-Death by fire is a hell of a way to go. Good thing no one died! Except maybe a bird or two… As always, read, review, and enjoy! And don't forget about character submissions!-

Chapter 6: A Faux Pas of the MindI was running. Fuck, not this dream again…

I looked down as soon as I knew I as dreaming, relieved to find that I hadn't grown a pair of breasts again. These dreams were torturous; they gave me the illusion of control, which only made the things that would occur that much more frightening. I couldn't stop my legs, though, allowing the fear to flood back in. But there was something else sitting in their, trailing behind the fear. I started thinking about how I felt when people called me a freak, about how Angel acted back at the club, about what Iggy has done, about what I have done. That underlying feeling, what I could now identify as rage, was coming up to a boil as I looked at myself, watching my arm muscles contort through the fur growing around my eyes. The ground seemed to move further and further away from me as feathers retreated into my wings, turning from their velvety silk texture to one of leather. I almost smiled to let my enlarging canines feel the cool night air. Anger filled my veins as a sent filled the air. A target.

I sprinted towards the sent of my prey, in a fashion not quite animalistic, but not quite human. The thrill of the hunt enthralled me, and I let out roar of excitement. The victim was in sight now, running at the sound of madness. Their hair was longer, blonde, shaking about as they ran. I continued to breath in their scent, only to find no traces of fear; the only thing I could detect was some sort of twisted humor. I came closer to my victim, listening to her laughter, watching her snap her wings open and taking off. I followed suit, beating my leathery wing to take off. She held a speed advantage over me, even doing a few tricks as she avoided me, like some sort of game. But she had a pattern to her tricks, flying just close enough for me reach out and grab her, but fast enough that once I thought about it, I was too late. So I just stopped, treading air until she realized that I wouldn't go any further. She turned to me, showing me that she wore Angel's face, but this was not the winged girl I was getting to know.

"Wow, kitty boy. And here I thought you knew how to show a girl a good time…"

This Angel's eyes had an iridescent purple tint to them, a light lazily trailing behind whenever her head moved. She smiled, a darker purple light leaking from within her mouth, like her body was full of some sort of energy she just couldn't control.

"You like what you see? Come and get it!"

She took off again, and I involuntarily chased her once more. This time, however, she genuinely tried to avoid me, dodging every advance I made, picking up the pace until I knew I couldn't get to her. She was laughing again, but this time, it was sending a chill through every bone in my body. It was as if, this time, she were mocking me, intent on crushing me. A feint trail of purple followed her as she flew, fading out of my sight. I was breathing heavily, feeling a massive difference in air pressure now. It was colder now, not only from the height difference, but the stare she was giving me, something I could see all the way from where I was. I could hear her laugh, as if she were right next to me, and once she stopped, she appeared right in front of me, purple eyes staring into mine as she wrapped her arms around my neck, feigning affection.

"I'll let you in on a little secret, kitty. Everyone has power, and everyone has secrets. But no one can handle either one. Not me, not you. We may try, we may put on a pretty little face, and struggle for years, but we'll never be in control. Just like you."

A sharp pain came from the area between my jaw and my chin. This fake Angel had shoved her nails into my flesh, and I watched as the same purple light shot out of my wound…

I bolted up, holding my hands over where my wound was. I fucking hated my dreams. I looked around our motel room, sitting up from the floor. Iggy and Angel were still in their beds, sleeping soundly except for that cute light snoring that Angel did. I took the next two minutes to calm my shortened breathing, sitting up against one of the motel room's walls. This constant lack of sleep couldn't be healthy in any way. How did anime characters do it all the time? Maybe I'd ask the Bleach Boys the next time we saw them.

I stood up, walking into the bathroom. I looked down into the sink before turning it on, collecting some of the water and applying it to my face. I could feel something light find its way onto my left shoulder, and the bathroom dropped about five degrees in temperature. Slowly, I looked up at the mirror, noticing first the purple light reflecting off of the mirror, a twisted smile below it. The fake Angel opened her mouth to speak, flecks of purple coming out of it like ashes now, unlike its flowing nature from before.

"Don't think too hard on it, kitty, just accept it. No one can handle real power."

I twisted around to face the fake Angel, but it she had disappeared again. This tormentor would return, however. I knew it. Once my mind realized that there was something it I didn't like or was afraid of, it would remember it, copy it, detail by detail, and use it for days, weeks on end, until I couldn't handle it for much longer. Then it would switch gears, bringing up something I hadn't thought of for months, and the cycle would repeat. And my own fears would be the fuel to the fire.

