Chapter 3 Rebirth II

"Leena. Come here," a tired-sounding, gruff voice spoke through the peaceful mood of an everyday living room lit aglow from the light of a cracking, warm, fireplace. The fireplace's dancing flames and the whirling fan above were the only other noises that ran through the young girl's ears. A much smaller Leena, aged eight, pranced over to the reclining chair where her father always sat; huddled over his work.

The young girl with very short teal hair looked up at her father with wide green eyes.

"What is it, daddy?"

"Leena," he began, taking off his glasses and setting them down on the TV tray next to his armrest as he spoke with a deep sigh, "I'm tired."

Leena cocked her head to the side, leaning over as she studied the serious look on her father's face in confusion. "So, go to bed! It's dark out already! That means soon it will be bedtime."

"I'm not tired in that way, Leena. I'm tired of... this existence."

"Exi... what?" the young girl asked, unable to comprehend the large word. She shook her head, losing interest immediately and beaming the bright look on her face back toward her father, "then you should go to sleep, daddy!"

He father stared down at her as he rested in his chair. Of course she wouldn't understand, she was just a little girl. She would never understand if he explained to her what he'd discovered; the new goal he had attained. She would never understand when he left her brother, mother, and herself the next day. He shook his head, acknowledging his own foolishness in thinking he should've even attempted to explain it to her.

He instead leaned over and rested his hand on his daughter's head, speaking to her again.

"Leena, remember this word for as long as you can remember me... even if you hate me. If you can remember it, you may just be my greatest accomplishment yet..."-

ANOMALY; Vol. 1: Rebirth

Chapter II

Leena stood still in the dark alleyway as wind blew past her from behind, blowing her hair and skirt outward in front of her. For the past few moments, she had been communicating with what was apparently a god in her head; a god that promised her power. She had never sought power or anything to do with greed; she had always worked hard ever since she was a little girl with the goal of seizing everything she desired with her own strength.

This 'god' happened to say an interesting word to her a few moments ago. A word he spoke that dredged up memories buried in her mind yet always at the surface; memories of a man that abandoned her family and wrecked everything.

"Mr. God, can I ask you another question?" Leena wondered aloud.

"As long as you remember that there are certain things the Eight Seats of Excalibur do not permit me to tell you," the somewhat-charming man's voice spoke back to her. She had known him mere moments and never seen his face but she already felt she could trust him completely.

"Actually, never mind. You just answered it for me," she said, a strange and ominous feeling overcoming her. Was this a coincidence, the word 'Excalibur' being said to her again? There was no way it was. She'd read about swords named Excalibur in books or in other media but this, this was definitely the same 'Excalibur' her father had mentioned.

"I'm being overly generous as it is, anyway," he told her, sounding as if their little meet-and-greet was coming to a close, "good luck with what is to come, Leena. As my newest vessel, it is my wish that you don't die."

"Die...?" Leena repeated after him, wondering why he was suddenly talking about her death. Did he mean at the hands of that thief girl? Her keen instinct told her that he meant something else entirely. She had absolutely no idea how to prepare for something like this. She had no idea what the sensation would be or what changes to her body they would induce. She prayed nothing physical about her would change.

Suddenly, she felt it.

The Earth.

Beneath her feet.

She could feel it. As if it were an extension of her body. The cement, the rock, the metal all around her; she pressed her hand against the wall of the building she was standing beside and it felt as null as if she were touching her own skin. It no longer felt foreign to her.

"Whoa..." she gasped, "what is... this feeling...?"

"I should introduce myself properly before I go. I'm the Lord of Solid, meaning you've been imbued with the affinity of Solid. Things should come pretty naturally to you from here on out, though don't expect a very easy transition."

"Solid... affinity," Leena repeated after him again, "so, like, Earth element?"

"If you think Elemental Affinities can be classed so simply, you're in for a couple dozen surprises. Goodbye, Leena. Oh, and don't forget to check out your weapon. It's pretty cool!"

Leena blinked as his voice faded, leaving her totally confused. She felt her hands down her cold and numb thighs, then around her shirt. She gripped the fabric of her white shirt as she realized she didn't have any weapon on her at all.

