FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

It was a long night for them. Both were exhausted when they got back to the mansion. On their journey back they had seen fire engines battling a fire at the city's police department which illuminated the night sky, but the crews appeared to have gotten it under control and did not want to interfere.

They had a long lay-in, both for the rest and to reflect on what exactly went on the night before in New York. Avory was the first to get up and started to work, hearing about the blaze on the local news report and how it's believed to be linked to jail break by what appeared to be a paramilitary group that happened during the course of the blaze. The story was being picked up by the national news in Canada, featuring alongside his own headline.

American news networks haunted him, replaying the same clip over and over again from passersby of Red Lightning beating down one of his own suits; mutated with guns, rockets and other lethal weapons of destruction. Inside the suit lay the unconscious body of a blooded face of a bald eagle, left in a comatose state when the Red Lightning stood up over him. Despite losing the fight, Sam White was being hailed a hero for standing up to 'the Red Devil'.A true American wielding his right to the second amendment, representing and fighting in the interests of his people.

Avory turned off the news and sat there in stunned silence reflecting on what one day had done. He reached for his 'I heart NY' souvenir mug and launched it against the wall where his American Dream suit once stood.

Across from him, his sister Avelyn watched her brother throw the mug, wincing as she heard it shatter. Her arms were crossed as she stood in the doorway to the workshop; she wanted to scowl at him, but she couldn't, knowing what upset him.

"It's not your fault, Avory," she tried to comfort him.

"No. It is," he replied firmly, keeping his gaze fixed on where the mug impacted, "I should have never trusted him. I should've never trusted anyone."

"We can trust Jack."

"Can we?!" Avory snapped back, facing her as he stood up from his chair, "We've known him for 7 months! He's got more then enough patience to coax us in like that American rat we knew for just a month!"

"You trusted me about Sam, don't blame yourself!" Avelyn insisted, "he was my responsibility! Be mad at me if you need to!"

Avory growled as he turned away from her and squawked incoherently until he was out of breath, slumping down into his seat, lifting his hand up to rub his eyes, sighing. "You know I can't get mad at you..."

"We can't go back and change the past... We can only look forward and find ways to make it better." His sister reassured, walking up behind him and placing a hand on his shoulder, "Any idea how we can make him forget who we are?"

"We can't do anything about it. We just need to hope that he... Doesn't wake up, or that knockout damages his memory."

"You can't say that!" She scowled. "We can't just hope that he dies!"

"No, we can't hope that he dies, that's why we need to do something proactive about it." her brother responded bluntly.

"Avory! What is wrong with you?!"

Avory turned around from his desk and shouted back at his twin sister, "He tried to kill you out there, Avelyn! That's what's wrong." He paused, looking away and hanging his head, "I can't let that happen... I can't lose you."

The two reflected in silence, emotions confused and all over the place. It ended with a large sigh.

"We will cross that bridge when we get there... but need to focus on this now." Avory changed the topic, turning their attention to his monitor displaying the other day's headlines., "When we were in New York, this illegal paramilitary group broke out a bunch of their captured soldiers last night in a border city called Unity Falls, a few hours after they were apprehended from the local ice rink stadium. They were by no means quiet, blowing up the side of the prison they were being processed in whilst setting the city's police force building alight, likely as a distraction." He said opening up some images and files for his sister. "Now by any means this this unacceptable but I think it's somehow related to the Chapman case I have been investigating whilst you've been swanning off with your killer boyfriend."

"AVORY!" Avelyn screamed.

"Fine." He agreed, "Although I don't think this is necessarily 'Chapman', what images I could get of their weapons did line up with some invoices I got and this is looking like customer 'Romeo-41'."

"Who is that?" Avelyn asked, leaning over her brother's shoulder to see the file on the case on the screen.

"Unsure. But they are easily 'Chapman's' biggest customer on this side of the pond. That is if they are based out of North America."

"What do you suggest?" She asked curiously.

"We round up what crooks broke out and see if they know who our Romeo, fair Romeo, is or any other leads."

"But if 'Romeo' broke their guys out of jail, wouldn't they have taken them all away too?" Avelyn pointed out, "looks like they had an armoured car air dropped for their escape."

"Agreed, but we might still get something out of the guys they had been cooped up with." Avory insisted.

"It's our best shot. And once we've integrated them we can get the police to pick them up." Avelyn smiled as the two twins were on the same wavelength.

"Perfect."

Splitting ways and flying across the city, scanning the streets below and listening to police radio, they try to find any indication of any escapees. It wasn't long until voices echoed through their comms.

"Officers in downtown. Armed robbery in progress on Laurier Avenue, suspect escaped in black Conda Civic heading west. Believed to have escaped jail last night."

"Dibs!" Avelyn called out as she changed direction in the air to head towards the last known location.

"Of course you would. Be careful" her brother insisted over the comms.

The car swerved between the traffic of the busy street, lined with stores, restaurants and cafés either side. He drove erratically, trying to get away from the scene of the crime before the police caught up to him. Driving in oncoming traffic, they braked and honked their horns to avoid an accident. The driver looked ahead of him and in every window and mirror. He looked everywhere apart from above him.

A loud bang frightened him as he heard something heavy land on top of the car, immediately reaching over the passenger seat filled with a duffle bag of colourful Canadian dollar bills, and a gun.

"This is a new car. Keyless ignition perhaps?" Avelyn questioned herself, "A.V.I. crack the ignition software for the closest Conda vehicle and shut it off."