I remember talking about this to a friend of mine. Well, I guess I could call him a friend. He'd been studying psychology and computer science since he was twelve. He was already applying for a college when I met him at sixteen. He'd be nineteen now, and I'm sure he made it to that college. He tried explaining it to me with massive words I couldn't comprehend. Switching tactics, he told me that all dreams and hallucinations have some sort of meaning, like an encrypted message on a CD. The only person who could decrypt it would be the one experiencing it, in this case, me. But no-one can just get on a computer and read out the code. One needs practice and then the knowledge of the delicate things they're working on. I knew the code by heart; it was about damn time I got to someone who could fix it.

Pulling his wrists from each other, he broke the chains the bound him in place. The sirens were grating on his nerves, causing him to grit his teeth as he simply walked his way through the Wendigo facility. He could hear the footsteps of rushing guardians, all yelling in Portuguese. Smirking, he turned his olive-skinned self to face them, rooting himself in place. About five of them showed up, each pointing their dated rifles at him. It almost made him laugh. The ordered him to get down, his hands on the ground. He simply stepped forward. Another order was given, now emphasized with the shaking of a rifle. He ignored them further, now sticking his hand out, two fingers forward and his thumb up. One guard fired a shot at the ground by his feet. Fully smiling now, he spoke.

"Eu quero que você sofra."

He bent his thumb down, like a child pretending to fire a gun, sending out a large arc of electricity into one of the sounding sirens. The electricity traveled through it wiring and out of the siren closest to the guards, arcing to their rifles, electrocuting each one. He stood their, not relenting with the surge of electricity until he saw their corpses catch fire, filling the room with the sour scent of burning flesh. Satisfied, he simply shrugged his shoulders, walking right out the front door and into the country of Brazil.

...

Sound and Fury were wondering around Thunder Bay, consued and once again shivering. One would think that they'd put on shirts already, but this just wouldn't suit their current attire. Grabbing their shoulders and rubbing them to keep warm in the Canadian winter night, they kept asking passing individuals if they'd seen a trio of winged mutants in the area. They were mostly met with jokes about anime or told to stay away from their children. Defeated at the moment, they walked into a French restruant, hoping just for warm food and friendly service.

"I'm sorry, sirs, but we cannot serve you this evening."

"Excuse me?"

"Well, you clearly lack any sort of upper body attire.

"Look, sir, we've been wandering around for two days with no shirts and torn sandals. We haven't even gotten the chance to eat yet."

"I'm sorry to hear that, but we still cannot help you."

"Well, then, perhaps I can."

Sound and Fury turned to their left, listening to the ironically French-accented voice. The man took off his own coat and lifted one from the rack by the door, handing one to each of the Wendigo employees.

"There, now you've got the proper attire. Where're you boys from, anyway. You clearly aren't from around here." He man then quickly diverted his attention to the maitre d. "By the way, your Brandade de Morue leaves much to be desired."

Fury simply nodded, waiting for the man's attention to return.

"We're from Las Angeles, sir."

"You're a long way from home. Any way I can help you two?"

"Well, we're looking for some friends, and we were hoping that maybe someone knew where they went. They're, well… a bit different."

"Different?"

"They're mutants. They're all winged. We were supposed to meet them here, but we haven't seen them anywhere. Have you seen anyone like that?"

The man shook his head, leading them to his table.

"No, I'm sorry. I have not. But, I can make up for your lost time with a fine meal. Look at this menu. Whatever you want is yours. Don't worry about the prices."

Sound and Fury's stomachs growled as their eyes widened.

"Why, thank you sir! That is the most generous anyone's been to us this whole time!"

"Yeah, well, I'm just not a prick to foreigners. Next time you travel, do your best to not let people know you're American, alright?"

"Thanks so much!"

The man stood up from his seat, bowing slightly.

"Now, if you could please wait here, I must go inform our host of your inclusion to my table."

Walking away from the two, whose eyes were glues to their menus, the man hushed his voice down, speaking into his Itex-made earpiece and dropping the French accent.

"We've got two Wendigo idiots in a restruant up in Thunder Bay. Course of action?"