"Weapon?" she wondered aloud in a daze, as she let go of her shirt and stretched out her arms to her sides as she tried to get a grip on her new senses, "he never gave me a weapon..."

Leena had spoken too soon, apparently, as suddenly in her outstretched right hand appeared the grip of a very dangerous-looking spiked mace with an incredibly long chain! Leena hardly even noticed its appearance as she cast her arms out to her sides, accidentally throwing it through the air across the alleyway! She flinched and took a step back as she realized what had happened before it came crashing down with a thunderous crash, bashing a massive dent into the ground with its weight and nearly crushing a cat!

The black cat meowed loudly in surprise before leaping to its feet and darting off like mad! Leena's eyes began to water up sadly as she dashed over to where she'd inadvertently thrown her gigantic chained weapon.

"I... I almost crushed that poor cat..." the disturbed girl gasped, reaching down and gripping the chain. Her confusion was further tacked onto as she pulled on the chain, lifting the mace off the ground with ease. Her eyes widened as the ball with huge blades protruding from it dangled in front of her.

"I... can lift this? It looks heavier than three me's!" she exclaimed in disbelief. "This night is just getting crazier and crazier. Plus, I almost killed a cat. I can't forgive myself now..."

Suddenly, realization dawned upon her. A cat was there? If so, then that meant...!

Her gaze moved up to something she should've noticed sooner as she stared down toward the far end of the alleyway. Streetlamps were on again and cars, while scarce, were speeding by on the road! She was back in the normal world again! The effect of whatever imprisoned her in that barren and dark area had worn off!

"At last," she gasped, "I can call for help..."

"That's what you think."

Leena turned and she saw a familiar black and silver trident heading straight at her head! She reacted immediately, taking a step back! As she slid her foot across the ground, something amazing happened: a pillar of cement rose up between her and the weapon! Alexis gasped in alarm as her trident jammed into the solid wall, piercing into it but not going through.

"Whoa... I did that...?" Leena gasped with amazement at the shield she'd created for herself, "it was just a reflex..."

Alexis seemed equally baffled, the red-headed assassin grunting as she tried to pull her trident out from where it was stuck. She glared up at Leena over the pillar, wondering if she'd been deceived.

"So, you're an Anomaly after all..." Alexis growled, keeping her raised arm on her trident as she addressed her second target, "this makes for a different situation."

"Situation...?" Leena repeated, wondering what her assailant was talking about.

"I may not have to kill you after all," Alexis mused aloud, sounding somewhat happy about this new revelation of hers, "you could be useful in Eclipse."

"I don't even know what Eclipse IS!" Leena yelled, taking a few steps away from Alexis, dragging her mace along the ground as she did. Alexis's eyes darted down to the weapon Leena was holding, she just now noticed it.

"That's a rather large Morning Star..." Alexis thought as she tried to plan her next move, "a hit from that would put me in rather bad condition. She doesn't seem like a particularly skilled fighter, though, so I can probably evade it easily."

"Where is Sophie?" Leena asked, trying to sound tough though her voice was clearly crackling and full of fear, "you went after her first, right?"

"That girl? I've already taken care of her. Now... you have two choices..."

"Taken care of Sophie?! Did she kill her?!" Leena thought in a panic, "no... we'd only just met... I wanted to get to know her better! How could she do such a thing...?!"

"You can either die here at my hands or the less disgusting option of joining Eclipse. It's your choice, girl."

"Why are you asking me this...?" Leena wondered, staring up at Alexis with a disgusted look on her face, "I could never do what you do... stealing and murdering."

Alexis paused for a moment, meeting Leena's hurt gaze with her resolute one. She was compelled to finish this mission, mostly due to Seth's threat to her.

"You don't seem to understand. Once Eclipse finds out you're an Anomaly, there will be no end to your battle until you have joined our ranks. They aren't above blackmail or using brute force. Like... THIS!"

Alexis tugged back hard on her trident, freeing it from the cement wall it was embedded in! Leena felt a nervous chill run down her body as she heard cement bits clatter against the ground before her. Alexis slashed forward horizontally with her weapon, smashing the structure Leena had inadvertently made into pieces! Leena did the wise thing and hopped backward a few times, trying to get out of the range of Alexis's lengthy weapon.

