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Destiny Myer jumped in her seat as another powerful wave of thunder, blasted across the dark sky. Her cup of tea jumped with her burning her hand a bit as the burning water came into contact with her dark brown skin. “Damn it,” she whispered to herself as that single blast of thunder knocked the power out leaving her alone in the darkness. “Three, Two, One.” She counted off in her head as she heard the rumbling of her generator, as it came to life, bringing the power back with it. She wiped her hand on the bottom of her shirt, from the safety of her home she could see a streak of lightning flash across the now darkened neighborhood. “Calm down, Destiny, it is just a storm, nothing to be afraid of.”
She stood up from her recliner, deciding that a glass of herbal tea would be much better than the black tea she had been drinking. “Better to go to sleep with the storm than let it keep me awake.” She left her spacious living room, she took one more look as she went, frowning a bit to herself. Her living room was much bigger than a single person should own, hell, her entire house should be used for a family of three or more. The couch alongside the wall in the shape of an L, the round coffee table now stained with a bit of spilled tea. Her grandfather’s old recliner, a prise she grateful to own. An empty fireplace that should be burning with the heat of a fire, instead it just sat cold. Her television being nearly 75 inches in height, that used to stay on disney channel, it was her favorite channel after all.
She shook her head as better memories of a life long since passed filled her head. “Should just move into a smaller house, or maybe rent this old place out for cheap. Better warm voices and hearts than my cold ass just wasting this blessing.” She had been in this house alone for nearly seven years now, well not alone. She had one thing left in this house to keep her company.
That one thing was something that only she and a few others across seven billion people could see. She reached underneath her brown sleeping shirt and gripped the only warmth she had right now. “Come on out you old cat, I need someone to talk to.” She pulled out a golden gemstone that her people labeled as netrix crystals. It was a crystal that could only be harvested in two places on earth, deep in the himalayan mountains or an island that only her people could gain access to. They started off as clear crystals like ice but once filled with her own nature energy or what her people called Jepei energy. It took the color of the users jepei aura, in her case it was a bright gold.
Her jepei energy began to flow out like smoke off a fire, slowly forming the shape of what she called the true queen of the cats. A large Siberian tiger, only hers, was much larger than a living tiger of its species. She's was well over seven feet tall at the shoulders and nearly 15 feet long from head to tail. That was how big she usually was but today, Malika, had taken on a much smaller form. Only being four feet at the shoulders and only 8 feet long. It had been a very long time since she had seen her big cat in its true form. Her tiger had darker golden stripes instead of the black ones that normal cats had.
Malika let out a deep growl that sent slight chills up Destiny's spine. Any of her spirit animal growls or yawns always seemed to make the air itself tremble. “Still afraid of storms and need me to keep you company, Destiny?”
Destiny felt her cheeks heat up slightly at that, she was nearly 45 years old yet her oldest and closest friend could make her blush like she was teenage again. “That is not why I summoned you.” Her tiger looked over shoulder at her, clear skepticism in her golden eyes. “I just wanted someone to talk to, Malika.”
“Then talk,” Malika said as she started to head towards the kitchen. “Do you want some advice on whether to sell this lonely house or are you gonna keep avoiding it?”
“It is not that I am avoiding it.” Destiny said as they came into her large kitchen that also acted as the dining room. Destiny flipped on the light engulfing the space in a bright white light. The kitchen table sat off to one side just underneath the single window that was on this side of the kitchen. There was a large island in the center of the kitchen where she kept ,ost of her pots and pans, as well as her cutting boards. The counter wrapped around the wall with one corner holding her sink, and beside that her dishwater that had just finished running. Her fridge and freeze held little food, a problem she would fix tomorrow when she went to the store, or when she hired someone to do it for her. She walked over to her stove top and began to pour herself another cup of tea. This mug being white instead of the black one in her living room. As she was about to get started, she jumped once again but this time it wasn’t from the thunder but the sound of someone banging against her door.
“Jesus Christ!” Destiny set her mug down and rushed into the hallway leading to her front door. She could see her door shaking with each powerful pound that came from outside. There was brief silence as another crash of lightning filled the dark sky. She took a few hesitant steps forward and then stopped as the banging began once more. Someone was desperate to get inside of her house, she counted out the possibility of any robbers. No one had tried to break into this house in nearly five years. There was another bombardment of thunder, rain pelted her windows, and another powerful blast of lightning flashed across the sky. Through the glass panel that was built beside her door. She could see the shadow that was too small to be an adult. “Shirley maybe?”
