miles away. The despair of watching his only home ate away at his mind. The agony of the emotions he was no longer able to suppress was enormous. Then he could hear laughter. The laugh gleeful yet malicious, it tore the last shreds of his control to pieces. He could feel his despair ebbing away, only to be replaced with rage.
A rage so gruesome, so frightening that it twisted his face into a cruel mockery of what it once was. He could feel his power growing. The white-hot energy just ready to burst to the surface and he let it. He let the power burst from his body in the form of golden energy. The energy surged upwards and even in his enraged state of mind, he could tell that it was his aura.
Feeling his power still growing, he looked up and saw the figure that caused the destruction and his transformation. All he could see was a familiar face and the color red before lunged. His fist connected with the figure's face and he saw red until…
"Tank, get down here now!" Michael Sr. yelled.
Being a light sleeper the young boy snapped awake, the dream forgotten upon awakening, as soon as his name left his father's lips. He jumped out of bed and hurriedly got dressed shouting a quick:
"I'm coming!"
'Gosh, who yells at a kid on his birthday?' he thought. 'This better be good because I'm not even ready for the day yet.' Before heading to the kitchen, he looked at himself in the mirror and saw a nice-looking boy staring back at him with chocolate brown eyes, short black hair and smooth brown skin.
With eyes full of excitement, he brushed his hair and teeth, washed his face and left for the kitchen. As he entered the clean room, he saw colorful banners and balloons floating around the ceiling. Entering fully, he was so surprised by all the decorations that he didn't even notice the figures hiding behind the doors in the room.
"Huh, that's strange; where is everyone?" he said to himself.
Just as he finished the unspoken question, three figures jumped out from behind the doors.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" they yelled.
"AHHH!" Tank yelled while jumping almost twenty feet off the ground and landing on his back on his feet with a 'thud'.
Breathing rather heavily, he turned around to look at his verbal assailants. His 5'6 adoptive mother is a very pretty woman with long black hair hanging loosely down her back. Her dark brown eyes twinkled with amusement while she tried unsuccessfully to hide the grin from her full lips.
His adoptive father on the other hand was laughing outright at not just the shocked look on Tank's face but also at how far he had jumped. He was a pretty tall man at 5'12 with a handsome complexion and a nonchalant attitude.
The third person was grinning widely but tried not to seem as amused as his parents. The 10 year old boy had big dimples and a handsome face. His eyes betrayed his amusement and his concern for his startled older brother. As Tank got up keeping the embarrassed flush from spreading on his face, he looked at his family and commented:
"Yeah that's right, laugh it up."
"We're sorry sweetie. We couldn't help it after you jumped so high." His mother said while simultaneously controlling her laughter.
And with that sentence the laughter renewed again except this time Tank was laughing with them. However even while laughing, he couldn't shake his brother's face from his mind. Even though he loves his brother, he couldn't shake the suspicion he was feeling towards him at the moment. Almost like Tank knew he did something or is going to do something. After the laughter subsided, Tank decided to ask the question that had been bothering him since he woke up that morning.
"Will I have to go to school on my birthday?" Tank asked.
Both parents considered it for a moment before his mom spoke up.
"Sweetie, you know how we feel about your education." She said sternly.
When Tank heard this, his heart sank faster than the Titanic after it struck the iceberg.
"But it's my birthday!" he whined.
Both parents rolled their eyes at his whining, both knowing that he would miss out on his friends' birthday wishes.
"Tank, don't you want to see your friends on your birthday?" Dad asked while subtly shooting mom a look to play along.
Mom, taking the hint, said "Yeah, you don't turn eleven every day, Tank."
Seeing that they had a point, he was readying his reply when the window in the kitchen shattered and sent many pieces of glass falling to the floor. Screaming, everyone fell to the floor but Tank, who was scared but remained standing. It felt like something was rooting him to the spot. All he knew is that he felt he needed to save his family. Unbeknownst to him, his eyes were faintly glowing green. When everyone finally looked up, they noticed that instead of some threat, there was an owl sitting on the table with his leg held out.
A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed and please review!
