Our first stop on our New York City "tour" was Central Park. Tony said it was one of, if not the most, famous and visited in America. Apparently thousands of people come to this extremely large park each day.

Pepper had gone out of her way to make a small picnic for us. As we ate, I looked around the serene park. It was nearing fall now, so the leaves on the trees were turning beautiful colors of orange-yellow and red. All around us, children were playing with each other as their parents watched and talked from their places on the benches.

I began to wonder what it was like to have a family. I knew that I had one before the University, but I couldn't remember anything about my past. What would it be like? Would I have a brother or sister to play with? Would my parents be watching us, smiling underneath the shade of the trees? Maybe we would have a family pet, like a dog.

I caught Shuffle also looking longingly out at the happy families as the others chatted about where to go next. Was he also wondering about not being alone anymore? He seemed to be very wary around other people. Maybe he preferred to be alone sometimes.

I was brought out of my reverie by Tony speaking. "Hey Wonderfluff," I turned to him. "Care to imput your opinion?" He smirked. 'Wonderfluff?' "Um, this park is really nice. It's no wonder that it's so popular." I responded, really wanting to wipe that patronizing smirk off of his face.

He chuckled. "I was talking about the Toy store." "Huh?" I clearly missed something in this conversation. Ivy filled me in. "Pepper says that there's a toy store somewhere around here. It's really big. Do you want to go?" As far as I can remember, I had never been in a toy store before so of course I agreed to go.

Finishing up our picnic, Pepper and I packed up while the others talked with each other. Or more likely, Ivy trying to understand where Steve stood in the picture of the Avengers while Tony tried to get Shuffle to open up more. Tony called for his limo and we piled in again, eager to see more of the city.


The drive to the toy store was only a few minutes long, so we hadn't had much of a wait as the driver pulled up to the large glass doors of the "Wishing Star" Toy Emporium. The moment we stepped in we were assaulted by the fun loving atmosphere of the place.

Model planes and other aircraft hung by wires from the ceiling, gently moving from the A/C vents. Children of all ages played with their companions, whether it was dressing up dolls, racing RC cars, or just doing magic tricks with cards.

The sound of video-games playing drew Ivy towards the back of the store, where half of the wall was covered by TVs. Shuffle went to observe the magic tricks by the employee demonstrator. Leaving me to explore around the entire store. I found myself standing near the colorful child playhouses. Two girls around my age were already playing, going into each house, trying to find each other.

Upon seeing me, one of the girls called the other one out of her hiding place. They seemed to be twins, both with blonde hair in pigtails and sundresses. The "seeker" in the game came up to me. "Hi!" Her voice was warm and bubbly, like Chauncey's was but more feminine and less annoying. "My name is Emily." She pulled her sister w next to her.

"This is my sister Amelia." Amelia mumbled a shy hello with a small smile. "What's your name?" "I, uh… Faith." I lied out of nervousness. Besides, "firefly" in this part of the world is a bug, not an acceptable name. I remember in the park that a parent called a little girl by that name.

"So, Faith," Emily said. "Do you wanna play hide and go seek with us?" Hide and seek was one of the few games that I knew. I used to play it a lot back at the University. Although back there it was more like "hide and pray that you don't get caught before the training session is over."

Emily quickly went over the boundaries of the game. "You can hide anywhere between the stuffed animal area and the train sets." That was about a 25 foot area. Emily put her hand on the brown door of the plastic playhouse. "This is base. If you get here before I find you, then you don't have to be it. Okay?" Me and Amelia nodded.

Smiling, Emily turned back to the playhouse, closing her eyes and counting. Quickly, the two of us scrambled to different places, not to be found. I made my way to behind one of the stuffed animal shelves. As she finished counting to 20, Emily went the opposite direction to find us. I ran over to the first playhouse, crouching down as Emily glanced back. Her bright eyes scanned the area before she kept walking.

Just as I began running toward base again, something shot out and grabbed my hand, tugging me into one of the larger playhouses before the wooden door closed behind me. Losing my balance, I would've fallen to the ground if it hadn't been for the person who grabbed me as they once again pulled me up.

"Hey, can't you see I'm trying to…" the words died on my lips as I turned around to meet two seemingly glowing green eyes. The person who grabbed me towered over me, perhaps as tall as Topaz was.

It was a girl with dark red hair and light skin. She wore a black leather jacket with an odd marking on the breast pocket and a bright orange shirt underneath along with black jeans and combat boots.

"Who are you?" I asked. The girl smirked deviously. "The name's Rikki. Rikki Scarlet." "Okay Rikki, what do you want?"

"Midnight, tonight. Come to the warehouse by the Brooklyn Bridge and I'll tell you everything you need to know. My friends will lead you to the spot, alright? And don't bring anyone." She said.

"And if I don't come?" She leaned against the wooden wall. "Trust me; you will if you want to see King."

My eyes widened. "Wait, how do you know King? And how did he get out of the University? And what about Snowflower? She has a right to know about-"Rikki clasped a hand over my mouth. "Man, you sure talk a lot, don't you? Just come down to the warehouses alone." She removed her hand and slipped out of the playhouse.

