Zoey sat at the desk of her English class, her eyes looked out listlessly at the board and she tapped the rubber end of a pencil against her desk repeatedly, it was all very normal and boring. She thought and concentrated on nothing but Mark, his mixed response after Dren's intervention left her nothing but worried. It'd been days after the fair and neither of them had contacted each other, she sometimes caught glimpses of him around the school grounds but he always seemed to slip away before she could approach him. Giving an almighty sigh she finally closed her eyes for a second.
"Zoey. Pay attention!" The teacher barked and she straightened up instantly, her hair wild and eyes snapped wide open.
"Yes Miss."
"Good. Now tell me what this is." The woman pointed at an image pulled up on the slide show. Zoey got to her feet in a numbed stupor, her hands were placed flat on the desk and her mouth gaped open ungainly.
"T-thats..."
"Zoey are you okay?" The teacher asked in concern, lowering her glasses at her. "You're behaving very odd."
"Yes Miss...it's an elf." Zoey mumbled and plonked back on her seat, feeling herself blush at her reaction. Shrugging off her behaviour the teacher continued the lesson.
"Now class, some of you may be more familiar about these creatures of fantasy than others. These are Elves as Zoey said, and are most commonly used in fiction. The word "elf" is treated as an abstract noun as you would treat the word "dream", as it physically isn't real to touch but it does exist within the world." The knowledge sunk into Zoey faster than any topic ever had.
"It's a Cyniclon. A Cyniclon, a Cyniclon...How did I not see the similarities?" She said under her breath, she was unable to tear her eyes away from the image. It was just a typical concept art for a game but the characters created were of an uncanny likeliness to Dren. Each of them had smooth, pale or tanned skin, and dressed in odd fantastical clothing that clung to their frames showing off their athletic, toned bodies. They wore boots that went as high as mid thighs on the men and women, some wore leggings, other shapeless tunics or loin clothes similar to Dren's, swords and bows were hung at hips and across the warrior's chests, whereas others were clearly farmers or foresters. The teacher clicked the computer mouse a few times and different images of Elves popped up, Zoey watched with a transfixed gaze at the race of Elves supposedly formed from fantasy. They looked so much like Cyniclons that she had to bite her lip from screaming at her class how dangerous they were. Different artists portrayed a different length of an Elf's ear, some as large as Dren's or as short as her own.
"Do Elves exist?" She called out, unable to cast this question away or hold her tongue. Already she knew the answer but somehow she desperately needed to hear it from someone else. She gained peculiar looks at her from the members of her class as the teacher replied witheringly,
"No, Zoey they do not. They are fictional characters. Which is exactly what your homework will be based on, I want a detailed summery of how you create interesting fictional characters." And the class groaned in unison, "We shall start it today and to be handed in to me by next week, make a note of it. So class, how do you start a story?"
Zoe wrestled within herself for the duration of the day, she couldn't come to terms with how similar the Elves looked compared to Cyniclons. But the ideals were far too different, one was a race of peace and love, where as the other sought to destroy and invade...She was glad that after school at the Mew Mew cafe she found people who would listen to her.
"Elves you say..." Wesleys muttered, running a hand through his hair. "Well, the idea isn't all wrong, I mean who's to say that the human race created "Elves" from imagination? It could be possible that Cyniclons visited Earth aeons ago." She remembered how Dren had told her of his recon mission in her youth.
"I can't imagine Cyniclons even being good." Zoey said with such venom that surprised Wesley.
And he straightened up in his seat before saying "Well not all humans are good and not all are bad...there must be a balance in life wherever Cyniclons come from." And he sighed as Zoey went to interrupt him again, "But...it's good you're here today, Elliot and I wanted to announce something."
"Oh, what is it?" She asked curiously but he only gave her a dark remark of, "you'll see." and refused to say more despite her whining. Soon, the other Mew Mew members turned up for work and they slaved away, save for Corina, until the evening where Zoey gladly shut the door, sliding the lock into place.
"Geez...I can't believe how hard work is...I'm so glad no Predacons showed up." Kikki sighed, her small body was on the table laid flat out on her back.
"Huh, if Predacons showed up at least it'll be a change from doing this." Corina said giving a small stretch. Zoey held her tongue as Kikki started arguing with the other girl and it soon escalated to the point where they were all snapping at each other, she alone sat at a table with a hand on her head.
