Mure
Chapter One: The Great Escape
Who are we? Well, for a time, not even we knew that. All we knew were the dog crates, the whitecoats, the experiments, and the pain. Oh, and the gruelling, arduous training; don't forget about that. We never knew any different until we were at least ten years old, although we didn't know for sure we were ten back then. We could have been anywhere from nine to twelve.
All we knew, aside from all the unpleasantness and pain, were each other. We had been in that hellhole for as long as any of us can remember. There were other experiments, sure, but it was rare that any of them lasted very long. The place in which we were kept prisoner didn't have any specific specialisations as far as experimentation went, it dabbled in just about anything. However, it did have one goal in mind for its most successful end products, a number which we could be counted in. It was looking for a way to make the perfect team. Healers and support, mediators and subtle espionage, negotiators and front-line attackers, and leaders who had a bit of each skill set.
We had been put together as a team practically since we were in diapers. And it showed, too. We were as close as any siblings, even if we weren't related. Anyway, like I was trying to say, we're all we could depend on. We were there for each other and nobody else was. There wasn't a single experiment that was quite like us. When I say "quite like us," I guess I should elaborate. All four of us are human-avian hybrids. It's not like we're half bird and half human or something, that doesn't work. Trust me, the whitecoats have tried before our time. No, we're 98% human and 2% bird of some sort. We're taller and lighter than normal, we have lungs like a bird, the cells in our blood are similar to that of birds, our bones are hollow, and oh yeah. I almost forgot to tell you. We have got wings. Honest to God wings. We didn't know back then if we could fly or not but we would be finding out sooner than we ever imagined.
Like I said, we've been a team since we were tiny tots. We were the pride of the facility and we knew it. It was we who were the most successful, we who were the oldest, we who were the most powerful. But we had no individuality. All we had, until we were around seven at least, were the numbers which we were addressed as. No kid, even one as sheltered as we are, wants to go by something like HAHE0005. Everyone else, the whitecoats I mean, had a real name. So, when we were seven, we named ourselves. There's four of us, like I insinuated before. There's Alaric, Cyfrin, Teddy, and me. I'm Karasu.
Alaric, known to the whitecoats as HAHE005, is the one in our group who is the best warrior. He's about as subtle as a bull in a china shop most of the time. But, if given the chance to plot strategies, he's pretty good. He is the one who was made for combat situations and hostile negotiations. Alaric is good-hearted but can get kind of princely and pretentious when he doesn't have his way. On top of that, his hair is very light blonde and straight, his eyes are silver-grey, and his face is thin and noble-looking. Oh, and his wings are nearly the same silvery-grey as his eyes. That's why we named him Alaric, it means noble ruler or king in a few different languages. He is the second in command.
Next, there's Cyfrin. She is known to the whitecoats as HAHE0007. She is the subtlest and most underestimated of us all. Her guile and sneakiness outstrips the remaining three of us. She can practically look at you with her big, misty blue eyes and you'll believe whatever she wants you too. And she seems to know things sometimes, things that we wouldn't have guessed. Like all of us, she is heavily trained in combat, even if she prefers a more subtle approach. She has a heart-shaped face, scraggly, dirty-blonde hair, and rainbow wings. It's pretty clear that the bird part of her DNA is of some sort of tropical bird, or perhaps a parrot. Her name fits her perfectly as it means "mystic" in Welsh.
Third, there's Teddy. The whitecoats call him HAHE0006. He's the gentlest and most forgiving of us. He is the most trained healer and seems to have a gift with plants and animals. He is the second-most underestimated of us because of his round face, easy smile, wavy brown hair, and warm brown eyes. But, like a bear, he can grow vicious when one of us is threatened. Or maybe an eagle who he resembles through his wings. We found that out when we were still in our own personal hell when they would test our reactions to certain stimuli. When a whitecoat held a knife to my throat, I thought the guy was dead for sure. Teddy was that scary.
Lastly, there's me. I'm Karasu, HAHE0008 to the bastards in white, and I am our leader. Even though I am female, I am the intimidation factor and have a combination of the skills of the other three. That doesn't make me any more powerful or dangerous, it just means I'm more versatile than they are. I'm the plotter, the strategist, the motivator for all four of us. Oh, and I'm the explosives expert. I would find out after our escape that as much as I love to punch a guy, I love blowing a hundred of them up even more. Karasu, in Japanese, means "raven" or "crow" and it fits me perfectly. My hair and wings are as black as a raven, albeit with a few red streaks in my hair and feathers, and the others joke that I am as shrewd as the bird for which I am named. I guess I'm thought of as intimidating because my facial structure, according to the whitecoats, is nothing short of aristocratic and my eyes scare people. They're a deep, emerald green and they tend to almost glow in the right light. I'm not being vain or anything, I never had the chance to be, I'm just telling you how it is.
So that's us in an eggshell. Haha. This story that I'm going to tell you about is of our escape, or rather rescue, and the events that came about due to this.
It was an ordinary, for us anyway, morning at our personal hell. I guess I should tell you what they call it: the Institute for Higher Living. HA! Anyway, it was an ordinary day for us.
Story Notes
Yeah… This was intended to be an HP crossover with Maximum Ride series… I wrote this WAY long ago, maybe as long as 6 years ago. However, I figured what the heck and decided to post it anyway, even if I'm not going to do anything with it. My idea was that this group is among those Max and crew rescue in one of the first books of the series. I remember there being a dark-haired, 10-year-old bird girl in that group, which is where this idea came from. I wrote the idea with it being a female Harry, Ron, and Hermione forever ago, like 2010, and lost the file due to a crashed SD card… so many old stories were lost that way…