Here's the next chappie! Please enjoy!

* Thorn *

I watched in silence, my gold and black wings wrapped around me, slowly running my fingers through my hair, which consisted of a black tangled mess of curls. My bright blue eyes observed her as she was brought in. I narrowed my eyes at the light, inching deeper into the dark corner of my cage. I knew I wasn't on stage today, but any sight of the workers here made me flinch in fear. The slowly crept back out so I could see the girl as soon as we were back alone in the darkness.

I think her name is Adaline, but the other two call her Addy. A nickname of some type. The Ring Master called her Skyler, but I would hate to have such a name to. To be named after the blessed sky and not be able to belong in it...

Ring Master called me Thorn. I didn't really mind it. It wasn't as bad as Skyler. Or Storm. Or Shade. Or Mad Hatter. Thorn describes me. I'm a Thorn in my enemies' side with my sharp tongue. I have sort of a gift, you could call it. I can tell what really ticks a person off, what makes them tick. Maybe it's a gift, maybe it's just great observance. When I'm around someone, I just get this feeling. Like...I know what their feeling. Kinda. It's hard to explain.

Anyways, I was watching her. She slowly snuck to the side of her cage, reaching through the bars, and rattled the cage next to her. The silhouette in the other cage shot up with a gasp, but turned to see Adaline with a slight smile.

"Adaline?"

"Hey Ghost. Are you not preforming today?"

"No. I think Jini is though."

A deranged laugh echoed around us for a short second, fading off into only a whisper.

"Yup. Jini's preforming alright."

I didn't really like Jini's crazy laugh. Her real laugh tinkled like bells, ringing in a chuckling symphony. It was pure music when you listed to it close. Like an orchestra lived inside her windpipe.

"Poor thing. Ring Master's too hard on her. Do you know what she has to do for her performance?"

"Well, I know it involved getting lowered down from a ceiling." Ghost sighed. "I just wonder why I'm not preforming."

"I heard a rumor about there being an auction soon."

I felt my blood run cold. Who would be sold this time? Which Conductor would drag the victims out of their cages to be handed away? That was almost me last time. I was saved because no one wanted me. Everyone wants kids with wings, kids with special talents to work in militarizes or for some other insane purpose. I shivered at the thought.

"Where'd you hear that?"

"Conductor. Clumsy the Conductor."

"Idiot." Ghost chuckled darkly. "He's an idiot."

Conductors...I felt another shutter rack my body. They did all the dirty work of Ring Master. Ring Master...every time I say him I wanted to start bawling. His dark, emotionless eyes glazed like black ice over his irises. His you could never see his hair-it was always hidden in his top hat. I can remember when I met him. It will be imprinted in the back of my mind forever. The red hot pain of the needle as the sideways hour glass was tattooed to my left wrist. I was branded. The other mutants had them, but they always seemed to be on their right wrist. I was tattooed by Clumsy as Ring Master held me down. His musky breath slapping against my face like a wet cloth, his cold hands pinning me down-

I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the bad memories.

I couldn't think of it. I couldn't.

The crate room door slammed open, a ray of light bursting in. I winced, scooting back to the far corner of my cage. A few Conductors waltzed in, their prisoners bound. Electric collars were snapped off, and the inmates were shoved into their corners. I only unfolded my wings when we were back in darkness.

"Addy!" Jini squealed, reaching through the bars towards Adaline. "Oh, it was horrible! We had to dance and flip through hoops and-"

"Jini, don't talk about it." Ghost grunted, pulling his sister close. They shared a cage. "Please don't."

"I want to get out of here! Addy, we have too! Ring Master announced we were going to have an auction next performance! We hit the road tonight! Addy, Ghost, I don't want to get separated! Oh, Ghost!" Jini exclaimed.

"That's the way I like to hear the little ones think." A voice drifted through the darkness. As if fate wanted us to know who, the moon shined through our barred window of the trailer, putting a spotlight on the mutant who had spoke.

She was a pale girl with dark green eyes and bright red hair. From this angle, I could see that her hands were badly scarred and her skin was an almost translucent pale. She flicked open a pair of black and white wings with a smirk.

"Right Falle?"