"Girls...girls...girls..." Wesley sighed tiredly though he had a beaming smile on his face. He brought out a rich chocolate tart on the trolley and the bickering soon ceased. He was closely followed by Elliot and the pair watched as the Mew Mew team began to tuck into the sweet dessert that melted down all tension and fighting.
"Now that it's quietened down...me and Wesley have a proposition and we'd like you to think about it." Elliot said firmly and the girls listened intently, it wasn't often they had to make group decisions.
"The thing is...we've decided that we don't have enough information about Cyniclons, they're proving a lot more dangerous than we thought..." The smooth haired baker told them. He took a seat and crossed his legs, "Mini Mew brought us back some footage of a recent encounter with the Cyniclon Dren and Zoey. Take a look." Elliot clicked a slideshow pen and an image of Dren was shone onto the wall, with another click the video played.
Much to Zoey's embarrassment they watched in slow motion as Dren incapacitated her easily. The clip ended with an image of her stunned in the bubble. "As you can see here, if Dren really had the intention to kill, none of us would be here. What troubles me is I don't know how much power, magic, energy, whatever you wanted to call it, he can emit. If we push him too far in a battle then Earth will be no more. Or at least a good portion of this city will be obliterated at the very least. Not to mention the other two Cyniclons we've been seeing around lately."
"Which is exactly why, we want to capture Dren. He's the one alien we've had contact with since the threat started. If we can draw him out using Zoey, then we can tranquilize him." Elliot finished and turned off the slide show. He surveyed the shocked expressions that quickly burst into a gaggle of opinions good and bad. He let the noise continue on for a while before holding his hand up for silence, "Okay...let's have a show of hands to capture Dren."
Five hands were held into the air, they belonged to Elliot, Wesley, Kikki, Corina and Renee. "Seeing as only you two didn't put your hands up, then the decision is quite clear." Elliot concluded, "We will however need your help particularly in this Zoey. So if you all transform now, we'll meet you at the Town square when we've gathered up the tranquilizer gun from the lab." He said getting to his feet as the girls groaned, already tired from the day time work.
"We should never had said yes." Renee moaned getting to her feet.
"I don't fancy being bait...and I don't really wanna capture him." Zoey added with a yawn, and was worried about confining a Cyniclon...it would be very dangerous. But within an hour's time, they were all stood in the centre of the empty town square shivering with cold as Zoey called aloud hoarsely for the Cyniclon.
Elliot hugged his arms as he stared at the cool, calm sky, "When will these damn aliens show up?" He muttered to Wesley,
"Give them time, I'm sure they can't resist a fight or at least Dren can't resist Zoey."
"Hopefully. The information we can gather from him will be valuable."
"You're right...we need him seeing as he's our main nemesis right now. And we need an edge on these aliens."
Sat on a tree bough was Tarb, his body cast in shadow by Sardon and Dren, all three of them bore grim expressions. "What do you think they want?" Tarb asked with a low hiss,
"If anything what bothers me it is that gun containing liquid that the blonde one is holding." Sardon said dryly, pointing his fan towards the human. "It makes my instincts curl up in distaste."
"It seems too much like a trap to me." Dren said softly, his sensitive ears picking up on the voice calling out "Dren". They were too far off to pick up the full sentences.
"Of course it is." Sniffed Tarb,
"You aren't thinking of doing anything crazy now would you?" Dren asked him silkily.
"Only if you count setting it off as crazy." The small alien replied curtly.
"Most wise." Sardon replied in a low tone but said nothing else to dissuade the alien. The small figure fired a blast into the centre of the square causing screams to echo around the night. They at once recognised him as the "little one" and set about trying to chase him away.
Sardon watched with cold, calculating eyes as Tarb flitted around easily never drawing too near the blonde teenager with the gun who hadn't shifted from his place. Dren however was more interested in Zoey who still continued calling his name. "You may as well get down there." Sardon said quietly, watching as the Mew Mew team grew increasingly slow and inaccurate as their weariness got the better of them. "They're so worn down now, they may as well not be a threat." He added watching Tarb bounce around with endless energy.
Dren nodded and dropped silently to the floor, his cat like eyes watched the interaction closely. It troubled him that it was so meticulous, Zoey would call his name repeatedly whilst the rest of the group kept Tarb occupied, and the two men would stay by the van constantly. He strode out towards Zoey who's face paled a shade in the dim streetlights.