"Cracking into Conda Civic india delta kilo two three two two software. Would you like to proceed?"

"Proceed" confirmed Avelyn as she felt the car below her swerve more several, not trying to avoid any vehicles at this moment in it -it was a clear sign that the driver wanted to fall off.

"Estimated time to crack; 77 seconds." The voice called over as a gun was shot, shattering the glass in the driver window.

Avelyn quickly followed the path of the bullet and saw it impact a concrete wall on the side of the street, luckily missing every pedestrian on its flight.

"I don't think I can just sit and wait..." the blue suited girl commented as she pulled out her collapsible bo staff, leaving it loose and swinging in two halves, reaching over the passenger side to swing into the window and smashing it.

The driver looked to his right as the glass shattered into the passenger seat and directed his gun over in that direction and fired expecting his assailant to emerge though, but instead he was taken by surprise as fist connected with his face from the near window.

He recoiled and turned his head and gun and shot again out of the shattered window to hit nothing but a street lamp.

Another window smashed as the driver turned around and shot rearward, looking behind him to see no assailant coming through the shattered rear window of the car.

Getting tired he pointed his gun toward the ceiling of the vehicle and fired multiple rounds up knowing they were on top, but by that point it was too late as a metal bo staff smashed through the front windscreen of the car at a low angle to pass through a loop of the steering wheel and embed in the passenger seat beside him, making him unable to turn the wheel. Through the glass came a blue Knight in shining armour, resting on top of the duffle bag on the passenger seat. She reached over and grabbed the gun from his right hand with ease, using the motion to slam the side of his head with the grip and daze him.

"System cracked. Shut off the ignition?" A robotic voice asked.

"Yes, now!" Avelyn cried out.

Almost immediately, the vehicle rolled to a stop in the middle of the street, tires screeching. Fortunately, it did not collide with any other vehicles. She reached for the bo staff and collapsed it so it could be pulled out from the steering wheel and passenger seat, leaning over the dazed man to pull on the door handle and then push him out onto the tarmac below, pressing down on top of him and collecting his hands behind his back.

"Who broke you out!?" Avelyn barked at him though her mask. Her voice distorted to hide her identity.

"Fuck you!" He responded with his cheek squished against the road, trying to wriggle out of the metal maiden's grasp. "I got out myself!"

"Liar! Someone broke you out!" Avelyn insisted, pressing down on him harder and twisting his wrists behind him painfully.

"Gaahhhh! Fuahhh ahhh..." he winced in agony, feeling as though his arm was being pulled off. "I-I don't know! I don't know anything!"

"Really?" She asked again, reminding him of the position he was in by twisting his wrists harder and almost crushing his head into the street.

"Fffffuck! I don't know! I don't know them! I just ran! There was a big black van which some people got in but I just ran!" The man screamed out, "Stoooop!!!"

Avelyn held the position longer to see if he would break anymore information, but he didn't, he seemed to be telling the truth. She lessened the grip on him and let go of his head, using her free hand to pull out a tie from her thigh and bounding his twists together behind his back, and then doing the same around his ankles so he was immobilized.

"What the hell are you doing?" He shouted out as the sound of police sirens neared.

"Getting you presentable for the police." She confirmed as she made sure they were sufficiently tight and just left the man leant up against the window-smashed car in the middle of the road.

"You're going to jail. And you will stay there this time," were her parting words before leaping into the air and flying away like a rocket as soon as the first police cruiser came into view.

The Red Lightning flew over the city with Avory inside, listening to police chatter and keeping his eyes open on the buildings and streets below for any sign of any culprits. He brought up the mugshots of the escapees to refresh his memory as he glided through the sky.

Flying over an alleyway he noticed someone between the buildings rummaging through bins and other unwanted possessions. Curious, Avory doubled back and landed on the rooftop of one of the buildings to get a good look at the individual.

"A.V.I. bring up the images of Nathan Cook..." Avory asked his suit AI.

"Showing images of Unity Falls prisoner Nathan Cook"

As the boar finished rummaging around one of the bins, he reared his head up for his next target to pillage. Avory got a good look at him and compared him to the image.

"Here's one..." the raven said stepping off the side of the building and gliding quietly down to the alleyway below, unnoticed by the wild pig whose head was buried deep within another bin.

"Quite the downgrade, if you ask me?" A synthetic voice called out to Nathan.

The boar reared his head up, pulling something out of the bin and turning to see who was speaking to him.

"You had a room, bed, warm clothes, free food, friends..." Red Lightning called out to him again, "out here you have... people's waste, dirty clothes, no one to talk to and... well you might find an old stained mattress, but it's hardly living."

The boar gasped as he saw that his companion was covered in red metal armour and adorned with large folding fighter jet wings. It took a while for him to recognise him. "Gah! You're the Red Lightning!" the boar quickly fell to his knees, dropping an old half empty carton of milk on the floor beside him, beginning to weep and pleading for his life, "Please don't kill me! Please don't kill me! I have a wife and kids! I can change, but please don't kill me!"

Avory blinked a little under the suit, surprised at how emotionally unstable this character was. His hooves and knees of the orange jumpsuit slowly pooling old expired milk around them. He let the poor man sob a little longer before speaking up.

"I don't kill people." he responded bluntly walking up to him, "I put people behind bars; and that's where you should be, Nathan."

"You killed that eagle... I saw it, it was all on the news when I was waiting on trial!"

"He's knocked out. Not dead," Red Lightning insisted, "Now stop crying over spilt milk. I have some questions for you."