There was a leopard in a Circus gown in a cage next to hers. I watched, somewhat awed as the leopard morphed into a darkly tanned, muscled girl with bright golden hair that contained brown spots so fast that if I would have blinked, I would have missed it. The hair looked more like fur. She stared back at us with two deep brown eyes. I noticed that she was badly scarred to, scars on her ams and legs, also one diagonal scar that slashed across her throat. It looked like a knife slash.

"You bet." The girl called Falle nodded. "I'm Falle, this is Race. We're future criminals."

"Partners in crime, more like it." Race sneaked a small smirk. "I couldn't help but notice you wanted to get out of here. With the auction coming up and all. I heard that the winged are worth a pretty penny. There's a big Japanese guy or what ever his face is."

"I think he's Korean, whatever that means."

"That would be correct." Another voice spoke out in the shadows. He neared the bars closest to us. Shade. I recognized him right away. He preformed in the air shows. He was the dude with the black wings with white primaries.

"Korean is a type of person. Like, I'm American." Shade continued, pointing to Falle. "And you look like you're from Tanzania. Somewhere around there. Anyways, yes. And he's out for us with wings and others with 'gifts'. Especially anyone who looks or is powerful."

"How do you know-?" Ghost broke off.

"I...was schooled before I came here. It was part of the program I came from. Section A-81.09. Anyways, Ring Master is going to sell anyone who fits his requirements, even his best performers. He knows he can always get new ones."

"Addy..." Jini begged. "If...if he comes..."

"When he comes. Mr. Korean-Pants isn't going to pass up a chance like this. Especially with your talent, Adaline."

"Talent? Alright, we have a gifted in our escape pod!" Falle cheered.

"Hush! Not so loud!" Race hissed. "Don't want Sir All-Powerful or one of his cronie Conductors to catch us talking."

"What's this 'gift'? How come you've never told us about it?" Ghost questioned, his voice cold.

"I don't consider it a gift." Adaline muttered, so low that my raptor senses had trouble picking it up. "I..If I concentrate on something, I can sort of pick up weak points."

This caught my attention. Weak points? Like how I could find out how someone ticked by just watching them for a few seconds?

"What do you mean?" Jini asked.

"Like...my cage. If I run my hands across the bars, I can tell which ones are weaker and which ones are stronger. I can't really do it very well...I-I can also pick up on the week points of people. Where they are personally most vulnerable."

I wanted to speak up so badly, but my words kept catching in my throat. How did I know she wasn't lying? How did I know that this wasn't a set up?

"Why don't you bust out of your cage, then? Bust us all out of our cages?" Race exclaimed, forgetting her own warning.

"I-I..." I watch as Adaline closed her eyes in pain. "I don't know how to describe it."

Scared? Afraid of what would happen if the plan screwed up? Afraid of the outside world? Why wouldn't she want freedom? But, at this age, freedom could be the scariest thing. This was all we had ever known. Of course it would be terrifying, yet thrilling to leave it.

"I don't think I'm strong enough to break any of my cage bars. They're all really strong. And I can't reach anyone else's. This is a bad idea, guys. Well be punished if we try and fail-"

"That's why we won't fail!" Falle promised. "We have to get out. We have one more show tomorrow, then we hit the road to go preform for the Korean dude. It's tomorrow or never."

Adaline closed her eyes again, rubbing her temples. She then sighed, opened her eyes, and looked into Jini's eyes.

"Here's the plan." She sighed, making everyone let out quite cheers. All except for the gray haired, wolf eared boy called Ghost. He curled up in the corner of his cage, his eyes sad.

"We free all the mutants. Everyone. No one gets left behind. Deal?"

Everyone nodded.

"Okay. When the guards come in tomorrow to start off the show, this is what well do."

Characters in this Chapter

Adaline-White Wind (meh:3)

Ghost- White Wind (meh:3)

Jini- White Wind (meh:3)

Shade- Prism Fire

Thorn- Thornessa

Falle- MyrtleFalls

Race- MyrtleFalls

Another chapter, another piece of the quest. Yup, this one's kinda short too, but it's only the second chapter of the fic, technically. Anyways, hope you enjoyed it and can spare a review.

~White Wind