The sudden thought of the little girl next door somehow being stuck in this God awful storm. Sent waves of instincts she had thought had faded away… motherly instincts. She ran down the hallway and called out, “Malika get some towels from upstairs and get that fire on if you can!” Without a moment of hesitation her large tiger spirit rushed upstairs. While animal spirits couldn’t harm people without jepei energy, they could damage and interact with any non-living thing. Destiny began to twist and pull at the three locks she kept on her front door. As soon as she freed the last one and pulled open the door. A figure fell inside the safety of her house. “Shirley, is that you, child?” Her question was quickly answered as the dim lights of her hallway engulfed the figure.
This was clearly not the little neighbor girl. She was not African American but had pale creamy skin, she was wearing a white dress that looked too short for her. She had long brown hair that split nearly down to her feet. She was around the same size as a ten or eleven year old girl. From this angle she could see horrible scars going up and down the girl’s feet, some bleeding. The wind blew through her home, attacking anything that it could get its cold fingers on. That chilly storm wind brought in another smell in with it, not the usual smell that came from a storm… but the copper smell of blood.
Destiny kicked her door closed before kneeling down in front of this child. As she did she noticed that her hair had gotten shorter in the brief moment that she had taken her eyes off her. Now reaching her down to her backside. Her legs had cuts in them as if someone had taken a blade to them. “Malika!” Destiny roared. “Forget about the towels and get me a first aid kit!” The girl’s larger ears perked up a bit at the sound of her voice and slight groaning noise began to fill the air. Her hair was growing shorter still now just reaching her lower back. Now that she was looking at her she could see the same markings of a jepei user starting to show. All jepei users had one telling sign that they could not turn off, it acted as a marker to show other jepei users that you were one of them. A brief wave of smoke was coming off the girl, a golden brown color that oddly ended in a white smoke.
“P-Please.” The girl spoke in a weak voice as she attempted to rise to her knees. Her entire body lurched as coughed up a mouthful of blood onto the rug underneath her.
“Easy,” Destiny said, bringing a hand to rest on her back. “I need you to relax for a moment, I am gonna do…” She started to say but then noticed something. The more this girl’s hair grew shorter, the more her wounds were starting to heal. In fact she was starting to get smaller and her jepei was starting to grow more white than golden brown.
“P-Please,” the girl repeated as she looked back at Destiny with pleading eyes. “Protect Lola…” That was all she could get out before her eyes rolled back and flopped down onto the ground. With that her hair shrunk at an alarming speed before coming to rest at the base of her neck. The wounds on her legs and back began to heal at an alarming speed, now laying on her living room floor was a much skinnier little girl. She had lost a lot of muscle and weight as this “transformation?” ended. The dress she was wearing was still cut in places and oddly enough her feet were still scarred but were they once spilling blood. Those had oddly healed, Destiny had never seen anything like this before. It didn’t make sense.
Destiny carefully rolled this child onto her side not wanting her to be laying facedown in a pool of her blood anymore. The front of this dress had the same holes in it like the back did. A quick experiment showed that she had been stabbed through the back and out the front. She heard Malika come bounding down the stairs as a moment later her golden tiger returned with a towel in her mouth and the first aid kit wrapped around her tail. She dropped the towel out of her mouth and then spoke. “What the hell happened here?”
Destiny grabbed the towel off the ground and carefully wrapped the still soaking wet girl in them. It had been so long since she had lifted a child up in her arms and her instincts were nearly overwhelming her. She carefully carried the girl to the living room and laid her on the couch, not caring about the blood that was gonna be stained on it now. While the girl wasn’t bleeding, her dress was still soaked in it. There was blood underneath her nails, around her neck, dried on her stomach. Destiny grabbed her phone and before calling 911. “Doctor Martian. It’s Master Destiny Myers. I hope you aren’t busy cause an ambulance is gonna be arriving in a few minutes…. Yes sir… it is a jepei user so they are gonna need your help… I don’t know, she arrived on my doorstep… that is the weird part.” Destiny turned her gaze back onto the small child laying on her couch. She was starting to shiver a bit, probably from her soaking wet clothes. “She has no sign of any lasting wounds.”
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271Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6XuvCOxxDA
It never made sense to Destiny how every hospital in the world seemed to smell exactly the same way. It was almost like every hospital came with that scent, the smell of different cleaning products that made this place spotless. Destiny sat waiting on the fourth floor of this specific hospital. It was one of the nicer ones and she was lucky that it was so close to home. She was asked to wait in the hallway while her close friend and personal doctor, Davis Martian, checked over the girl they had brought in. Of course she was questioned by police, and she told each one the same thing. “She was banging on my door and then collapsed in my hallway. I am not sure where this blood has come from but it is not mine.” One poor woman dared to give her a spectacle look at that but one of her dark glares got the woman to quickly leave the floor.