"I can't cause too much of a commotion now that the Dark Shroud has been lifted," Alexis thought as she brought her trident out to her left side, completing her full swing, "Seth must have left the area. This means the bank's condition will be noticed soon..."

Leena tensed up as she stared at the stationary Alexis. Alexis wasn't making a move, she must have been wrapped up in thought! Leena was a fast thinker in pressure-based situations, as she'd played a lot of sports in high school. This was the same, in a way, or so she thought.

"She's distracted!" Leena thought as her green eyes lit up as an idea plowed its way through her mind, "the thought of violence terrifies me but this is life or death! I'll get her before she can get me!"

Leena cried out as she thrust her right arm forward with all of her might, lifting the heavy mace off the ground and into the air above the two of them! Alexis took a step back and gazed up at it, while Leena felt herself begin to sweat. She'd certainly accomplished moving it... but she had no idea what she was doing!

Leena's assault ended up smashing a massive hole into the second floor of the large department store building to the right of them in the alleyway! Crumbled bricks collapsed from the structure's wound as the mace fell with them, pounding a sizable crater into the ground where it landed; shaking the whole area.

Alexis clapped slowly and sarcastically spoke, "Bravo. I'm sure that Babies R Us will appreciate what you've done to their store."

Leena felt herself sweat even more.

"A training mode or a tutorial with helpful narration would've been nice..."

"I'm not going to mess with you anymore," Alexis told Leena, hunching forward and holding the black trident that glistened in the moonlight out to her left in a combat stance, "prolonged combat with Affinities is just begging to be caught by APS. Join us or die!"

"N-never!" Leena stammered, trying to stay firm on her beliefs as she dragged the mace's chain back toward her. She stared at Alexis with hurt eyes, "killing me won't gain you anything! Why do we have to fight at all!?"

Alexis grinded her teeth together furiously and lunged forward at the innocent girl, apparently choosing not to answer this time. Leena freaked, Alexis was really out for blood this time! Alexis twirled her trident around as she brought it over her head, brandishing it with a level of amazing skill that Leena couldn't even hope to imitate with her own weapon at this point!

"I can't think of anything...! I always freeze when things get this tough!" Leena thought, trying to overcome her inner panic and come up with a way to block or dodge. "No, no! I don't know what else to do!"

"What the-!?" Alexis suddenly exclaimed, noticing something with her ability to sense water vapor. She hadn't noticed it until now since she'd been focused on Leena but a large mass of vapor was very close to her; meaning someone was near!

"Surprise!" Sophie yelled, dashing into the alleyway from behind Alexis and leaping forward at her! Alexis turned and held up her trident horizontally to block, and luckily for her she did; as she found two objects made of the same material grinding against the shaft of her long weapon!

Around Sophie's clenched fists were metallic gloves with the same black and silver design as Alexis or Leena's weapons. From the knuckles extended long, curved, cat-claws that protruded when she clenched her fists and retracted when she opened her hands; these 'cat claws' were her Anomaly weapon!

Alexis went wide-eyed as she realized who it was and what exactly had happened, while Sophie seemed to be grinning smugly. Unlike the awkward Leena, she was reveling in her new powers and seemed to have a very natural talent for combat.

"You're alive...!" Alexis gasped, feeling despair overcome her as she realized her cowardly way of trying to kill her wasn't decisive enough, "and you have powers as well! What is this, Anomaly Showcase Night!?"

"You should shut the hell up," Sophie told her, glaring up at the older girl with the one eye that was visible from behind her long, layered hair, "you've succeeded in really pissing me off, which is a tough thing to do."

"Sophie..." Leena gasped as she was very relieved to see her still in working condition, "you're alright...!"

Alexis grunted in annoyance and thrust her weapon forward, shoving Sophie back! Sophie slid with the shove, already preparing her next attack! She opened her palms, retracting her claws, and slammed both of her arms out in front of her as if she were banging against a wall! As she did, a spark ignited that lit up the entire alleyway; and a fireball blasted outward with amazing speed toward Alexis!