Nathan finally let up, sniffling as he wiped his snout on his dirty orange sleeve and looking up at Red Lightning's face with damp fur around his eyes, "I'm sorry sir."

"How did you escape the prison?" Avory got to the questions.

"I-I... d-don't know" he stuttered.

"You do." Avory insisted, "just tell me what you remember."

"I... I ran..." Nathan started, "There was an explosion... The whole wall of the prison came down and everyone ran. I didn't know what to do... so I ran too."

"Where did you run?"

"I followed everyone." Nathen stated, "we all... Got into these armored trucks... These people in riot gear and masks pulled everyone on board and we sat inside as they took us away."

"Where did they take you?"

"I don't know..." the bore responded, "one of them came around and asked if we were 'pace'. I said I didn't know and so they pushed me to the back of the truck with a bunch of others. They stopped somewhere near the edge of the city and pushed us who they didn't think were 'pace' and just left us there..."

"Do you remember what the guy asking you looked like?" Red Lightning pressed for more information.

"I don't know!" He snapped, but spoke again in a calmer tone. "I don't know... They all wore riot gear and masks... He had... ears on top of his head - definitely anthropian, but that's all I can say," he pleaded.

"Did you see anything inside the truck?"

"No... it was dark... too many people... it was crowded."

"What did you do after you got off the truck?"

"I... I don't know! I just... I came here... I am so hungry... I don't know what to do..." he turned his head down to the floor and began to cry again.

Red Lightning crossed his arms, wondering what to do with the wild boar. He closed off his audio to Nathan and spoke to his suit AI again.

"A.V.I. Call the police and inform them that Nathan Cook is ready for pick up at this location."

"Calling the police to inform that Nathan Cook is ready for pick up at 49.038080084717606, -113.57335044411131. Would you like to proceed?" The AI repeated and asked.

"Confirm. Thank you A.V.I." Avory replied before walking forward and kneeling down before Nathan, placing a hand on his shoulder comfortingly, changing his audio to output out to Nathan again.

"The police are coming to pick you up. They will give you some nice, warm, clean clothes to put on and some food for you to eat."

"Thank you... Red Lightning..." Nathan looked up with teary eyes.

"I'm going to walk you over to the street, and that's where you can wait for them to pick you up. Ok?" Asked Avory, trying to be gentle with the unstable man.

Nathan only nodded, as he was helped up onto his hooves by Red Lightning, walking together over to the entrance to the alleyway, where the sun stuck the brown hairy pig.

They waited together for a bit before a police car with sirens roared up at impressive speed, and out jumped an officer from the driver's seat raising a gun and pointing it towards Red Lightning.

"Freeze! You're both under arrest!" the Golden Retriever barked, "Red Lightning! Get out of your suit!"

Avory quickly raised his hands and responded with his synthetic voice, "I am not in a suit."

"Adam! What are you doing?!" his partner officer asked, getting out of the car looking between the first officer and Red Lightning.

"I am arresting this murderer, Nephys!" he barked back at the European shorthair cat. "Now get out of the fucking suit! I will shoot!"

Avory closed his external communications and spoke to his AI, still holding his hands in the air, "A.V.I. Turn off the police car's sirens and start playing 'Time To Say Goodbye' at full volume."

"Police car sirens disabled. Playing 'Time To Say Goodbye' by Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli on Volume 100"

Officer Adam quickly heard the sirens stop and a loud soothing orchestra start playing, turning his head to see what was going on.

Whilst distracted, Avory quickly leaped away from Nathan and blasted off into the sky like a rocket. Officer Adam heard the blast of the thrusters and turned his head back again, raising his gun up and tried shooting at Avory, missing every shot. It wasn't too long until his target was out of sight.

"We'll discuss this later..." his female feline partner bade, reaching for her hand cuffs and walking behind the waiting Nathan, who looked up into the sky, trying to find his robotic friend.

"Who are you saying goodbye to?" Avelyn asked as she walked into the workshop, shedding her Blue Lightning suit next to Avory's Red Lightning. She watched her brother searching for something on the computer, scanning over the files and databases he's brought up listening to the operatic pop piece.

"Just a friend I made today who works for the Unity Falls police department." Avory responded.

"I assume your searching for whatever 'pace' is?" Avelyn asked as she stood behind Avory with her arms crossed, looking over the screens before them.

"The two guys I found were both thrown out of that armoured van when they said they didn't know if they were 'pace' or not..."

"The one guy who mentioned it to me said he thought it could be an organization." Avelyn insisted, "the other three didn't get on the van; they just ran for the hills."

"Unless it's a new bit of slang that's not found it's way onto the internet yet, I think it's an organization..." Avory suggested this as he opened up an old file of the jail attack the night before. "I searched the Paramount Group's internal database for any Marauder purchases with 'Pace' mentioned in the invoices, and got nothing... But I did do a search for 'P.A.C.E' and... found this..." he said, bringing up an invoice for four custom Paramount Marauders.

"P.A.C.E. Directive?" Avelyn read out the buyer's name, "You sure it's them?"

"I can't find anything else that would make much sense..." Avory said putting his feet up on the desk, stretching his talons as he put his arms behind his head.

"Are you going to run a search for them to get any more leads?" Avelyn asked, moving over, to sit on the edge of the desk beside her brother's talons.

"Already working on it; but I'm not hopeful." Avory turned his gaze from his screens to his sister, "I'm betting on nothing coming up outside the dark-web. This group seems rather 'efficient' but never came up on our radar before last night. They know what they are doing."

