The Firebird

At the suggestion from John to join together, Wesley could feel a burning under his skin. It was like a white-hot flame had been lit inside of him, and he stepped forward as if he were going to start to lay into the boy opposite him, when it was Jay that stepped forward first. Whether it was out of his own need to do so, or if he was just attempting to spare Wes from having to do it, the young man wasn't sure, but all the same, he winced as he saw his brother step forward, the larger of the two coming eye-to-eye with John.

"Why would we join up with you, dude? Just from looking at the crew you got, Andrew was the one that was taken, right?" he asked, watching their entire team with a frown on his face. "Serves him right, as far as I'm concerned."

Despite the fact that Wes was likely to say something in the exact same vein once that heated anger had been within him... hearing his brother say the words seemed to bring him back to reality. This wasn't a good move, exiling them like this. "Jay," he spoke up, his tone quiet and tense. "Think about it for a second."

"Think about what, dude? You want to go and team up with the guys that were trying to take our stuff last night? What sort of sense does that make?"

Sasha tossed her hair in annoyance. "Look, it's stupid and pointless for the two of you to argue. We'll be at this all day," she spoke, the girl frowning. "I want to eat and get into some actual clothes," she spoke, adjusting the skirt she wore absently, as if suddenly reminded about being surrounded by so many males made her self-conscious. "They have a feather from a firebird and so do we. The Soldiers in charge obviously left it as a clue," she spoke, folding her arms over her chest.

"Are you suggesting... we do join forces?" Ted asked, glancing at the beauty for a moment before his gaze moved to the others, who were still watching them with some measure of distrust on their own faces.

Behind John, one particularly mousey looking fellow frowned, reaching forward to nudge the copper-skinned young man. "John, c'mon man. This was a bad idea. We only got so much time. Why don't we just go?"

"Cool it, Ethan," the man spoke, and with that, the young man known as Ethan seemed to calm down, looking a little annoyed at having been called out as he had. "It's fine," he continued, looking back at the group as they discussed. "They'll agree."

Wes had cast a look at both John and Ethan before he turned back to the others, frowning slightly. "If we both go to the same place, we can cover twice as much ground. Finding Evie is going to be the harder part- getting her back here should be relatively easy. But getting more help in locating her is going to be helpful all the way around."

Jay couldn't help but to feel a sense of frustration and betrayal both at the idea of having to cooperate with these people when one of his allies was on the line. "Tch. Fine, dude. If things go sideways, that's your ass on the line."

"Okay, macho guy. Are we all in agreement then?" Sasha asked, looking around at those gathered and waiting to see if anyone was planning to back out or to make some commentary. However, the group was silent in their unanimous decision. The one who was closest to Evie was Ted, and the pale-haired figure had agreed with the plan to work with John and their ilk without incident, and that alone spoke a great deal.

Wes nodded at the others before he glanced back to John, extending out his right arm. "All right. We're on board. We'll work with you," he spoke, and John reached out with his own hand, firmly grasping Wes' in a handshake, before pulling back slightly. "I would imagine that you all aren't exactly familiar with the area?"

At that, Ethan's mouth twisted into a frown. "What makes you say that?" he asked after a moment, looking at the group. "Some of us could be from around here."

Sasha smirked. "All right then. Where do the firebirds roost around here?" she asked, setting her hands on her hips as she leaned forward a bit, watching the other group.

The group looked at one another for a few moments, frowning. It was clear that they had no idea. "See, that's why they really needed help," Jay snorted, before he began to move. "Come on. If you want to find your boss or whoever he is, then follow us, dudes."

Wes glanced back at Ted, noting that the man wasn't moving forward along with the rest of them. "I guess you're not familiar either. Come on," he spoke, nodding to the pale-haired fellow, and the three who were familiar with the area- Wesley, Jay and Sasha began to lead the way as the rest fell into step behind them.

--

"Who the hell would have imagined that all of this existed out here?" Ethan asked, the wiry young man looking around, his dark blonde hair constantly pushed back out of his face as he sought to keep an eye out.

They'd wandered into a rather derelict district of what had once been part of the city that Haven was, but had long since fallen into disrepair. This was part of the city that had been near the Wall, before the repeated attacks on it had left it mostly uninhabited at this point. Nature was working on steadily reclaiming the area, breaking up through the very street in some places, with moss covering the majority of the buildings already.

This was the area where Wes, Jay and Sasha had grown up before the numerous attacks that had left them bereft of parents and moved back away to the tenement housing that the government setup for the orphans, having no other options to house them as there wasn't much chance for adoptions.

"We all used to live out this way," Wesley offered the thoughts going on in the back of his mind. "Well, Jay, Sasha and I did, anyway," he added after a moment, his gaze staying away from the street where his parents had met their untimely demise.

At the words 'used to,' Theodore glanced over at the trio, noting the rather grim expressions that all of them wore. He didn't know them very well yet, given the fact that they had just met up yesterday, but all the same, he could practically feel their frustration and sadness here. "My sympathies."

"Nah, don't worry about it," Jay responded, glancing back at Ted, shaking his head. "Appreciated, but all the same, it happened and there's not much more to be said for it. We all had to move on," he spoke, giving the man a small grin, although it was clearly forced.

The somber mood was thankfully shattered by movement up ahead. The group had started to spread out once they'd gotten to the broken and dilapidated city infrastructure. However, at the sound, all of their attentions were now directed towards it. And then suddenly, a pair of wings suddenly expanded outward from behind part of a building.

Much like the feather held by both sets of groups, the feather started out red close to its base before switching to purple and then fading to blue as it came closer to the outer edges. Of course, a single feather was rather beautiful, but the multitude of them on a living creature was even moreso, and the sudden opening of the wings caused the group to pause, staring in wonderment for a moment.

"You need to be careful around this thing," Wesley spoke, glancing to the other group. "It isn't a Beast, but it's still dangerous. They're called firebirds because they've got a lot of Death framework, and they're pretty much masters of Fireshaping. So don't get too close unless you want to get burned," he spoke, and the others nodded.

He had played with them a bit when he was younger, and had been routinely chewed out by his parents for doing so with how dangerous the creatures were, but they'd never really shown any sort of aggression toward them... as long as you stayed away from their nests.

But as they drew closer, the sounds of bickering could be heard from up ahead.

"I wanna touch the feathers! They're so pretty!"

"Are you daft? Didn't you feel how hot that bird is?"

"Like I care. You're just a coward."

Both groups stiffened for a moment, able to hear Evie bickering with Andrew up ahead. "All right. Here's the plan," Wesley spoke, glancing to the others. "Mason goes in while the rest of us distract the firebird. You send them both back our way and then follow suit," Wes spoke. Mason was heavily into Space Framework like Sasha, but had the ability to both teleport himself as well as others. "Once they're clear, Ted will slow it down, Sasha will open up the distance and we all make a break for it. It shouldn't chase us down once we get away from the next. Clear?"

The others nodded. "All right. Let's do this."