Alexis and Leena both flinched at the sight but Alexis reacted quickly. She quickly slammed her trident down with her left hand, the pearl on it beginning to glow - as Sophie took note of - and cast out her right hand before her! Her long hair flew out behind her as she created and shot back a spherical projectile of water to counter Sophie's fireball! The two collided and a large hissing noise accompanied the sound of a gunshot impacting; with hot steam shooting everywhere and impairing all of their vision as a result!

"Shit... I didn't count on any of this. There isn't much water around here for me to use effectively and we're sure to be causing a scene if we keep this up any longer," Alexis thought, "plus... that teal-haired girl may be right..."

Sophie extended her claws again and raised them in a defensive stance as the steam cleared. She was surprised when she only saw Leena still clutching the chain of her weapon; their mysterious assailant was nowhere to be seen! Leena blinked a few times curiously, glancing around to try and catch a glimpse of her. Sophie could tell though, since she sensed less body heat than before, that Alexis was gone.

"I guess... she left," an amazed Leena finally stated after a few more seconds of awkward silence. Sophie de-materialized her claws, showing off her leather gloves underneath, and put her hands on her hips as she decided to make a comment of her own.

"What a bitch."

"So that's that," Yoshino spoke aloud, sitting on the steps of an apartment building on the main street. She could hear the police sirens from a ways away, grinning as the sounds entered her ears. Since she was blind, she found great joy contained within sound. She listened for a moment, still grinning as she playing casually with her short white hair.

"No, those two girls seem alright. I don't think they'll be corrupted by their powers. I'll catch up on all the latest gossip about them; you know how I love it."

"You also seem to love talking to yourself," another voice spoke out of nowhere to Yoshino in a joking manner. Yoshino felt a chill go down her spine; she hadn't heard this other girl approach. Not being able to be heard or sensed by Yoshino took a special kind of ability; one of a very skilled Anomaly.

"... how long have you been there?" Yoshino wondered outward to her female comrade. The other girl let out a slight amused grunt and spoke to Yoshino in a cocky manner.

"We're going to tag out. I want to mess with those new Vessels next."

"What exactly do you have planned?" Yoshino asked with some concern.

"I'm going to show them how harsh the world of an Anomaly really is. Also, I'm going to exact my revenge on a certain person at the same time... so stay out of it."

"I'd have no reason to get involved anyway."

"Always a loner, aren't you?"

"Hmph," Yoshino muttered, standing up and walking past her comrade that she couldn't see, "have fun."

Meanwhile, Sophie and Leena had entered the corner store they originally adventured out to visit. They were standing in the candy aisle as Sophie fished some bulk candy out of the plastic jars with tongs and placed them in a bag she gripped eagerly with her right hand. Leena simply watched her, since Sophie said before that she was going to treat her.

"I knew this place was still open..." Sophie muttered to Leena as she decided on which candy she wanted to collect next, "what the heck was that weird negative world we ended up in?"

Leena simply shrugged her shoulders, "I know about as much as you do, which is nothing. But we've certainly ended up in a weird situation, haven't we?"

Sophie glanced above the candy row as she reached into the next container to fish out some fuzzy peaches. Her gaze pierced through the glass window of the corner store and across the street, striking the demolished bank. Police tape now surrounded the area and it had descended into chaos.

The majority of the chaos was not centered on the robbery itself, however, but the huge trails of ice that surrounded the hole blasted in the bank's entrance. They took a glance in from afar as they headed back to the corner store, and almost the entire interior of the bank was coated in ice. Lots of it was jagged and completely unnatural, some of it also piercing outside of the store.

"Yeah..." Sophie agreed after a moment of thoughtfully gazing at the crime scene, "this is the weirdest thing that's happened to me since puberty."

Leena blinked at Sophie before recomposing her thoughts, "So what do we do with these powers now? I mean, we have them... it's kind of cool, isn't it?"

"We do nothing," Sophie answered her quickly, shocking Leena with her answer, "we don't need them for anything. We aren't crooks like that bimbo from before and we aren't superheroes either. I think it's best that we try and forget about them."

"But..." Leena protested, not wanting to give up so easily on the topic, "... we... powers... awesome... and stuff."

Sophie glared at her over her shoulder, "You have no idea what would happen. Haven't you ever watched X-Men? We could be branded as freaks and have flaming bottles of vodka thrown at us. Or the government could throw us in jail... it's almost like having an unregistered weapon."

