Tokokyohi: The Altiar's Ambush

Tokokyohi

The Altair’s Ambush

By: Zeta Draco Isaacs

||Tokokyohi||

We were running; sprinting away from the Altair, an enemy gang. Alice took lead and headed for the sewers. Right before I went inside I armed myself with a baton and a flash light. “Alice,” I said, “I think they’re following us.” “Agreed,” She said in a whisper, “Turn all light off.” I did as told. Now it was completely pitch black. We heard footsteps coming closer, then halt. “Alice, Zeta?” The shadowed figure spoke, “It’s me, Rani.” We turned our flash lights back on to see Rani in front of us. “I-I thought you were one of the Altair,” I stammered. I was still shaken by the last couple days. I looked at her, her dark brown hair was pulled up and her pale skin contrasted with the darkening surroundings. I looked at Alice, she was smiling, but behind it I could tell she was worried about my health. I had been inside the Altair’s base for only a couple of days, but I will be dreaming about it for months. If it wasn’t for the fact I lived alone, my parents may have sent out an amber alert. The faint echo of footsteps could be heard behind us and I spun the baton in my hands. “Homo infirmus est sed fortis est populus.” Alice and Rani nodded as we prepared for what will most likely be a fight.

||Days Earlier||

||School: Gibran||

I was sitting at the lunch tables when I was hugged from behind. “Hey Lissa, how are you?” “Hey bro,” She spoke in a happy tune. “Why so happy?” Lissa released me from her grip and sat next to me. “Cause I can come over this weekend, silly. Don’t you remember inviting me?” “Oh, must have slipped my mind,” I said jokingly. “Don’t sound so excited,” She said sarcastically. “Got it, but really, it’ll be fun,” I chuckled. Tomorrow is Friday, my second to favorite day. Little did I know was that tomorrow would be the day I meet the man who flips all of my worlds upside down.

||Tokokyohi: Zeta||

I was sitting in front of my desk, feet on the table, when I heard a crash from the kitchen. I grabbed my collapsible baton and ran towards the resonating sound. I stopped dead at the door. Two males were standing at one end; a metal pan next to one’s foot.  Through the whole scene I was calm; I didn’t budge or make eye contact to challenge them. “How did you enter this base?” I stated. “We followed you,” One grunted, he was tall and bulky. I turned my gaze to the other; he was short and didn’t seem too big a threat. “I meant as in, how exactly did you enter into this base?”  Their masks had birds on it, the signature of the Altair. The smaller one’s mask seemed to have a hawk on it, “Why should we tell you? We may need it for a future date.” His voice was kind of, nice sounding. Suddenly the bigger of the two lunged at me with a fist raised. I leapt backwards and readied myself for the next assault.

I grunted when I saw the many broken tiles under him, “Strong one, aren’t ya?” He got up and lunged at me, I side stepped, spun my baton and hit him behind the knee. He leaned forward some from the impact and I elbowed him right in the back. With that, the hulk of a male tried to stand by grabbing more pans before cumpling to the floor. I glanced over when I saw movement in my peripherals. The other boy took out a small, yellow, box-like gun and pointed it at me. “Well then,” I coughed awkwardly at this stand still. The smaller male took no time in pulling its trigger. I lost control of all body control. I collapsed, quivering, and saw the two looking over me.

“That wasn’t as hard as the boss said it would be,” the smaller boy stated in his melodic voice. The bulky male looked at the other, “What now?” “Now, we make him swallow Rose’s little pill,” the petite male said, was he smiling under his mask? I stuttered, but got my words out, “Ubicumque sum ego redeo semper patriae.” They looked at me strangely as if I had spoken gibberish, then the bulkier pinned my head down and opened my mouth. The smaller male straddled my chest and said, “Bon appétit.” He took something from a vest pocket and dropped it in my mouth. The larger male snapped my mouth closed as I struggled to release myself. I could feel the pill dissolving in my mouth and refused to swallow. But soon, I felt my instincts kick in, and I swallowed as to not suffocate myself. I looked at the two in horror through my mask. As they kept me pinned down, I could feel myself slowly losing my grasp on the world, fading into nothingness, mere dreamless sleep. Drugged sleep.

 ||School: Gibran||

Lissa and I were dragging ourselves to home room when I noticed a kid in the school yard talking to one of the aids. He was kind of cute, and looked new from the way the aid pointed out the buildings. “Hey Lissa, who’s that?” I stared at the boy, he was short in stature, light brown short hair, and was wearing a green, vintage style, T shirt. He smiled at the aid and turned my direction. What a sight I must have been, standing still, mid motion, gawking at him. I quickly turned my head away and began to catch up to Lissa, who upon deciding that I was a helpless flirt, left me. When we got to room 105 we slipped inside and sat at our desks, chatting about the usual stuff. Soon enough though, our happy chatter ended when the mysterious boy entered the room. He didn’t seem to notice me, or ignored my existence if he did. Walking right up to the teacher, he must be explaining the usual new student lingo. Mr. Ellis laughed whole heartedly, “You can take a seat next to Gibran. Mr. Revnik, please raise your hand here for young Mr. Atrum.” I looked at Mr. Ellis with dismay, but none the less raised my hand. The boy looked perplexed, as if deciding if sitting next to me was a good idea. He must have decided either it wasn’t that bad, or that it would be strange to ask if he could sit elsewhere.

