Sonya wasn't one to usually give in to fear; the girl had always been living on the street, and if there were two things you learn when you live on the streets, it's how to hide and how to hide your fear. But one of the most important things you learn is even if you decide to go solo for most of your time, sometimes you just have to join a gang.

Over the years, Sonya had lost her fear of; social workers - they were useless, and the only way to avoid them was to just run and hide, and pray they just got the message you didn't care about them.

The Police. The cops were just as incompetent. They spent most of their time patrolling the city, and if they cared they would have gotten off their butts and done something constructive.

Other gangs. The best way to avoid them was to run away; sometimes it was preferable to be murdered.

That was the reason Sonya had joined the Purple Dragons gang. They were some of the strongest street toughs on the street, and when she had joined it hadn't been long before she had passed all her tests and was soon riding out with the gang.

Every night, Sonya went out with the gang, extorting money, beating people up, sometimes to death, not that she cared., but it didn't take her long before to work out the Purple Dragons worked for someone else. Someone even more sinister and cruel than the leaders of the gang. The boss, as the others called them, was spoken about in hushed tones to new prospects. Nobody knew if the boss was a man or a woman, but one thing was certain.

The boss was real.

At first, Sonya had just assumed the story was just a made-up bogeyman told to scare and impress, but as time passed she realised it was not a myth. The boss was real, and they didn't like it when the Purple Dragons failed. The last time they'd failed, weird ninjas appeared out of nowhere and made sure the gang understood their place. And then, to make things worse, the frogs - weird green critters who bounced around with weapons out of a Jackie Chan movie kept interfering until the Purple Dragons were given such a blow, it had taken the gang months and months of work to get back on its feet.

And now this.

Sonya did not usually give in to her fear, but she had one fear she had never gotten over, and she had never known about it. She was scared of heights, but she didn't know that yet.

As she came too, Sonya was angry she was hanging upside down once she had cut through the delirium that came with waking up, but it took her a moment longer to remember what had happened; one of the new prospects, a kid who had joined only a few weeks ago, had suddenly turned and attacked the Purple Dragons, and slaughtered the entire group.

It all happened so fast, so quickly, and even now Sonya wondered if it was just some weird, fantastic dream. But no such luck. It was real, it had happened. The kid had moved like lightning, slashing into the gang as if they were just dummies made out of tissue paper, and he was wielding two long knives, using them like swords, but what was shocking and this was what made her wonder if the entire thing was her imagination; he had made them appear out of thin air.

And it wasn't just knives that appeared out of nowhere; the kid had somehow created fire out of nowhere, and so many of the gang had quickly become barbecue.

How did she know she was afraid of heights?

Something covering her head was ripped off, and she was gifted to the sight of the city streets and the building she was on going down, down, down until it made her sick.

She did the only thing she could, she screamed!

"Wow, I was not expecting that."

Sonya turned her head and saw the kid standing on the rooftop. He had his hand up. He was not particularly large, with a slightly scarred face, black hair, and pale skin. But his eyes were his most defining feature. They were a sparkling green, and sometimes they gave off a sinister glow. She had never caught his name, there had been a massive recruitment drive and she didn't have the time to memorise the names.

"Where am I?"

"I'm asking the questions, but since you've worked out where you are, the question's quite pointless, is it not?" The boy's voice hardened.

Sonya swallowed at the sinister look on his face. Now she had something else to be scared of.

Great.

"Look, whatever it is you want, I'll-I'll try and give it to you," she said, desperately pleading with him to let her go.

"Oh, you will," he agreed. "I want information." He reached into a pocket of his jeans and took out a patch of fabric and held it up. It was a cowl, with a familiar symbol that made Sonya swallow. It was shaped like a clawed foot, coloured blood red. "A few months ago, I was attacked at a hospital by these strange guys. I got them away from me, and when I thought they were gone they came back. When they did, I saw the Purple dragon tattoo on one of them, so I knew there was a link. That's why I joined, but I ran out of patience."

"Who, do you want to join them too?" Sonya asked.

It wasn't her intention to be funny with him since he held the cards, but something about her comment annoyed him; his lip curled and then suddenly she was screaming as she fell from a great height. And then she was suddenly stopped and then she was shooting back up to come face to face with the boy. He didn't look impressed.

"Don't be funny with me," he warned. "I have lost my memory, you see. I only know my name and little tidbits. These guys attacked me a month ago. There were hundreds of people in that hospital and they came after me, twice. I want to know who they are, and even better, where I can find them."

"I don't know who they are."

"You're lying, because I've been spying on the Purple Dragons often enough to know they frequently come around," the boy said, and Sonya cursed. This little bastard was smart. He'd done his homework.

"Now tell me the truth," he said.

Sonya licked her lips, unsure of what to say, but with the blood rushing to her brain it made it harder for her to think straight.

Unfortunately, she kept silent too long.

The boy lost patience.

He dropped his hand.

Sonya screamed as she plummeted down, but then she came back up exactly as she had done before.

"I'm losing my patience with you, are you going to answer me, or not?" The boy asked.

"TCRI. That's all I know," Sonya whimpered, no longer caring about keeping her nerve. She was terrified out of her mind, and she was losing her strength to keep her bladder and stomach under control.

"TCRI?" The boy muttered. "What is that?"

"It stands for Techno Cosmic Research Institute," Sonya babbled, desperate to be let go, praying the boy had a spark of decency in him to do that much for her, at least. "It's a front; the geeks protect the boss and keep them under wraps, while they plan things. That's all I know. Please let me go."

But the boy was distracted. "TCRI, Techno Cosmic Research Institute," he repeated before he looked into Sonya's eyes. "Thanks."

Before Sonya could even move, it went dark.

Xxxxxx

When Sonya woke up, she was lying against a wall, chilled to the bone. She looked around and saw she was on the streets, and she almost wept with joy when she saw that she was on the ground.