"Maybe they should know that a lousy South African car dealership might have given them the slip." Avelyn smirked.

"It's why I don't trust anyone other than myself," Avory replied coldly.

Avelyn shook her head and reached down to Avory's ankle beside her, stroking it affectionately, "you trust me."

"I only trust you." Avory softened a little, letting out a reluctant sigh.

"Come on," Avelyn insisted, moving off the desk and reaching for her brother's hand, pulling him up from the seat, "let's make dinner together tonight. Let your computer do all the work"

Avory stood up, holding his sister's hand, gazing back at the large computer screen before looking back at Avelyn.

"Ok. Chicken Tartiflette," Avory agreed, leaning in to kiss his sister's cheek before pulling away smirking, "You're handling the onions!"

"Oi..." Avelyn smiled playfully back at her teasing brother, leaning into his cheek to give him a small peck back, "I can live with that~"

The next day passed uneventfully. The computer didn't find anything available online regarding the P.A.C.E Directive; they were now banking on a search of the dark-web.

Avelyn spent the day designing new outfits for her fashion line whilst Avory worked on a new version of their AI, occasionally taking the time looking up any news on Sam White or American Dream, to see if there was any change in his current comatose state. Both were nervous about this, having Sam reveal their identities to the world; their lives would never be the same again.

It was growing late into the evening of the second day and the two twins started to give up hope. They started discussing other ideas of what they could do next and sat in the large open plan living room of their modern mansion. As the sun set and ideas gew thin, Avelyn found herself laying against her twin, her head against his neck and his head against hers, arm and wing draped over her for warmth as they rested, just like how they always had done growing up together, intent on drifting away together on the couch...

"Search results now total: 1" their AI's voice called over, causing each of their eyelids to flick open. Their amber eyes now wide awake.

Avelyn quickly got up off her brother and made her way towards the workshop with her brother only a few steps behind.

"A.V.I., what results did you find?" Avelyn called out as she walked briskly down the corridor and into the workshop.

"Result: 1. Dark web communication from device IMEI 490154203237517 reading 'Boss needs you here now! These P.A.C.E chumps have screwed us!'. Message sent two days ago at o-six, o-four."

"Do you have coordinates of where the message was sent from?" Avory asked, as the two birds stepped into their lightning suits.

"48.994929303716006, -113.42044099514273" replied A.V.I.

"Set that as our destination," Avory requested as their helmets came down and the garage door came up.

With their best lead yet, the rocketed out of the mansion and high into the air. Once at a suitable altitude each shifted forward and engaged their sonic thrusters to fling themselves across to the other side of the city. The thunderous boom ringed out over the city below, alerting all eyes to the sky. They knew this may make their presence known to their target, but they couldn't risk any delay in getting there before they could react.

As the two crossed the border into America, they hovered in the air for a bit to observe the surroundings around the warehouse and nearby area.

"I am not picking up any movement," Avory commented, giving it a quick scan.

"Let's hope they're still in," Avelyn prayed, "three entrances and exits, I'll put down a sentinel on the fire exit and then take front."

"I'll take the loading bays and CCTV," Avory agreed as the two darted down to the ground at extreme speed, before twisting their bodies upright and thrusting down to slow their fall.

Avelyn threw a device near the side fire exit when low enough, and then propelled herself around to the front door. Avory landed in front of the two loading bays and a rear door, spotting a CCTV camera and decoding it, finding an IP address for it and following it back to the central control system, cracking into it to provide both of them access to the live feed.

"I'm in position," he announced. "I don't see any signs of life inside... this is too quiet."

"I'm also in position," confirmed Avelyn as she checked the lock, reaching to her side and placing a device over it, whirring away. "I am breaching now."

Avory ran over to the side door and placed his hand just below the center, generating a magnetic force that pulled down the bar on the other side and pulling it open. "I'm in."

The front door clicked as it was finally unlocked, allowing Avelyn entry. "So am I."

The reception area was small and quiet. It looked nothing out of the ordinary with a few chairs, a coffee table and a water cooler. A window opened up into a small office. Avelyn reached up to the mechanical password lock on the door and waved her hand over in with a magnetic field, reading what keys needed to be pressed to unlock it, and then entering them.

"There is nothing initially obvious back here." Announced Avory out the back, scanning over the dark warehouse with his night vision. "It looks like it may have already been cleared out if anything was here." He made his way over to some pallets, swapping to his x-ray vision to see into them. "No guns or anything, just... What is that?" He pondered curiously as he cut open one of the large cardboard boxes and reached inside.

"Ghh HUUURRRR!" Avelyn heard the shrieking noise over the comms to her brother, stepping though the previously locked down and down the corridor, opening an unlocked door into the warehouse, seeing her brother standing behind a pile of boxes holding something long and small in his hand.

"What the hell is that?" She asked, realizing that he was not in trouble.

"I don't know..." he pondered having pulled out one of the rubbery toys, "it is some kind of... toy?" He commented, squeezing it. It let out a wheeze as it expelled air and, after releasing his grip, it screamed as the air rushed back in. "It's in the shape of a chicken?"

"Why the hell is that there? He's not taunting us, is he?" Avelyn asked as she turned her attention back to the hallway where two offices stood on opposite sides, one which had a window out to reception.

"It's cheap and nasty... I imagine this hid whatever they were hiding" Avory concluded, reaching down into the screaming chicken box and peering in to see what else might be inside, trying not to disturb the shrieking creatures too much. "There are so many of these its hard to see though them all with my x-ray. I am going to have to open a bunch of these..." Avory sighed as he placed the box to his side and grabbed another one to open and inspect.