She had been sitting alone for nearly 45 minutes now, part of her wanted to get up and leave. However those instincts that she was so sure had died off years ago would not let her leave. Not until she was sure that little one was ok. Finally the door to the emergency room opened up and out came a confused nurse. A young red haired woman, she had a pair of matching eyes and the faint red smoke was flowing off her. Another jepei user, there were a few more that worked on this level of the hospital. A secret haven for the less than 50 jepei users that lived in chicago. It was better to be checked on by a jepei user than someone without their special gift. The young woman, maybe a college student by her looks, turned her attention onto her. “Doctor Martian wants to see you, Master Myers.”
“No need to call me, Master.” Destiny stated as she rose to her feet. She stood at least a head taller than this girl, some might call her tall for a woman at 6’2. Some might even dare to call her amazon, she had wide hips, a nice bust that she tended to keep covered. Her dark brown skin both looked and smelled as sweet as cocoa butter. Her hair a curly mess on the top of her head, firm facial features, her arms tones from years of training. She had been given the title of master while on her home of Tarun Island. An island a few thousand miles off the coast of FLorida. In a place that most call The Bermuda Triangle. Master was the second highest title you could get with warriors, the highest being grandmaster and the only spot above that was a seat on the council of five that ruled the island. Only those two spots could be challenged for and once lost you could never regain them.
Even though her title didn’t mean much on the mainland, still this young girl bowed her head in respect as she passed. Inside of this room were the usual furnishings of any hospital emergency room. The little girl that had stumbled on her doorstep was sleeping comfortably in the bed. The covers pulled up to her neck, her cheeks had taken on a bit color as her chest slowly raised and fell with each breath she took. Sitting in a chair beside the bed, slowly wiping his glasses clean, was her friend. He was three years older than her but while they were on Tarun’s Island he was her best friend. David had long green hair that most people on the mainland assumed he dyed. However the color of one’s jepei aura also tended to spread to the hair and eyes of the user. Just like how Destiny eyes were a bright gold color and her hair shared the same color. He was two inches taller than her, a lanky man with fair skin and sparkling green eyes. He was in the usually white coat and blue pants that most doctors wore. As she entered the room, he placed his glasses back on his face. A moment later his green netrix gemstone glowed and a green weasel appeared on his shoulder.
“Nice to see you again, Dr. Martian.”
Her old friend laughed and waved her off. “Stop calling me that when you don’t mean it, Master Myers.” That got a laugh from her as well as walked over beside him and he rose to give her a brief hug. Destiny chuckled as the weasel scurried from David’s shoulder and onto her’s.
“It is nice to see you as well, Phillip.” Destiny rubbed the small creature on his head before turning her attention back on the sleeping girl. “How is she doing, David?”
“She is just fine… a bit cold at from the rain she was in, but we got her warmed up in a few moments. Got her changed out of the bloody rags she was in.” David sat back down in his chair and pushed off the wheeled chair carrying him across the room and to the small desk in the back. “It makes no sense, her clothes and body show signs of the injuries she had sustained but there are no open wounds.”
“What was damaged?” Destiny asked, following the man over. She later became disgusted to learn just what kind of injuries this little girl had taken. She had been stabbed clear through her back, narrowly missing her spine, she had stabbed through both legs and one of her arms. Dr. Martian then showed her a picture of her back that sent a wave of rage flowing through her veins. This poor girl’s back was absolutely covered in whip marks, some being much larger and some looking fresher. “Who the hell would do this to her?”
“I have no idea,” Dr. Martian said, tossing that picture to the side. “I know there are some fucked up people in this world but this is on another level.” Dr. Martian turned to face her, his older face showing signs of exhaustion. “Care to tell me what actually happened?”
Destiny gave him a quick recap on how she had found the girl, the odd transformation she underwent in front of her eyes. “Do you have any idea what her spirit animal is?” Destiny asked, hoping that maybe that could answer some of her many questions.
“I am not sure, but I have never heard of a spirit animal that could cause the transformation she underwent. I could maybe check but I would have to find an empty netrix gemstone so it could absorb some of her jepei and then transform into the head of whatever her spirit animal is.”
“I may have one back at my house.” Destiny said. “I could send someone to go get it or even quicker.” Destiny held her gemstone a moment later, Malika appeared before them.
“Oh lord, we are in the hospital with these two idiots.”
“You know,” David began sourly. “I am not a little kid anymore, Malika so I am not afraid of you anymore.” Destiny only shook her head as one dark growl got her older friend to twitch a bit nervously. “Okay, maybe a tiny bit afraid of you.”
“Thank you for admitting it.”
“As much as I would love to watch you scare David somemore.” Destiny interrupted. “I need you to go back to my house and get something for me.” After giving Malika her orders, the large tiger gave a brief nod before rushing off and out of the door.
As Malika left, the nurse came walking back in. She seemed to have lost some of her color. “Lillian?” Dr. Martian questioned. “Is something wrong?”