I stood there for a second before I rushed out the door, colliding with someone. "Ow, oh, found you, Faith!" I opened my eyes to see Emily hovering over me, Amelia right behind her. "But I found Amelia first. Have you been hiding there the entire time?"

I nodded. Soon enough, Pepper found me and said that we spent too much time in the store. It was nearly dinnertime, so we gathered up the others and went back to Stark International. Sitting on the couch was another unexpected person. Actually three.

"Topaz!" Ivy cried upon seeing her sister lounging on the large leather love-seat. A soft hello from Snowflower and a tackle from Chauncey later, we found ourselves looking over the rest of our profiles, each of us finding a CD wedged between the pages of the information. All of the CDs were scratched, but Tony sent them to Jarvis's system area to be cleaned.

The CDs would take a few days to clean and recover the information, so meanwhile we went through each other's profiles and talked over dinner. Chauncey told about the television and how the little people stuck in the "magical" box could be very entertaining. I could tell that the boy was not only getting to Topaz, but also to Natasha with the way he talked on and on.

After going through each profile, we decided to try calling each other by our real names. My given name was Marley. Ivy was now "Kyla", and Chauncey's name was now Alek. Snowflower's real name was Lucy, Magenta's name was Margaret, but she preferred to stay "Magenta".

Topaz also kept her nickname in rejection of being called "Katanya" and Shuffle, now Apollo, didn't mind being called by both names. Oddly enough, like Topaz, small pieces of each of our profiles were missing too. Though I had a list of who my parents were, Snow didn't have any information about either parent, only that both are deceased. After a while, "Kyla" asked about the others. "Why aren't the others with you? What happened to King?"

Topaz frowned. "Before we left, him, Moonah, and Leo were all taken. I think they were taken by Germans." Suddenly, I lost my appetite. Topaz also seemed to be deep in thought. By time dinner was finished, it was nearing 11 o'clock. Tony said that we would finish our tour of the city tomorrow. After a few quick rearrangements of rooms (Ivy wanted to be in the same room as her sister), we went off to bed.

Magenta and I both got ready for bed, changing into our pajamas and climbing into bed. After another 30 minutes, I heard soft snoring from the cloak wearing girl, finally gone to sleep. It was a wonder how she slept in the thick fabric, and why.

Deciding not to dwell on the subject any longer, I silently got out of bed and put my clothes back on, this time also wearing a black jacket. I slipped out of the room and into the elevator, going up to the roof. I was startled by a kind British voice.

"Ms. Marley, might I ask where you are going?" I calmed myself again. I had forgotten about Jarvis, Tony's AI system. It was weird. Jarvis runs his house while Pepper runs his life. "I'm just getting some fresh air and I'd be very grateful if you didn't tell anyone about this." The AI said nothing as I walked out into the cool air of Night time New York.

Shoving my hands into my pockets, I was startled to pull something out. It was s crumpled up post card, a picture of the Brooklyn bridge, by the name on the card. Flipping it over, the only thing on the back was a drawing of a skull with an arrow wedged between its teeth. It was, of course, signed by Rikki Scarlet. I shoved it back into my pocket, now knowing what the bridge looked like.

When I made it to the edge of the roof, I sucked in a breath. The skyline was beautiful, and the lights made it all the more worth seeing. Shaking myself out of shock, I unfolded my tan wings, stretching them before I took off toward the large bridge, hoping that it was the Brooklyn Bridge.

It only took me a few minutes to make it to the bridge, the sign leading to it stating its name in large white letters. "Brooklyn Bridge." Landing on the soft sand beside the bridge, I looked around for the warehouse.

Suddenly, I found myself sandwiched between Rikki and another guy around my height. Both were grinning like they had just been sat in front of a large feast. Rikki spoke up. "Well, well, you aren't as spineless as I thought. You actually showed up and all alone too. I'm impressed with how good you follow the rules."

The dark haired guy only gave a hollow laugh. "You're a good girl, aren't ya, lightning bug?" He mocked. "Hey," I snarled at him. "My name's Marley for your information, and I only came to get answers so shove off!" I manage to rip my arm from his grasp only to bump my head on the door of the warehouse that we were at now.

Rikki gave another mocking smirk and laugh before grabbing my arm again and leading me into the dare warehouse. We got to the middle of the warehouse when we made it to a clearing, framed by crates stacked on top of each other and lighted by electric lanterns on top of the surrounding boxes.

There was a circle of people, around the ages of 10 and 15 seemingly. They all wore all black save for Rikki, another boy in black and lime green, and the boy standing in the middle of the circle, between two other people.

It was Leo and Moonah, their eyes wide with wonder and another emotion that I couldn't place.

And King standing in the midst of it all.


AN: I am really sorry that it took so long to get the next chapter out. Now that I'm in high school, I had to study hard to pass all of my finals. But I did pass them all with flying colors and now that its summer you can expect a lot more updating!

Please don't forget to review. It lets me know that people are still reading my story.

Logic will take you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.~ Albert Einstein