Avelyn meanwhile rummaged through the office, finding and scanning any paperwork she saw, anything to give them the slightest hint of a clue. There were a number of delivery notes for random items including many for '17 Inch Squeeze Shrilling Screaming Chicken' toys.

"I am seeing a lot of paperwork suggesting your chicken friends keep being delivered to customers, only to be returned a few days later... multiple times," suggested Avelyn.

"It must be how they hide and deliver the goods... That or someone is very indecisive if they want these freaks or not." Avory joked as he pulled out one last random box near the bottom of the pallet as a spot check, "I don't think anything else will be in these... I have picked up some traces of steel on these... would suggest firearms."

Avelyn had moved from the reception office to the other, finding the CCTV system tucked away on a comms rack whirring away. "How far are you downloading the CCTV?" She asked as she turned to the desk and drawers for more clues.

"I have the last couple of days, it's taking its time but we should be able to connect to it remotely for more if we need to bail." He said as he put down the box and left the pallets To go investigate the other side of the warehouse. "The tracks from the forklift suggest some stuff was placed over here..."

Avory was looking at an empty area against the opposite wall that looked like it was home to other pallets at one point. He then swore and sighed. "Fuck... it was never going to be that easy..."

"What is it?" Avelyn asked, scanning the last few pieces of paperwork she could find.

"The CCTV is set to store footage from 50 days ago. But there is no footage beyond two days ago. Someone deleted it."

"Well if anything we now know we are on the right track." Avelyn comforted him before standing alert as she could hear a noise outside of something crashing, "...Avory?"

"We've got company..." Avory confirmed. "Three... maybe four just outside on the other side of your wall... that must have been them taking out the camera as I've just lost the feed."

"I'm picking up some interesting readings..." Avelyn said with concern in her voice as she quickly and quietly.stepped ou of the office to join her brother in the main warehouse. "I'm detecting Ethrum... Pyrrum, Galrum and... Aqurum..."

"This was an ambush... this has Achtbeinig over it," Avory insisted as he took cover behind a pallet of boxes, "Get ready..."

Avelyn made her way over to duck behind another ready for a fight...

They heard several voices talking lowly as the four strangers ventured into the warehouse.

"I'm sharing the CCTV feed for you, so you can see where they are..." Avory advised Avelyn, unheard of by their foegin party.

"Three avians and a dragon... that dragon is holding some sort of energy shield. Is that one of the stones?" commented Avelyn.

"I don't know... It looks like something more advanced than our heat shield. Looks like they intend to actually use it for physical defense." he paused as the two watched to see what they would do. "They are hardly wearing anything... but their readings... they are off the charts. They have so much elemental power with them; but they aren't holding any weapons other than that energy shield."

"Do you think they are genetically enhanced by the stones?" Avelyn asked, concern creeping into both of their voices.

"At this point? It wouldn't surprise me..." sighed Avory.

"We've got enough evidence... I say we make our escape; we might be too out of our depth here." suggested Avelyn.

"Shhh..." Avory hushed, "They are looking in one of the boxes... They said something but I didn't hear what it was..."

"_We didn't want to be seen on surveillance,"_the topless avian commented.

"I know, I know. But Ayane could just hack in and erase the footage, couldn't-"

"They just mentioned about erasing the CCTV" commented Avelyn, "'Ayane'... we've got a name for some sort of hacker... Might be a lead?"

"Perhaps... I want to see where those stones are... or what they are..." Avory suggested lifting his metal arm up from the floor to reach for a device on his thigh.

This slight movement was apparently too much as both could hear a voice shout out, "Over there!"

There was the sudden sound of running; claws connecting with the concrete floor and Avory could see through a glimpse at the CCTV that the largest of the four was heading his way.

He leapt up from his coaching position as boxes went flying, pushing against his back and wings. He turned on the spot using his metal wings to deflect the flying debris until he saw the tall strong red and yellow avian before him, looking down at him menacingly. With a determined glare his orange hooked beak parted to utter the words, "Found you!"

"Oh sh-" Avory uttered as he braced himself into a grapple; having the red bird lunge at him. He ducked and used his smaller size to his advantage, rolling the large bird over him and into the wall, but not without being collected himself as a pair of orange claws grabbed onto wings and pulled him with him.

As Avelyn stood up from the otherside of the warehouse, pulling out her collapsible bo staff, she made the jump on the energy-shield bearing dragon, bringing it down vertically over the shield. The target reacted but was too slow to raise their shield in time and suffered a blow to the head, staggering back. The topless bird reacted quickly and conjured balls of white mass around him that snapped and crinkled like ice forming from vapor in the air.

It wasn't long before Avelyn could confirm that these were indeed balls of ice as the first flew forward and stuck the chest of her suit making her stagger back. She looked up in shock, "Ice! This guy is conjuring ice!"

"A little busy here!" Avory called back as he rolled about on the floor with the big red bird until he was on top. He activated his thrusters and pulled himself off, slipping out of his opponent's grasp. Turning and landing a few meters away, he lifted up his palms and fired a bolt of electrical energy from either palm at the bird on the floor.

Avelyn took more blows from the ice balls against her shoulder and head, now turned towards the ice conjurer, lifting her bo staff and using it to intercept the balls of ice, connecting with and smashing each one that came her way, seeing a pattern in the way the bird moved his hands the the balls flew. With her other hand she faced it towards her attacker and blasted him with a large electric ball of electric energy.