"You make the weirdest comparisons that somehow make the most sense," Leena sighed in defeat at her new friend's talk bringing her down to earth, "... are you sure it would go like that?"

Sophie grabbed another bag to load full of candy and smirked in amusement.

"What do you think would happen? The president would come give us a medal? I'm the rational thinker here and you'd best listen to me, airhead."

Leena wrapped her arms around herself and leaned back against the candy racks on the opposite side of the aisle. She shifted her mouth from side to side, grumbling repeatedly as she thought, tapping her index finger impatiently against her arm. Sophie could see her reflection in the window and realized something was still troubling her.

"Now what?"

"That girl... what if she comes after us again?"

"That skankbag? She didn't get our names, if you don't recall. You did stupidly shout out 'Sophie! I love you!' when I came to save you... but there's no way she can find me just from that. Tempest City is HUGE, like you said earlier."

Leena glared at her, "I did not say that!"

"That's what I got out of it," Sophie told her, blunt as ever as she popped a small red candy shaped like a foot into her mouth. As she did, Leena seemed to almost have a meltdown; since she lost her balance and shook the candy racks behind her as she jumped. Sophie raised an eyebrow at the twitchy girl, wondering just what her problem was now.

"You can't do that!" Leena yelled, "you have to pay for that!"

"... it's just a sample."

"Still! It's stealing! People worked hard to design and make those candies, add the flavor and color, package them, ship them, deliver them, and then stock them on the shelves! They don't go through all that work just so you can SAMPLE them at your leisure! That's not the storeowner's intention when he makes his order! He needs to make a profit or you'll run him out of business!"

Sophie gave Leena the blankest look she could muster, hoping Leena would get a clue.

"It's a five cent piece of candy! I don't need to pay for it because I have magical fire powers! Woooooh!" Sophie shouted at the upset and awkward Leena. Leena glared down at Sophie, whom grinned as she ate another one, chewing it with her mouth open to mock Leena.

"I'm telling," Leena simply responded, turning and walking away. Sophie slowly stopped chewing and glared at Leena's back as she walked away from her; her shoulder-length teal hair bouncing up and down against her back gently as she walked.

"You have no proof!"

"The security cameras do."

"Ugh... you are such a goody-two-shoes! Be more carefree like me, seriously," Sophie told Leena, trotting up next to her as she walked toward the cashier's desk, "no wonder you don't have a boyfriend."

Leena looked down at Sophie, "I never told you I didn't have a boyfriend."

"I know. I just assumed because you're such a loser."

"I'm going to kick you in the eye."

"Not if I kick you first."

"I still would."

Sophie grumbled as they got to the counter and she dropped her candy bags before the man behind the register. She sighed deeply and with annoyance, arching her back and speaking out, "I had two more before, so add those to the total too."

Leena smiled proudly as the man behind the counter did as well and added up her total on the cash register after weighing all the candy Sophie had brought him, "That'll be 42.67."

"FORTY DOLLARS?!" Leena screamed out loud, turning to Sophie with a freaked out look on her face, "you bought forty dollars worth of candy?!"

"I would've got more but you kept nagging me."

"You should eat some fruit," Leena groaned, "what am I going to do with you...?"

Sophie raised her eyebrow at her exasperated senior, "Okay, you're causing me problems. I've known you three hours and you're already acting like my big sister and that you have to take care of me."

Leena clasped her hand over her mouth in amazement as her cheeks went red, not even realizing what she had been doing. Sophie smirked as she fished her wallet out of her pocket, shaking her head.

"Unlike you, I really am a big sister, so I can tell what you're up to. But I'm afraid I can't really be a replacement for anything you might be missing in your life... Leena."

Leena darted her eyes away from Sophie, she hadn't intended to act like she did. Sophie watched her for a second, then turned back to the cashier and gave him her debit card. She was always very direct with her statements, a trait that gave some people a hard time trying to get along with her.

"You girls may want to stay in here for a while," the old cashier guy told them, "somethin' big is goin' on outside since the bank was robbed and you don't wanna get caught up in it."

