Hey there ^^
Here goes the first part of the Genesis-meeting. There is just part of the meeting described, but I hope it'll shorten your time of waiting till I finish the next chapter. ^^
Azarni will be mentioned in the next chapter and I decided to write a second Extra-chapter (Missjudged Genius II).
This chapter will be dedicated to Meg L.H for writing the most reviews for the past few chapters. I hope you'll like it! ^^v
Chapter twelve: When the Wind blows
The meeting was set at Saturday afternoon the following and Spitfire couldn't sleep at all the night before. He was lying in his bed, looking up at the gray ceiling.
"Damn, I wished she wouldn't have decided to attend this meeting", he sighed and covered his eyes with the palm of one hand. He couldn't really put a finger on it, but he had a bad feeling about what would happen the next day. But suddenly his thoughts were cut off by a sound coming from the door of his bedroom. The door was slowly pushed open, but Spitfire couldn't see who was entering because the light in the hallway were still switched off.
"Spitfire?" The Flame King almost suffered a heart attack as suddenly someone whispered his name, but then he realized that it was Phoenix who stood in the doorway peeking into the darkness of his bedroom.
"Ph-phoenix?", Spitfire asked hesitantly still startled by the unexpected guest. "What are you doing here? Is something wrong?"
"Uhm . . . I'm sorry, did I wake you up?"
He sighed, but then a smile was formed on his lips. "Nah, don't worry . . . I couldn't sleep." Phoenix bit her lower lip and stepped one step further into the room. "M-may I come in? I couldn't sleep, too."
"Sure . . . come in", Spitfire answered with a soft voice. He sat up in his bed and moved over a bit so that the red-haired girl had place to sit on the bed with him. She crawled on the bed and took place cross-legged. "Thanks for letting me in", she mumbled and looked down at her feet. "Sure thing . . . ", Spitfire agreed absent-minded while looking at the wall behind Phoenix. After a short while he realized that Phoenix wouldn't go on talking and asked carefully:
"Why did you come over?"
Phoenix didn't raise her gaze and she didn't even seem to listen to him.
"May I sleep here this night?"
Spitfire opened his mouth to repeat his question, but then he changed his mind and remained silent. He just lifted the blanket, but Phoenix shook her hed as she recognized his movement. "Don't worry", she whispered with a low voice which reminded Spitfire of the fact that she wasn't a normal child. "I'm fine without a blanket, I'm not cold." She sounded sad.
The Flame King sighed and looked at her directly as she was sitting thre in front of him. Her bangs were shorter now, but they were still long enough to cover her eyes when she lowered her head. "You are the one who doesn't have to worry", he said with a strict educcating tone, "I don't mind sharing the blanket."
Now Phoenix raised her view and the serious expression on her face made a shiver running down Spitfire's spine. Her red eyes almost seemed to gleam a bit in the darkness. As if there was a fire burning behind those eyes.
He reached out and placed his hand on her head, but the words which wer already almost formed by his lips got stuck in his throat as he recognized the warmth which came from Pheonix. Sure, he had touched her quite a few time the last three weeks, but now he recognized that her skin had never been cold even on the day when he had met her on the street. Maybe he had been too absorbed in her strange behaviour that he hadn't minded it.
"You're warm", he whispered.
The look in Phoenix' eyes got cloudy again, just like the day he had cut her hair. A deep sadness filled those beautiful red orbs and they sorta became dull.
"I know . . . I've always been warm. I don't like cold weather, but I was never cold."
Then she smiled and looked down at her feet again.
"The day I feel cold, will be the day I die-"
Maybe she had wanted to say more, but any word which could have left her mouth were muffled by Spitfire's T-Shirt which was wearing for sleeping. Out of a reflex he couldn't really explain he had reached out for Phoenix and pulled her into a tight embrace. Her eyes were widened in surprise. "Sp-spitfire?"
But Spitfire didn't answer; he just tightened the embrace a little. He could feel the heat of Phoenix' body and suddenly the thought of a fire burning inside of her didn't seem to be that off-key. "I'll never let you get cold", he managed to whisper after a while. "I promise."
His eyes started burning when he felt Phoenix' arms embracing him as well.
"I promise to keep you warm in return", she whispered and Spitfire could hear the smile accompanying these words.
A chuckle escaped Spitfire's lips and he said:
"You may sleep here as often as you like, Phoenix."
"That's nice of you, but you have to let go of me if we wanna get some sleep tonight."
Laughing Spitfire did let go of her and ruffled her hair slightly. "You're right."
Phoenix smiled happily.