The red avian squawked out in pain at the shock flowing through him, but somehow, it got back up. Avory charged his blasters again but the red bird glowed brightly in the dark warehouse, lighting it up and it's self, giving Avory a good view at the tall and strong muscled body of his foe, dressed in only a muscle top and jeans. With a flap of his red and yellow wings a wave of fire rushed from him towards Avory, burning the boxes and pallets in its path and catching them alight.

Avory stood wide-eyed in amazement as he saw this creature, commanding the power of pyrrum from his body, without any signs of the stone or augmentation. Whatever science created this creature, Avory considered it in awe and fascination as the wave of fire washed over his suit, unaffected by the heat as it dissipated around his suit's heat shield.

"This one is hot..." Avory said, still stunned at the display of power, trying to gauge what the 'phoenix' would do next.

"Well this one certainly isn't _cool_with us!" Avelyn remarked in response as she staggered the ice-bird with her electrical blast and then lunged forward with her staff and stuck him in the chest, throwing him towards the wall, next to a window looking into one of the offices, spider webbing it from the impact.

"Hey!" the short female of the group called out, causing Avory to look over at her. The next thing he realized, the green bird -illuminated by the fire started on one of the pallets- ran up to him, stomping on the ground and throwing the cracked rock and concrete at his suit, making him stagger away.

Before he could react to the hail of stone he felt that he was picked up and thrown over backwards, disorientating him and landing head first into the concrete floor with an almighty bang which rang through his suit and through the rest of the warehouse.

"GAHHHH!!! FUCK!!!" he cried out as the sound continued to ring in his ears.

The helmet of the suit was dented, but Avory was still physically sound after a harsh jolt that went through his body.

Watching the white avian fall to the ground against the wall, Avelyn stepped forward to look down at him, taking the opportunity to scan him for later analysis, not wanting to wait longer then she had to before she could help her brother. With a significant amount of data collected, she saw movement to her right and turned her head to brace as a powerful fist connected with her cheek flinging her away from the two of them, reeling from the blow. But it wasn't long before she had to react again, ducking a second flying fit from the dragon who seemed to have turned his energy shield into some sort of energy gauntlet.

"What the hell is this..." she wondered as she locked her eyes with her attacker, scanning his body and movements as she dogged and blocked each throw before countering by stepping forward and striking him in the gut.

But the dragon was prepared and dodged, stepping back away from her as they spared.

"Vulcan! These aren't robots!" the dragon called out, "Someone's in these tin cans!"

"You think?!" the twins both shout at the top of their lungs in unison to each other, almost definitely heard by their attackers outside their suits.

"What did they think we were?!" Avelyn asked as she parried the dragon, "have they never seen us before?"

"Well I think this one is 'Vulcan'!" Avory cried out as he used his thrusters again to throw himself up again from the floor to see the red and green avians gaze back at him in disbelief.

Hovering above the ground in the corner of the warehouse he charged up either hand again and fired an electrical blast at his two targets.

"I got scans of my two. I think we need to go back and regroup." Avelyn suggested. "With the powers they've displayed, I don't think we will be able to tie these up to stay for the police to pick up."

"I just want to get a quick scan of these two..." Avory insisted as the two below him recoiled as they hit the floor; the girl spasming on her wing-less back and the other on his hands and knees. Avory didn't miss a beat, taking as much data as possible from his two foes before they got up again, "The red one doesn't seem to react as much as the green one to my blasts... he's still there... has he given up?" he asks himself curiously, seeing the female rolling about on the floor.

"I think ice friend is coming back around," Avelyn intervenes as she traded punches and kicks with the dragon, noticing the white avian shifting a little in his slumped position.

"Almost..." Avory insisted as he hovered a little nearer to the other two for the scan, the speed up but still being cautious of 'Vulcan' lunging forward at him.

Avory flinched a little, pulling himself back in the air away from the red bird as he looked up at him, examining him back.

"Who are you?" He demanded "And where's Chapman?"

"Red Lightning. Maybe you should watch the news" Avory responded bluntly through his suit's speakers, "As for Chapman I would ask you the same thing; but it seems you're none the wiser..."

"We're pursuing a lead on someone who's after us," 'Vulcan' returned.

"After you?" Avory sounded surprised, still hovering and scanning from afar, making sure not to drop his guard, "We thought you worked for Chapman or P.A.C.E..."

"You know about P.A.C.E?" the red bird responded, "They're the ones after us. We uncovered some clues that Chapman was selling weapons to them. We thought that through him, we might find P.A.C.E, and make them leave us alone. We only want to continue living peacefully, and preferably in secret."

There was a pause for thought. Avelyn and the dragon had stopped trading blows and had since been stood ready and watching each other to see what the other would do next.

"Do you believe them?" Avelyn asked Avory through their closed comms, knowing full well that her brother's trust was at an all time low, having had someone close to them try to backstab and kill them a few days before.

"I don't know..." Avory finally sighed to her. Pausing a little longer as he hovered in the air.

He finally turned his comms back over to speak with the strangers, waiting long for a response.

"Good luck with that," he replied before blasting his way over to the open back door he came through and rocketed away into the night sky, quickly followed by Avelyn leaving her sparring partner to join her brother in tow.

Back at the mansion, Avory landed with a heavy thud, crouching on one knee and a fist in front of the garage door as it opened. He had already risen and started walking in as Avelyn gently descended and walked in, noting the cracked tarmac where her brother landed.