"Yeah, there is quite a commotion, isn't there?" Sophie noted, able to see the flashing police lights out of the corner of her eye, "though I kind of want to check it out. What about you, Leena?"

"... couldn't hurt," Leena replied after a second to regain her composure, "I want to know exactly what went on too."

The two of them exited the store into the nighttime street, which was lit up by streetlamps on the sidewalk and the spinning red alarms of the parked police cars around the crime scene. The two girls were considerably baffled; as the front end of the bank looked considerably different from how they'd seen it before. They'd simply seen it get blown open but this sight was much more shocking.

It was covered in ice. Ice coated the inside of the bank and the steps before it; thick ice at that. From the hole that the Eclipse members made in the entranceway, ice spikes shot outward in random directions, engulfing all of the debris so that none of it had ever made it to the street. The sight of this mass amount of ice that glimmered in the glow of the streetlights was enough to shock anyone whom held any reasonable perception of reality.

"Whoa," Leena gasped, her mind immediately becoming wrapped up in the current scene, "... this really happened? I didn't see ice when-"

"Fool!" Sophie exclaimed suddenly, clamping her hand over Leena's mouth and whispering forcefully to her, "don't mention anything about us being near or knowing anything about this!"

"Mmmph..." Leena's muffled voice responded as she grabbed Sophie's hand and pried it off of her face, gasping for air, "... geez, that hurt."

Sophie looked up at the gasping Leena, whom was still clutching her hand.

"You can let go out of my hand now."

"Leena? Is that you?" a voice asked from out of their peripheral vision. The two girls turned to see another girl around their age addressing them. Interesting about this girl, to Sophie, was that she was wearing a police officer's uniform! It was mostly blue and black, composed of a t-shirt, a miniskirt, and a hat. Her long hair hung down from beneath the hat, which was dark brown with many strands highlighted to a much lighter shade of brown. Sophie's initial reaction was that she had very pretty hair.

Leena dropped Sophie's hand and turned to address this officer that apparently knew her, "Hayley, hey! What are you doing out here?!"

Hayley pointed to her officer's hat, which had a gold-plated police insignia displayed right in the center of it, speaking back in a sarcastic tone, "Gee, what do you think?"

Sophie stared at Hayley for a second before glancing up at Leena, so as if to indicate she wanted an explanation. Leena noticed her shorter friend's stare and put a polite smile on her face as she introduced them.

"Ah, Sophie, this is my friend Hayley from school. Hayley, this is Sophie, my partner in Drama class."

"You have friends?" Sophie wondered as she shook Hayley's hand.

"So this is an interesting sight, huh?" Hayley asked them as she turned in the direction of the ice-covered building, "the media is going crazy with it, we can't keep them away. I don't have much authority, since you know I'm only on my first year in the force... but even our chief is over there and he can't keep things in line."

"Do you know anything about this?" Sophie asked Hayley. Hayley clenched her fists tight as she played Sophie's question through her head.

"I'm trying to find out... but technically I'm not allowed to. Nor am I allowed to tell anyone what I do know. Whatever is causing these phenomenons, I can't speak about it. The entire police force is being sworn to secrecy with not just our badges but our lives at stake."

"Lives...?" Leena repeated, as she had a habit of doing whenever a phrase intrigued her.

"Someone is trying very hard to keep this all secret," Hayley told her. Hayley and Leena hung out a lot on campus, so Hayley was comfortable with sharing her thoughts with her. Hayley eyed Leena again, "want to know something weird that I can tell you though? You've heard of the recent crime wave, right?"

"Kind of..." Leena muttered, putting her finger to her lip thoughtfully as she tried to recall it. Sophie grunted in annoyance and began to speak in her stead.

"Who hasn't? It's been on the news for weeks but a source is never cited, just the fact that there are crimes taking place. Isn't this the eighth or ninth one now?"

"You're well-informed," Hayley nodded in agreement, "this fact hasn't been reported on TV yet but there are two strange patterns to each crime."

"They're ignoring me now..." Leena thought, sighing as she relented not keeping up with current events.

"The first is that every place that's robbed is never milked for everything they're worth," Hayley stated, which caused Sophie to raise a curious eyebrow, "this bank robbery for instance... the safe has been broken into but almost everything is still there! They only took three-thousand dollars when they could have taken millions!"