Angel was the first to wake up, stretching her arms out as she yawned, a few strands of hair stuck to her face. She smacked her lips to loosen up her jaws, eyes closed as she was waking herself up. Opening her eyes, she almost had a heart attack when she saw me sitting down, drinking water from a paper cup. She cluthed the patch of skin over her heart, trying to calm herself down. I would have laughed if she wasn't so freaked out.

"Um, Angel? You okay?"

"Er, yeah… just scared me is all."

"Yeah, I've got that effect on people."

I stood up, pouring the rest of my water down my throat. Walking over to Iggy, I tripped on some ripped carpetting, colliding my skull with his. Within three seconds, he was awake, and we were both clutching our forheads. Iggy sat up, wildlt waving his free arm as he did so.

"Shit, I'm up! I'm up!"

Iggy slid out of his sheets, stepping out of his bed and standing up. He put his shirt on that was sitting on the back of the chair where I'd been sitting, walking to the front door as he did so. He ttok a deep breath before opening it.

"We'd better get ready if we're going to Vegas today."

While everyone was getting ready, I tapped Iggy's shoulder, seeing as he was probably the one who was in charge at this point.

"Hey, Iggy, I've been thinking… I've got a friend in Oregon who might be able to help us out. It's on the way to Vegas, and I promise you, this guy can very easily wipe us from any security system we've passed by. Make us invisible. It' worth the stop."

Iggy stopped packing, straightening up to face me, despite his eye looking over my shoulder.

"How trustworthy is he?"

"He's gotten Itex off my back a few times. Erased my creation data, too."

Iggy stood there for a second, contemplating the decision prsented to him. Finally, he let out a deep breath, nodding as he spoke.

"Fine. Yeah, we'll stop by, but as soon as anything starts looking bad, we bug out, alright?"

Fifteen minutes later, we were in the air. This flight, though, wasn't the fun, joking one like last time. We were all strung from the attack last night, let alone the fact that I was running off of very little sleep due to my nightmares. I was tempted to sing again, thinking about Land of Confusion by Genesis, but I thought better of it. Well, I thought that Isaac may laugh at it, so I just didn't. But the silence was deafening, and I was desperate to land once we crossed the Oregon state line. Oxnard was now only about half an hour from us. Sound finally came from in front of me from Iggy, asking me for directions. I directed him to the street that I remembered, looking for that piss-yellow house that my cohort resided in.

"This is it? I'm sorry, but I'd rather not live in a house that was pi-"

"Piss-yellow? Yeah, me neither."

When we stepped onto the porch, I immediately looked to my right, nodding at the camera hidden as the eye of a garden gnome. The door opened on its own, followed by a voice coming from up a flight of stairs.

"It's about time you came back! Who're your friends? More mutants? Family?"

I chuckled, walking towards the stairs.

"Ah, shut it, Isaac. Just some travel buddies. We were hoping you could do us a favor."

"Wipe you guys clean? Consider it done."

I stepped over the finally step, turning to my left and opening the white door, seeing the familiar sight of an entire wall lined with computer monitors and a tall, blonde teen sitting in a rolling chair in front of them.

"You're not even welcoming your guests at the door anymore?"

"When you've got your eyes on the world, it's hard to see who's at your door."

"The gnome had no problem."

Isaac laughed, turning around in his chair and standing up, sticking a hand out for me to grabit and bro-hug him. Doing so, I tried to not hit his glasses, which seemed to be larger than the last time I saw him.

"Guys still calling you Weasel?"

"Yeah, but I've turned it around, made it my own. I kind of like it, y'know? Having my own monicker and all."

I chuckled turning around and extending my right arm at Angel and Iggy, who were standing their awkwardly.

"Isaac, or, rather, Weasel, this is Angel, and this is Iggy. I'm traveling with them, trying to help them find their friends. While we're here, we were hoping you could kill two birds with one stone. Think you can find the others somehow?"

"You ask me like you doubt that I can."

"When have I ever doubted you. I jut want to see if you can do it under a timer."

"You're on!"

Isaac turned back to his monitors, typing into six different keyboards.

"Kitchen's open. Make yourselves comfortable."

-Yay, more Wendigo involvement! And we've got two new characters! Anyway, this chapter and the next were meant to be one chapter called "A City of Evil", put school has been getting in the way, so this chapter was split in half. Otherwise, you know the drill: read, review, and enjoy!-