"What do you want?" He asked her blandly. His eyes never left the men who's attention snapped to him doggedly, he locked eyes with Elliot and knew this was a situation he didn't control. Zoey herself clamped her mouth shut, she could feel her gut twist as her curiosity clawed at her. She was dying to ask him about his species history, and how he resembled Elves. It was an unhealthy interest she concluded.
"There he is!" Bridget cried aloud, and the girls stopped chasing Tarb. The multitude of young women dressed in an ensemble of colours turned towards him allowing the minute alien to slip back to Sardon. Feeling more than slightly threatened Dren flew eagerly into the air a few metres to look at them all shrewdly, "What is it you want with me?" He asked them coldly.
"This!" Corina shouted and launched a heart arrow at him which he easily caught by the shaft crushing into a shower of blue sparks.
"Pathetic. Now tell me really!" He snarled, even as he spoke Rennee lashed her purple sash of a weapon around his ankle. She gave it a powerful yank and he lurched his back into the air in a bid to stop himself being pulled close. The exertion between them seemed almost equal, the glittering violet eyes of the woman met his ambers ones that were now black slits in fury. "I refuse to play this game!" He snapped after a tense moment of which neither had given way. With a furious yank of his leg he back flipped into the air, breaking the sash with a resounding snap.
Renee gave a yelp as her weapon back lashed at her wrist leaving a strong red mark, immediately the Mew Mews crooned around her checking her closely. "Just what do you think you're all doing!" He snarled, his frustration caused by the lack of answers. Normally they never shut up. Again he got nothing but attacks as Bridget wound a giant wave of water around him, creating in effect a twister, even with his acute vision he could see nothing but a swirling mass of turquoise liquid. Any energy he fired out was absorbed into his temporary prison. His tapered ears listened hard past the deafening swirling mass but he couldn't identify noise or people. "TARB! SARDON! Help me!" He roared aloud, already his palms faced each other and was drawing at even more magic when a shot of pain burst onto his right arm.
With a sharp yelp he watched as Renee's purple sash wound its self tightly against him again and he clawed at it relentlessly with his other hand. Another second later and Kikki's tambourine attack had smashed into his left arm, leaving him unable to move it comfortably. "Face me you weaklings!" He snarled to the blue void, and fired pin pricks of energy into the water testing its resolve again. Suddenly a blast of energy shot into the small of his back, unmistakeably Cyniclon, a second later a pull on his arm had sent him hurtling into the water.
Sardon watched with amusement as Dren fell to the ground with a wet splash, the Cyniclon barely had time to draw breath before the Mew Mews pounced on all his limbs, forcing him to surrender movement. They knew a slenderly built Cyniclon like Dren relied heavily on his inner power as opposed to his strength. "It's almost amusing." He commented with a smile to Tarb who sat on the tree, swinging his legs.
"He's so pathetic, one little shot from me and they catch him off guard. And now he's...trapped." The smaller Cyniclon replied with a toothy grin. They watched with interest as Dren was injected with something that made his body limp. A few more moments and their companion was tied, gagged and bundle roughly into the back of the van.
"Well...it seems as if he will have to fend for himself." Sardon said quietly, as the van drove away quickly. "I have no inclination of rescuing him."
"That I agree with." Tarb replied lightly with a broad grin.
Dren's head pounded like never before as he lay on a cold surface. His very veins throbbed labouredly with blood and only served to give him a heated light headed feel. He gradually found his arms and legs and was surprised to feel them unbound but sore. Cracking open his eyes his vision made the world spin so he clamped them shut. He sat up slowly and crossed his legs lethargically. With a few deep breaths he used the magic he relied on and attempted to flush out whatever toxins the dastardly humans had pumped into him. With a lurching retched he coughed out a bloody acrid smelling mess of body fluids which was most of the sedative, wiping his mouth dry with his arm he cast his gaze into the darkness around him.
What encased him was a metal cage. He placed a hand on the bar intending to bend it open with magic, but shouted with pain as a searing sensation burned him. Recoiling with a hiss he felt that his hand was red hot and sore, "Let me out." He called out to the gloom. With his vision he could make out grey shadows and shapes, and suddenly a light switched on.