The next day started way too early in Spitfire's opinion and as he watched his reflection in the mirror in the bathroom, he grimaced and refused to accept that this guy in the mirror was himself. He took a peek on his watch and mumbled:
"Damn . . . I definitely didn't get enough sleep." He rubbed his eyes and sighed. "But I guess, I can't change a thing about it now." So he left the bathroom yawning and entered the kitchen where Phoenix tried to reach a bowl at the top of the shelf hangig on the wall over the dishwasher. "Don't fall", Spitfire mentioned wearily and took place on the kitchen table to fill up a cup of coffee.
"Did you know, that coffee may cause a heart attack?", Phoenix asked warningly. She had taken place on the workingplate filling up the reached bowl with milk. Then she added cornflakes and wondered where she had put the spoon which she had pulled out earlier.
"So, today is the big day?", Spitfire asked. After the first sip of coffee he felt a bit more lively. Phoenix nodded in response and finally found the spoon which was laying right behind her.
"Are you still scared of the meeting?"
Phoenix tought about for a while, but shook her head then and put a spoon of milk-soaked cornflakes into her mouth. "Not anymore", she answered after swallowing the cornflakes. Spitfire smiled slightly. "Well, I'm glad to hear that."
"But could you tell me what kind of people I'm going to meet there? Do I have to pay attention on what I'm saying and stuff like that?"
"Nah, I don't think so. As long as you don't humiliate someone . . ."
"So I can't tease Simca?" Phoenix sounded honestly disappointed which made a laugh escaping the Flame King's lips and he grinned at the pouting girl on the workingplate. "Maybe not at that meeting . . . just try to be a nice girl and I don't think that anybody will harm you."
"So, how are those people of that Genesis-team?" Phoenix started sipping the milk from the bowl because she had fished all the cornflakes out of it. Spitfire leaned back in his chair, holding his second cup of coffee firmly with his right hand.
"Uhm . . . I'm pretty sure that you'll meet Benkei again, for example -"
"Oh, the woman from the salon?"
The Flame King nodded and continued:
"Ah, and Nue, of course." Phoenix grimaced slightly. "And Yoshitsune, he is the Rumble King of the Over Road."
"A king? So he is the best in his way of riding AT's?"
Spitfire nodded again. "Yeah, you can put it that way."
"So, what's that Yoshitsune-guy like?"
Perverted was the first word that came to Spitfire's mind, but in the end he said out loud:
"He is . . . special."
Phoenix raised both eyebrows and didn't seem to get what Spitfire tried to tell her. "In what kind of way is he special?"
"He's got a thing for girls."
"Really?" She suddenly sounded scared and her view became dull. Spitfire recognnized what he had just said and so he shot up from his chair and lifted his hands in a defensive gestzre. "But don't worry, he's actually a nice guy . . . it just takes getting used to his behaviour. Oh, and he's got his heart on his sleeve . . . sometimes."
Phoenix blinked a few times, but still didn't seem to let go of her scepsis that easily. Spitfire sighed and looked straight into her eyes with a soft, honest smile on his lips.
"Don't worry, he's a nice guy. I promise."
Suddenly the girl beamed at him and mentioned: "If you say so . . ."
Spitfire slightly shook his head then he asked: "At which time was the meeting set again?"
"Uhm . . . half past three", mumbled Phoenix while she was filling up the bowl again with milk and cornflakes. The Flame King finished his second cup of coffee and took a slice of toast out of the breadbasket. Maybe I should get a fe more hours of sleep till then, I kinda have the feeling it could be helpful to be fully awake at this meeting, he thought and sighed.
Three o'clock.
Of course he hadn't had slept till then, but actually he wasn't really surprised about it because he had had started watching some old videos of kids riding ATs. Phoenix had had pestered him with question about the videotaped tricks; how they were called and if she'd be able to learn them, too. But the Flame King had discovered very fast that it was fun to be the omniscient teacher because Phoenix had listened closely to every word which had left his lips.
"Oh, is it already time to go?", the girl asked with a dissappointed look on her face when Spitfire switched off the TV.
"Yeah, let's get ready for the meeting." He yawned once again and slowly scuffled towards his shoes which were lying at the entrance of the living-room. In the meantime, Phoenix took her favourite sweater with the printing 'Wait! I'm trying to imagine you with a personality'. Since her last meeting with Simca it kinda had become her favourite one.