"You can't be mad," she insisted, "they could be in serious danger if P.A.C.E are after them"

Avory stayed silent as he walked through the garage of cars to reach the workshop at the back. The shutter closing behind both of them.

"The were after Chapman to find P.A.C.E.. We are after P.A.C.E. to find Chapman. Our goals are aligned."

"Avelyn. I don't need to be reminded," he said firmly before turning around to face her finally, "I have had more lies and deception this week than I can deal with. I am not risking anything getting in the way of our mission."

"And what is our mission? To find P.A.C.E. and Chapman? To find Achtbeinig?" his sister pleaded, "No. It's to protect people."

She paused and Avory didn't have an answer.

"If people come to us for protection, we give it to them. If they then go to hurt others, we protect the others." She insisted, "We do what we can to help everyone; even those doing bad things as we incapacitate them rather than killing them, protecting them from themselves."

"You trust too easily," Avory retorted, beginning to turn away from her but felt a metal hand grasp his arm.

"No I don't. You've lost your trust because of me, yet I am the only one you still trust" she explained, "Just trust me... even if we just tap into their phones to hear what they are saying when we're not around; you might find that they are telling the truth."

Avory paused for a second before uttering the word, "fine" and walked into the workshop where he shed his suit for the maintenance protocol to inspect and repair, opening up what files and data they collected that day.

Avelyn shed her own Blue Lightning suit next to Red Lightning and walked up behind her brother who was bent over his desk, looping her arms around his waist and resting her head on his shoulder, nuzzling his cheek.

"I love you, brother," she reminded him.

"I love you too," he returned peacefully, before receiving a kiss on his cheek and leaving him to his work while she went to make some dinner.

The night went on and Avory's dinner had already arrived but rested on the side of his desk as he read through all the notes and paperwork Avelyn had scanned from the warehouse offices. He eventually grew tired of this and decided to bring up the scans and files of the four opponents they encountered earlier that evening, remembering Avelyn's suggestion to try tapping into their phones to listen to their conversations.

He used the coordinates of the warehouse to triangulate any mobile phones in the area, of which only two appeared, and only one a smartphone.

"Feather phone? That's convenient..." he mutters to himself as he finds the device's details on his father's company database and then uses this information to hack the device's microphone, "thank you... Tsumé Mondiale"

Avory picked up his plate of penne all'Arrabbiata and put his feet up on his desk, waiting for the audio to connect as he ate with a fork, reading over 'Vulcan's' file first, as he intrigued him most.

"_What did they do?"_a faint voice asked.

"Well they exposed this other exo-suit hero - some pretentious twat calling himself 'American Dream', as a total fraud,"_a clear female voice explained. _"Blue was battling him along for a while and nearly got killed until their... partner, I guess? Until the other one came to help them."

"That fight was all over the news the next day, right alongside the jailbreak P.A.C.E caused,"_another female voice added, not quite as clear as before. _"Things apparently got pretty intense with those three. Red Lightning ripped apart the armour American Dream was wearing. I couldn't see his face with that helmet on but... I'd say Red was pretty ticked off."

"Mhm..." Avory agreed with himself, swallowing some pasta, "...still am"

"_It caused so much controversy that now there's a bit of a divide between supporters of the Lightnings and American Dream,"_the clearest female added before continuing.

"Fucking Yanks... they'll believe anything wearing stars and stripes, and won't ever accept help from a Brit," he muttered as he turned around slowly in his office chair to look over his and his sister's current suits, imagining something regarding them.

"And now they're here, in our hometown," A faint but familiar voice added. Making Avory turn his attention back to the audio_"Apparently, they're looking for Chapman too."_

"_Did they say anything about him after the fight?"_the faint female asked.

"Just 'good luck', and then they took off,"_replied 'Vulcan'. _"I wish we could have asked them more..."

Avory's ears were at full attention, waiting to hear what questions he would ask, but alas, he would not find out as the first very faint, and much deeper voice interjected; "I don't. Bro, they know about us now. How do we know they're not going to sell us out? Especially to P.A.C.E."

"_Th- - not -rk -or P.A.C.E,"_a very faint and accented voice spoke.

"_And how do you know?"_The other responded faintly.

"_If P.A.C.E had acc- - technology al- -ng them to crea- -ighly advan- -at exo-suits like th- ones - - -onight. As well - -isab- our powers - th- -ame time, do you re- -nk -ny of us -uld still be alive aft- -r encount- with -em?"_The voice replied, making Avory put his feet down from his head to lean in curiously, trying to make out what was said. Avory then was concerned that the connection stopped all together as the feed went silent before the other male voice returned:

"There seriously needs to be a filter on your bluntness, Snowball."

"Snowball?" Avory muttered looking over at one of the four files he had had opened on the screen, seeing the one that appeared to use ice powers, using his mouse to select it and adding the name to the top of the file to read, 'Snowball'.

'Vulcan's' voice grew a little clearer as he spoke next, asking another if there was_"Anything else about these Lightnings you can tell us?"_

"Only rumours mostly. They have been confirmed to have been seen in Hong Kong, and supposedly they uncovered something pretty big out there, something so big that even the Chinese government couldn't really keep it under wraps,"_One of the female voice explained, _"Most of the rumours try to point to other parties not affiliated with China itself, but one consistency was speaking of... Some kind of genetics programme."

"No, that was China. Definitely China." Avory rolled his eyes leaning back in his chair lifting his claws up off the floor to enjoy the commentary as he ate.

"_Genetics?"_came a male voice he faintly recognised.