The red-haired girl looked at Destiny. “Master Myers, there is someone waiting for you, she said to meet her in the cafeteria.”
“Who is calling me?”
“She simply told me that you would know her if I told you this.” The next words that came from her mouth sent another wave of rage flowing through her spine. “I am the brains, you are the muscle, remember your place, or die beneath the rubble.”
Destiny let a dark growl begin to spill from her mouth as she began to storm towards the door. “David, I will be back and be ready to bail me out of jail if I call you later.”
“Destiny, what is happening?”
Destiny paused at the door and let out a deep sigh. “Do you remember someone named Jessica Eden?”
She didn’t need to look back but she knew the expression that was starting to form on his face. “I thought she was dead… I was hoping she was dead for what she did.”
“I assumed that she was as well.” Destiny said grimly. “I will see what she wants and if you hear the sounds of combat then call the police.”
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As it was going on one o’clock in the morning. There was no one in the large hospital cafeteria, most of the biggest attractions had long since closed. There was one venue open where she could probably get a coffee and sandwich. However, she was not hungry. How could she possibly be hungry? Not while that demon was sitting just 20 feet from her.
It had been seven years since the last time she had stood face to face with this girl. 14 years since they had taken their tour of Afriganza together, 21 years since they had graduated college on their home island with flying colors. Memories of better times filled her mind as she grew closer to whom she had thought was her best friend for most of her life. Sitting at one of the far back tables, sipping on a bloodred glass of what she suspected to be wine, was Jessica Eden. She had long dark red and orange hair that was spilling over one shoulder like a stream of magma. It was a rarity when a jepei user had two colors of aura, something that Destiny once had been so jealous of.
She was 42 years old and still held the title of the smartest child in the history of Tarun’s Academy. She had dark red eyes that lit up a bit as Destiny arrived closer. “Destiny Myers.” She greeted in that same silky smooth voice, she rose from her chair, standing only Destiny’s shoulders. She was wearing a nice blue suit jacket, and a matching blue pencil shirt. She looked just as young as twenty, something that Destiny again had always been jealous of as they grew up. While she started to get the subtle signs of age, this girl seemed to always be young.
She extended a hand towards her in a friendly way. “You fucking bitch,” Destiny growled under her breath as she turned around, there was another family in this cafeteria with them. Destiny knew that this invitation of friendliness was nothing more than a front. She suddenly knew why this woman wanted to meet her in this cafeteria, a public place to try and keep her trained. Destiny reached out and grabbed Jessica’s hand. It was always odd how this somehow managed to go her entire life as both a combatant and researcher without getting a single callous on her soft hands. Destiny took a bit of joy in watching her old friend’s face twist in pain as she added just a bit of amplification to her hand. A technique that used one's own jepei aura to increase both grip strength, leg strength, some used it to breath longer underneath the waters, in the hardest version of this technique one could speed up healing with it.
As she released her hand. Jessica sat back down before looking towards another young woman that was standing nearby. She was a shy looking girl dressed much like Jessica was, but she was in black with a white undershirt underneath. She had curly brown hair and light brown skin. She took a few steps forward and poured another glass of wine before setting it and the bottle in front of Destiny. “You know I have been 10 years sober.”
“It is not wine, old friend.” Jessica began to swirl her drink around in her glass. “Well mine is wine, but I got you a mix of cherry and grape juice. Pretty nice of me right, after so long without even a text from you.”
“What do you want?” Destiny demanded, not in the mode for her false kindness. “It has been seven years since I told you to leave and never come back or near me. Not after what you did to me.”
“I am aware of how long it has been.” Jessica said with a sly grin. “I am very aware of a lot of things when it comes to time. Seems to be moving so quickly as of late, makes you think that hands of whatever clock is controlling us is speeding forward like a runaway train. Time seems to be hurrying to get to a specific event… almost like it can’t wait for that day to come any longer.”
“What do you want?” Destiny repeated a bit darker. “And how did you know I was in this hospital?”
“I followed you here.”
“Why?”
Jessica took a sip of her wine. “To answer your question, Dede.”
“Don’t call me that.” She interrupted.
Jessica raised an eyebrow for a moment before signing. “Fine, Master Myers.”
“Do not call me that either if you don’t mean it.”
“What do you want me to call you then?” Jessica said with a long roll of her eyes, one that had nearly gotten her head knocked off her shoulders when she had done it to Destiny’s mother when they were kids.
“What I want you to do is tell me why you are here and how you knew I was here. Stop with the twisted words, the false kindness, and talk!”
Jessica went quiet for a moment, those red and orange eyes studying over her like they had done for so long. Jessica sat straight and clasped her hands together on the table. “I believe you have something or rather someone that belongs to some very important people, and I need your help to keep my prize safe from harm.”
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