(Okay, I would have written something about the way to the place of the Genesis-meeting, but I couldn't think of anything o.O)
They arrived three minutes too late, but Spitfire knew that it wouldn't be dramatic because at least the Rumble King would be still arriving after them. The meeting was set at an abandoned sports field any many different people were lingering around at the bleachers which were surrounding the place. Others were doing tricks; racing around the field, jumping down from the higher ranks of the bleachers, doing countless somersaults and Phoenix began to wonder when the first one would have to puke.
The first one who recognized Spitfire and Phoenix who had instinctively grabbed the Flame Kings Hand, was Nue. He had been talking to a bunch of kids which were all wearing weird masks and white cloaks. Phoenix sceptically eyed those children while Nue waved them goodby and approached Spitfire. "Who are those children?", Phoenix whispered.
"Oh, they are members of Nue's team."
"He already has his own team."
Spitfire smiled amused. "Sure he does, he also already holds the title of the Thunder King."
The girl's eyes became big and were filled with pure surprise, but then she crossed her arms in front of her chest and mumbled:
"He doesn't look much like thunder – more like lavender."But she kept silent when Nue reached them. He greeted Spitfire with a short nodding and asked with a serious expression on his young face: "May I talk to you for a sec?"
First Spitfire hesitated; he looked down at Phoenix like he was wondering if it would be okay to leave her alone for a while because he could see clearly that Nue wanted to talk to him in private. She understood what was going on and wasn't very happy about it, but she had spotted Benkei entering the sports field followed by a man in a funny-colored shirt – s, she decided to accept it this time. "Don't worry, Spitfire, I'll go and talk to Benkei over there", she pointed at the dark-blue-haired woman and her male company. "Just tell me when you're finished." With these word she ran off towards Benkei and Spitfire turned towards Nue.
"What is it?", he asked with a slightly confused look in his eyes because he couldn't remember anything going on lately which could be an explanation for Nue's behavior – first and foremost for his fierce expression.
Nue didn't answer right away; he slowly started walking towards an empty entrance to the sports field where nobody could spot them easily. "You wanted me to do some research on Sleepy Hollow, remember?"
Understanding lighted up in Spitfire's eyes. "Ah, sure . . . so, what did you find out?"
The Thunder King took a deep breath and he seemed to be very disturbed by something. He didn't look directly at Spitfire, his view were flying towards Phoenix who had now reached Benkei and Yoshitsune every few seconds.
"Sleepy Hollow is the name of a research lab near the coast, but the name was given to it by the people working there. The official name is MAX #4. MAX stands short for maximum laboratory #4 and it is said that it's founded by a big pharmaceutic business, but I couldn't get the name yet."
"Kay . . . so, there is a possibility that they're testing drugs on children?" Spitfire started thoughtfully chewing his lower lip while listening to his friend who seemed to get more disturbed every second. "Well, that's something pretty easy to get, first of all because in the cities within a radius of 200 kilometers there are missing, well, you can't really call it missing, but disappearing homeless orphans . . . but the rumors going around that at this laboratory they're doing experiment where they try to . . .uhm, kinda improve the physical abilities of these children."
The Flame King thought about it for a few seconds and finally started to understand why Nue was feeling that uneasy. They were about to discover something big, something cruel and terrible. Phoenix had been raised in a laboratory where not only new drugs were tested, but also they tried to genetically modify homeless children who no family would ever miss.
"So, it seems to be much like the Tower and the Gravity children?"
Se looked at Nue, but the Thunder King shook his head.
"It's – in a certain way – much more than this."
"What do you mean?" Spitfire didn't understand. More than what had happened to the Gravity children inside of the Tower; he had always thought that he could compare Phoenix' past pretty much with his own-
"Have you ever read or heard of the book When the Wind blows?", asked Nue and now he looked straight into Spitfire's gray-blue eyes. The Flame King felt like being pierced right through by these words though he hadn't had an idea of what they really meant back then.
Well, that's it! ^^
First: I hope i didn't make the relationship between Phoenix and Spitfire too kitschy. If you think I did so, feel free to tell me. ^^
Second: If any of you has ideas or wishes of what he/she wants to read in upcoming chapters or if you want me to introduce a certain character, feel also free to tell me that. it's not like I don't have any ideas and I can't promise that your wishes will be fully granted, but I'll definitely consider them while writing the chapters. I just thought it might be more fun for you to be able to "help" creating the fanfiction you like. X3
Third: "When the Wind blows" is a book written by James Patterson. If you don't know it, maybe reading a summary would help you to discover what had happened at Sleepy Hollow though I can tell you that it's not completely the same.
That's all for today ^^ Thanks for reading and please leave a review!
Bye FreakyPumpkin