"_Yeah, but nothing particular - at least not that I've heard, and definitely not like you, Rick Yu,"_the female voice continued as Avory looked over the four files again and found the energy-wielding dragon's file.

"'Rick Yu' has genetics?" Avory wondered to himself, "is that in addition to energy manipulation?"

"_-about the Lightnings themselves,"_Avory heard 'Vulcan' speak, but didn't catch the start.

"I - - they - - related,"'Snowball' faintly responded, causing Avory to lean forward again to try and figure out what he said, piquing his interest and raising concern.

"_How do you figure?"_the first girl asked.

"Th- suits w- -arly iden-cal in -verall -atomy. -imilar heig- an- build, -oth armour- des-d to not -ake it clear th- gender of th- wearer, -ut ot-ise al-st exactly alike. I do -ot think th- is a co-idence."

Avory wore a concerned expression on his face trying to decipher what he just heard, worried that he might have overlooked something in his amour's designs.

"You noticed something that minute?"'Vulcan' asked.

"I -ake in ev- -etail of my opp-ent,"_said 'Snowball'. _"Th- sligh- -etail cou- reveal a pote- weak-ss."

"I don't think they are our enemy,"_said 'Vulcan'. _"You said it yourself - they definitely don't work for P.A.C.E, and they let us go in the end. They could have pursued the fight."

"Inde- th- cou- -ave,"'Snowball' responded, barely audible, "A- th- -ime tho- I -ad to consid- th- mi- be ad-ies, so I planned as such. N- -e kn- at least th- do not -ork for P.A.C.E, -ut their affiliation -ith Chapman -ains a -ystery to us."

"_So what should we do now?"_the first girl asked.

"I truly don't know,"'Vulcan' replied, sounding defeated. "We don't know how to contact the Lightnings, even if they were willing to help us. For now, Chapman's trail is cold, as is the only lead we had on P.A.C.E... It's only a matter of time before they attack us again..."

"Hey,"_The second girl responded."Don't give up yet, Vulcan. We'll find a way."_

Avory sighed, cutting the audio feed and lent forward, resting his arms on his desk and pondered to himself, before looking up at his files of the four individuals. "Why do they want you?" he asked himself, before gazing over their elemental traces and powers, "...so if that's why... then what are you?"

He looked over each before landing on 'Vulcan's' file where he previously referred to him as a 'Phoenix', and then over 'Rick Yu's' which mentions 'genetics'.

"You're genetically engineered test subjects... trying to escape P.A.C.E." he suggested to himself, remembering back to Project Bauhinia in China.

He paused and pondered again before standing up from his chair and walking over to his suit, stepping into it, "They best not make me regret this..."

Flying out towards the city, he tracked Tsumé's phone towards downtown, flying low and quietly, hiding over the rooftops when he noticed the device moving. He deduced it was in a car and proceeded to follow it until it stopped by an apartment building, letting the small green female avian out, which he believed to be Tsumé.

Avory reached down to his thigh and pulled out a small Sentinel device and watched with x-ray vision the avian make her way through the building to a room. Once in, Avory quietly flew beside her window and stuck the device to the outside wall and then jetted off to follow the car again, not wanting to lose it now his 'tracker' left it.

The next stop was in quite a remote area outside of town. Avory had to fly his Red Lightning suit far away and low to the trees so he was not spotted, but ended up in a small out where a blue bird and 'Vulcan' got out, along with a purple dragoness.

The blue one disappeared indoors and the other two embraced each other for what felt forever. Avory's heart sank seeing how close the two seemed, remembering how emotional 'Vulcan' sounded before and only imagining how emotional he must have felt right now.

He hated how he treated him before after coming to blows; but now he wanted to fix that.

Once the coast was clear and the purple dragon returned to the car to drive off, and 'Vulcan' disappeared into the old house, Avory flew over and placed a sentinel device on the roof above the front of the house, and then left continuing to follow the car to it's last stop to do the same for the dragoness.

Unlike the two male avians, she lived in the heart of the city, still a fair distance from where Tsumé lived but closer than the others. It occurred to Avory then that he couldn't see 'Snowball' or 'Rick Yu' from before - either the dragoness had dropped him off before the others or they had their own way home. He'd have to worry about that later.

The dragoness parked her car in front of a rather modest, single-story home. It was a small house, suitable for a first-time buyer, though it didn't have a driveway or garage of it's own, which meant she had to park curbside. As she climbed out, she reached back into the car and brought out a dark blue, button down top. It looked like some kind of uniform...

He saw it then when she draped the shirt off her shoulder. Epaulets and emblems bearing the insignia of local law enforcement.

"Police officer?" Avory asked himself, "are they protecting them or is she doing this herself?" he wondered watching her lock the car and walk towards her house.

"A.V.I. check police records for purple female dragon employees working in Unity Falls."

"Searching police database for purple female dragon employee in Unity Falls."

"Thanks" he responded back to the AI as he watched.

As far as he could tell, the dragoness wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary. She walked casually up to the front door, unlocking it and stepping inside. A moment later he briefly saw her silhouette in the living room when the lights came on, though she soon faded from sight.

"One match found. Would you like to view it now?" The AI announced.

"No. Open a file on her and put it there for me to read later."

"Created a new personal file."

"Thank you, A.V.I." Responded Avory again as he flew over the house quietly and placed the last sentinel device on top, over the front door before making his way back to the mansion.

"A.V.I. monitor the last three used sentinels for me for all activity. Link them to Tsumé, 'Vulcan' and the police officer's files."

"Tracking activity."