It blinded him for a moment but his eyes gradually adapted. And he saw the two men watching him curiously. The blonde one was knelt by the cage his blue eyes reflecting intelligence and a cold demeanour. Dren gave a hiss, he didn't like this. Not at all.
"Welcome Dren...good to see you awake." Wesley said calmly and the alien bared his fangs at him like a cornered animal would do.
"Let's...make this easy shall we...We've never done anything like this before and from the look of it neither have you." He said tiredly and sat on a chair beside a large computer. "Your magic is subdued by our tranquilizer so I wouldn't try to use it."
"Fine. We can talk. Don't expect me to spill any secrets though." Dren replied and stood up, he appeared to regain his senses after hissing and snarling. "What is it that you want? Never before in history has a Cyniclon been captured...and it's ridiculous that you had to inject me with such liquids before capturing me. Dirty underhand tactic."
"We did whatever was necessary, believe me, I didn't enjoy waiting four hours for you to wake up. So let's start." Elliot said coldly. He pulled out a camera and sat cross legged on the floor after positioning it directly at Dren. "Let us begin then. Tell us about your race of people and the source...of your magic. We've seen what you can do and would prefer to understand it."
"I don't need to tell you anything." Dren replied simply looking at him stubbornly. "As for the source of my magic...It's nice to see you so fascinated and yet so helpless against it."
"We're not magical creatures, so we have no defences against it, which is why you will tell us how to beat it." Elliot told him frankly with a steely glare.
"I think not."
"Okay, so my next question will be about anatomy. Your ears...do they heighten hearing?" And Dren twitched them as Elliot looked at them with interest.
"Perhaps." Dren replied, he now sat down cross legged with arms folded looking every bit as stubborn as he acted. The next few hours consisted of relentless questions from Elliot with the alien responding in an off handed manner completely avoiding an answer.
"Alright Elliot..." Wesley said tiredly, "Give it a rest, we'll go to sleep now and run some tests tomorrow." The man gave a long stretch as Elliot got to his feet stiffly.
"Yeah..." He agreed, dark bags under his eyes. "Here." And he picked up an apple from the desk and rolled it into Dren's cage careful to avoid the bars.
"Is this supposed to be my dinner?" Sneered the Cyniclon, he picked it up in with a hand noticing how smooth and buffed the surface was.
"It's fruit, enjoy it. And we'll be back in six hours." Elliot replied quietly. They left the room with only a small dim light for Dren, there was no window or breeze for comfort, just the hard metal floor. He detested the floor so managed to levitate himself a few inches off it, and he eyed the apple hungrily. Seeing as some Cyniclons had a choice in how to digest food, he put a hand over the fruit and using the last trickle of magic, absorbed the life energy from it. Beneath his palm the apple shrivelled into a brown, lifeless objects, the crimson complexion it previously had, had been sapped away.
He gave a delightful shudder as the apple's fresh energy rushed into him, merely chewing and swallowing the food couldn't represent how delicious it's energy was which was why this was his preferred way to eat. With a clearer mind he wondered how he could manipulate his prison. "At any rate that liquid they pumped into me has ruined my build up of magic. Even that apple then contained some more tranquilizer. I won't have enough magic to even bend these bars for a week at most never mind blasting them clear off." He thought bitterly. At any rate, there was nothing he could do now, so he curled up keeping his knees close to his body and drifted into an uneasy sleep.
He was woken up by Elliot rapping the bars of his cage with a pen. The blonde haired teenager looked at him curiously, "So I noticed how well the overnight cam filmed you."
"You were filming me?" Dren said with a snarl his amber eyes flashing with anger.
"Of course, you're my prize test subject." The teen said with relish, he got off the floor and showed Dren a video of himself draining the apple's life energy on a laptop. "You don't have to tell me anything, I can already tell from this footage that you don't eat as we do."
"Damn right. There's no gruesome, primitive chewing." Dren snapped at him. Already he was sensing the hostility Elliot harboured inside, he was sure left to his own devices that this teenager would regard him as he would an animal and treated like so. And right now, this human was on his own.
"So you regard us as a lower species...yet you have an almost humanoid form." He reached out towards a lab desk and picked up a smaller tranquilizer gun. Dren snarled at the liquid as Elliot pointed it at him, "It won't hurt much. But I need you partially sedated so I can run some tests and studies on you."