"What? Why?" Leena blurted out, "if I robbed a bank-"

Leena's sentence was cut off as she suddenly felt overwhelming tension as Hayley and a few other officers standing nearby eyed her suspiciously. She clamped her mouth shut and took a step back, trying to remain in the background.

"Never mind. I'd never rob anything."

"Number two strange recurring thing: every time a place is robbed, it's impossible to trace it because of stuff like this," Hayley continued, indicating the ice, "there's never any prints or anything. It's all being done unnaturally... as you can see."

"So they use weird magical powers but then barely take anything?" Sophie summed up, sounding about as confused as Hayley, "... what the hell."

"You have just stated what every member of law enforcement in Tempest City is thinking," Hayley said in a learned tone, "if word of this ever got out though, there would be widespread chaos. Unfortunately, some amateur reporter girl beat us here this time and ran off with footage..."

"Meaning what?" Leena asked.

Hayley gazed off distantly as she gave her answer, "Meaning the news is going to be very interesting tonight..."

["This new footage has just come in from one of our reporters whom witnessed a shocking robbery on the scene just this night at 10:21 PM. We, here at TCNN are here to bring you the live story..."

A boy sitting on a bed, inside his tidy CIU dorm room, was sketching vividly into a sketchbook folded onto his lap as the words from the news report reached his ears. He glanced up with slight interest, though it was hard to pull him away from his passion once he was captivated within it. 20-year old Allen Smith had short but spiky brown hair and wore a turtle-shaped locket that rested around his neck and on his white t-shirt.

His green eyes widened and he set the book down next to him as he saw the startling image on screen of the ice-covered bank, shakily recorded by a handheld camcorder.

"Whoa," he gasped as he leaned forward to get a better look, "is this for real...? I'm totally drawing that."

["Taking place on the corner of Main and 42nd, the Regal Bank was robbed by an unknown number of culprits. This is the latest in a series of crimes but the first that we've caught a glimpse of the unorthodox breaking and entering method as you can see here."

Inside of a large mansion owned by someone obviously quite wealthy, 20-year old Felicia Addams lay on a couch stroking a white cat that lay on her lap. The girl with lavish orange-brown hair that draped down to her mid-waist had her gaze fixated on the TV, looking rather bored as the news report droned on. Even the image wasn't leaving much of an impression on the well-endowed and toned girl that was beholding it.

In addition to her other 'features' she had a very distinct tattoo written in Japanese on her bare right shoulder. She shook her head as she kept watching.

"That's got to be a fake. They look pretty desperate for attention... they should be reporting on real problems like the threat in the park..."

["Your eyes do not deceive you, viewers. What you are seeing is a gigantic mass of ice that seems to sprout outward in every direction from the bank's destroyed entrance. How such an unnatural elemental phenomenon has occurred in inconceivable and the police refuse to comment on this matter..."

"My eyes can't deceive me if I'm listening to it on radio! Geez!" a girl exclaimed in annoyance out loud over the roar of her motorbike, knocking her hand against the side of her helmet where her mini radio was wrapped around her right ear, "I want to see this!"

17-year old Vy Nguyen hugged her slim body against the body of her beloved motorbike as she blazed down a highway leading into Tempest City. The Vietnamese girl's black hair flapped out wildly behind her, tapping relentlessly against her worn-out leather jacket. She wanted to get home as quickly as possible and see what this was about.

["We are investigating at this time but please please, drop this matter. We couldn't tell you anything even if we wanted to, we've been sworn to silence by higher-ups. Now get out of here before we start arresting people for disturbing the peace."

["That was a comment made by the chief of police just moments ago..."

A girl wandering through the common area of CIU after having just come from the gymnasium stopped, a basketball clutched between her arms against her chest. She blew some of her long, black bangs out of her eyes as she gazed up at the screen with squinted eyes. 22-year old Justine Burrel was quite amazed by what she saw... and also quite intrigued.

"That is the coolest thing ever...! Well, not the crime... but the way it was pulled off! It would be so awesome to be able to have those powers and use them for justice..."

