The Chaos Chronicles -- Chapter 1

Instructions

“Fire. It can be life. Or death. But I know Fire, and she’s awesome!” -Tink, 2026 14 years later… I woke to the sound of birds, the wind in the trees, and my gadgets whirring as they came online. It was quiet. Nice and peaceful… Something’s wrong. I grabbed my F.A.S.T blaster (Fast Accurate Sharp Terracotta blaster [great name, I know. I like my acronyms, shut up]) and crept out of my room, my leg brace whirring softly. I stealthed my way across the hall, then straightened. They must’ve gone outside. Except Proto doesn’t like bright lights, and the sun is THE bright light. Maybe there’s a storm? Except Phoebe has dislike for bad weather, so if nobody is in the house, then either someone wanted to go out and took everyone but me or something big is going down. How I slept through it I have no idea. I crept along the wood floorboards, not daring to make a sound. I patrolled the entire house before going to the barn. There was absolutely no one inside. I thought about heading to the field as I turned around but was immediately tackled by several sets of arms. I yelped and tried to fling myself out of their grips when I heard their laughter. “Phoebe,” I said. “Why!?” Then I saw that Mint was also there, laughing uproariously. And a couple of people I didn’t know. My head perked up at this sight. “Who are these,” I asked. “Well,” Mint replied. “They are the newest members of the family! The rest of the Squad is out doing some heist of some facility, but we’ll get into that later.” I studied the newcomers more closely. One was a dark red, similar to Phoebe, but was a smidge darker and the hue was slightly grayer. Plus, this newcomer had bird wings. As well as a bird tail. Plus amber colored eyes that seemed to be made of molten sunlight. The other one had an eyepatch over his left eye and was actually a mix of two different colors, silver and blue. He was silver of the top left side of his body, but light blue in the bottom right of his body, and the two colors faded into each other in the middle. His right eye was teal, and he seemed a bit nervous while the first one seemed…bored? Grumpy? I don’t know; I’m not the emotional expert that Mint is. I work with tools, not feelings. Still, it was kinda hard to ignore the fact that the vibe of the female newcomer was a tid hostile. “Hi there,” I said. “I’m Tink! It’s nice to meet you!” “Hi,” said the one with the eyepatch. “I’m Experiment 064, but please call me X..” “Hey,” said the one with bird wings. “I’m Avian.” Then, to Mint, she said “I didn’t know you recruited 15 year olds.” Mint spoke to me, ignoring the comment. “Avian has three brothers; Siren, Lupus, and Lepus.” I blinked. Where the heck did Rynn keep finding these people? I smiled, fingering my blaster, and said “Want me to help you find some rooms?” Avian replied “Actually, I like this barn. Could I take the hayloft?” “Uh, sure!” I walked toward X, smiled, then showed him the way to his room. Glancing back, I saw Mint inhale sharply at something on X’s back, then start rubbing her silver bandanna super fast. As I walked I wondered what that was all about. Then I fell flat on my face due to a root that was always there and always tripping me up. Why me.