Another second with a small "poof" noise and Dren was on the floor, his vision and speech slurred, any specks of magic slipping away from his grasp. He felt warm hands grip him by the scruff of his clothes and drag him bodily onto a table. Dazzled slightly by the white light that hung above his head, he blinked and twisted his head to the side lethargically. "Hold still." Elliot told him sharply and bound his wrist and ankles to the table with restraints.
"Get...off me." Dren gasped feeling sick in the head. He felt a sharp scratch on his arm and squinted slightly to see Elliot attach a sickening drip to his vein.
"That should keep you nice and half sedated." The boy commented and then proceeded to take a vial of blood from the pale arm.
"You disgust me." The Cyniclon spat as a few more vials were extracted from the vein.
"I do what science allows me to do, if you talk then it'll make this scan seem faster." Elliot suggested sliding a metal band over Dren's forehead. The scan shone lasers hot on Dren's skin for over an hour, gleaning information about his skull, brain and eyes. Elliot then progressed to photographing parts of his body, Dren gritted his teeth as the teenager cut his natural clothes off him, leaving him with nothing but his under garment hiding his male parts. He felt at the mercy of the humans, and it sickened him to the core, words would do no good here so he held his tongue.
He reached for the magic inside of him, fully intending to blast Elliot's tanned face into a mush of pain and blood. But it slipped away...the sedation was keeping his concentration from forming properly and he gnashed his fangs in frustration. "That's right...just open your mouth for me." Elliot murmured sliding a thin wooden stick between his jaws. He gently prised it open and took a few photographs of inside. A moment later Dren clamped down on the stick breaking it into fragments.
"Touchy." Elliot said calmly and pulled the fragments away from his mouth. Wesley entered the lab a moment later and scanned Dren with interest from a distance, his mouth scowled a little at how much Dren appeared human and the treatment he had been subjected to made evident by the needles and vials on Elliots desk, alongside scans and graphs.
"I thought we said that you'd wait for me to come back before starting." He said whilst taking a look at the computer that Elliot had running busily.
"I couldn't wait, he was just too interesting...I mean look at his bloods and fluids, they adapt to gases around him...the haemoglobin inside him is a temporary measure and when I exposed him to higher doses of Co2 they twisted so that he expelled oxygen...it's amazing."
"Wow...look at his energy charts..." Wesley muttered, a smile growing on his face, "You've done well, but I'm concerned about his welfare."
"Welfare?" Elliot echoed with a snort of disbelief, "He's nothing but an animal. A creature that we've captured."
"You're creature...has a name." The Cyniclon rasped. His throat felt as if it were cracking but he gave Elliot an angry, feral look , "My name is Dren...and I...demand to be freed." He hissed. The distraction of Wesley was all he needed, with immense effort he forced the sedation needle out with a convulsion of his arm, he tugged at the remnants of his magic and snapped the metal restraints restricting his hands. Immediately Elliot and Welsey was upon him, forcing him back down through sheer force.
Letting out an inhuman scream of anger and distress, he clawed and scratched at the two pair of hands attempting to inject him once again. "LET ME GO!" He roared, his amber eyes dilated so tight they formed black slits.
"DAMN IT ELLIOT, INJECT ALREADY!" Wesley gasped as the flailing arm caught him in the chest, but the vial of sedative was out of reach. Without warning Dren snapped at him, and his fangs met with the man's arm. They sunk in easily, drawing deep, crimson blood. Dren could feel the soft pulse against the entity of his mouth and the sour tang of a human's blood, the raw, musk of it giving him an even harder headache.
"LET HIM GO!" Elliot roared and bashed his elbow repeatedly at the back of the alien's head, but the Cyniclon hung on grimly.
"What's going on in here!" Zoey cried aloud breaking open the lab door, behind her the entire Mew Mew team looked at them curiously as the scene below them froze.
"Nothing!" Wesley gasped weakly and yelped with pain as Dren shifted slightly to see the door. The girls shied away slightly from the surreal scene as the alien was latched on grotesquely to Wesley, blood spilling from the arm and the mouth.
"Dren what are you-" Zoey began her soft eyes widening in fear as the Cyniclon seemed half wild, and without mercy. His eyes met hers, betraying his fear. "Let...Wesley go now." She said softly and murmured coaxingly as you would to a wounded tiger. She kept her distance but out stretched a hand to him much to everyone's horror.