At the same time, sitting on a bench against the far wall where he was studying with a few friends, a punk-looking boy with odd white-and-black colored hair glanced up at the television screen from behind the sunglasses he was wearing. He stood up, straightening out the black trench coat he was wearing as he tried to get a better glimpse of the amazing footage.

"This country is so weird..." 19-year old Axel Moskau muttered to himself with a German accent, "... I like it."

["... so for now we can only speculate as to how this ice was created. Perhaps some kind of new weapon that has been developed underground is the cause. Heavy rumors are circulating that this is related to the syndicate Eclipse..."

"Eclipse..." a boy watching a TV in a large office muttered after he heard the name mentioned, "not them again..."

19-year old Evan Scofield gazed out of the window where he was standing in an executive's office at one of the two tallest corporate towers in Tempest City while he waited for his sister to get ready to leave. He had short light brown hair with sideburns and was wearing a bandanna over most of it. He seemed to be quite thoughtful, though the mention of the Syndicate seemed to induce much scorn in him.

"When will they ever go away..."

["... which is a group of underground terrorists that manage to elude authorities every time they show themselves. For more on Eclipse, visit our website and refer to last month's kidnapping incident involving the president's daughter. It was truly a sad day for all citizens of Colonia."

"This is like anime," a boy whom was watching the news report on Youtube gasped aloud, "crazy ice, there's no way a weapon made that. That technology is impossible; therefore... it was something cool like elemental manipulation ..."

20-year old Ash Harvelle seemed to surmise this right away, letting his imagination get the better of him as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and immediately opened a new tab in his Firefox browser on his computer, going to try his hardest to find out more about this. The CIU student with long, unruly brown hair was among the best when it came to finding out anything.

"I really need to know about this... this is huge...!"

["We can hope that the police are working on a way to track and stop these crimes, for this terrorism in the grand new continent of Colonia is very upsetting to many of us; including myself. I want my children to be able to walk the streets safely, so if anyone has any information, we want you to contact the police immediately."

"Ugh," Collin groaned as he walked up next to Roy, whom was standing and watching the report with his arms crossed in the APS HQ, "seriously, two Anomaly-related thefts two nights in a row?"

"Looks like it. Somehow a reporter was able to find out about it but we weren't."

Collin glared at the TV before speaking again to his partner, "I think we should suggest to Alex that we find out who this reporter is... they may know something about Eclipse..."

["We are going to keep looking into this; we have all of our top reporters out in the field. If we find anything else, we'll report it immediately to you: the people, for you have a right to know what is going on in your own city."

Alexis buried her head in her arms as the TV report mixed with the background noise of the bar she was visiting. Her red hair fell down over the edge of the counter as she sat at the bar, a half empty glass of alcohol clutched in her right hand; with three empty ones next to it. She felt awful; tormented even.

"That girl..." she thought back to earlier that night, her normally cold eyes watering up as she hid them from public view.

-"N-never!" Leena stammered, trying to stay firm on her beliefs as she dragged the mace's chain back toward her. She stared at Alexis with hurt eyes, "killing me won't gain you anything! Why do we have to fight at all!?"-

"When...?"she thought desperately, sitting up and downing the rest of her drink in one gulp, "when was the last time my eyes looked like that...? How long have I been caught in Eclipse's web... my spirit raped and destroyed by them...?"

She slumped back in the stool, letting her arms hang limp as she stared up at the spinning fan on the roof above her, completely lost in herself. The bartender eyed her, wondering if she was going to pass out, though he found his eye helplessly wandering down to the glorious amount of cleavage that made its way out of her bustier top.

"See something you like?" Alexis asked in an angry tone, not even needing to look at the bartender to realize where he was gazing, "that's not very professional of you."

"E-er, uh, sorry ma'am..."

"Give me another one, on the house," she commanded, to which he quickly responded by turning and grabbing the bottles from the rack behind him. She continued to sit there, motionless, until she heard her cell phone ring. She flipped it off of the holder in her belt, catching it in mid-air with her other hand and flipping it out as she raised it up to her ear.

"What?"

["Did you kill them?"

"... yes. I did."

["That's all for the 11:00 news for tonight. This is Arik Pearson reporting as usual. Citizens of Tempest City, I have only one thing left to say... things have just taken a very, very strange turn. Stay tuned for more."