It felt awkward, more so than usual. I was used to getting partnered with Jordan. But now we have an even class, and she has been partnered with Chris. I looked at him awkwardly. He was giving us some time to look over yesterday’s homework, but I already looked over it with Lissa when we did it together. Maybe this would be a good time to get to know him? “Erm, I’m Gibran. Gibran Revnik.” I gave a half smile with this and reached my hand out to shake his. He shook mine back an introduced himself, “Spence.” He let go of my hand and we shared the silent moment again. I was about to start the conversation again when he asked me, “Why were you staring at me earlier? That was you, right?” I looked down and rubbed the back of my head. “Well, kinda, I mean,” I trailed off awkwardly, trying to straighten my thoughts, “I kinda just noticed you. I didn’t recognize you, is all. Guess I was trying to figure you out, sorta.” He chuckled and we started to converse. By the end of class it felt like we were old friends, the only problem was that this ‘old friend’ of mine was really attractive.

“So what are your other classes, man?” I looked at him as he read his schedule. He handed it to me as we walked out of class. “Next is Adv. English 2, then you have Geometry, and finally French 2 for seventh period,” I trailed off before looking at his A day classes, “Aerobics, History, Art, and French 2 again. Looks like you’ll be stuck with me every class except art, man.” I laughed some as he took back his schedule, “Well then, I’m glad we got on a good start together.” He smiled as Lissa caught up to us. “So what’s my little bro harassing you about right now?” She said jokingly. I introduced them before she went to her A.P. Calculus class. She may not act like it in person, but Lissa was one of the smarted people I knew. I showed Spence around the school some during break before taking him to our English class and introducing him to our teacher, Mrs. Watson. He was very impressed by her last name, which the whole class joked about. Soon the bell rang and he sat in his seat across the room.

“Now everyone, we’re going to read our examples of this piece, starting with Mr. Revnik.” I glanced around, a fleeting hope she’d pick someone else gone. I stood up and looked at the class, note book in my hands, open in front of me. “And so the night sky fell dark as he continued traveling from his forsaken home. All was lost for him, his life forever changed by these sudden events. Will he ever be able to regain his lost honor, and return to the castle he called home? Nay, I think not. He must forget the luxurious past of his, and look towards the harsh future that lays ahead, a path many would never even grasp in attempting to walk. This man was not scared or afraid. He was aware of the hardships, ready to defeat any challenge which heads his way, and last of all, regain the lost family which can never be forgotten in his eyes. This man is one of honor and disgrace, for he was a man of light, dropped into the abyss this life has to offer him. The shadows will not yet consume his soul, for when that day comes, he may lay down his sword an arms. He may rest for eternity, as the shadows consume the body that once held such a noble soul.” I looked around at my fellow classmates, some gawking. I glanced at Spence as I sat down. His look was of pure astonishment, awe. I smirked a bit at him while he tried to regain his posture. I think my luck may have gone up a bit in the world. Very first day a new cute guy comes to school, and we’re friends already.

||Tokokyohi: Alice||

“What happened here,” I quarried, “Where is Zeta? Titan, get Rani and Shadow here for me.” The taller masked boy did as told and went to get his higher ups. I had come to Base One to check up on my second in command. To my surprise, he was gone. I had suspected he’d gone home, but when I went to go make myself some popcorn, I found the kitchen a wreck. Shattered tiles, pans off the hooks they hanged on from the roof and cupboards, and a baton on the ground.

“Sir, you called for us?” Shadow walked over to me, his commanding officer, he was holding a briefcase in his left hand. Rani was trailing behind him, “What’cha need boss?” I looked at Shadow, asking if he’d look over the area; give it a clean sweep as I conversed with Rani.

“Look, this is sudden, and I’m not certain, but it seems like something bad happened here. We may have been breached. Take your team and go around the sewers looking for another entrance into this base. See if any of the older entrances and even the current ones have been unsealed,” I sighed, hoping that Zeta just had a temper tantrum, but that wasn’t like him, “Last thing, check the records on the entrance log to see if they came through one of those first. Might make us waste less time.”

Rani left the room and walked over to her crew’s sector. “Guys, we got a mission. Ali, take Titan with you, and go look over the old entrances. Rua, be a darling and look over the entrance video logs. I’ll be taking Welsh and overseeing the nearby area in the tunnels and above ground to see if someone gained entrance that way.” Her team nodded and sprang into action while she and Welsh left to explore the tunnels some.

I glanced over my shoulder as Rani left with her squad. Shadowed continued to search the area for evidence, as for an Investigation Officer, he was the best. It’s why he’s located in Base One. Out of all five bases so far, and the sixth being built, we kept our best in Base One. Or we tried to at least. “I think I’ve found something, Boss,” Shadow picked up what looked to be a small piece of yellow plastic, “This is a blast door for a model X26 Citizen  taser. Looks like you were right about something bein’ fishy here. Seems like we got ourselves a breach an attack.”

“Look for the other one then, take your pictures as usual, and look for more evidence. Make sure you take that to the lab,” I turned around and headed to my office for a quick call I needed to make. As I walked through the maze of tunnels, rooms, and hallways that make Base One I thought about when Zeta and I had begun this group. It felt so long ago, because it was. Mere dreaming of seventh graders, and here we are now, sophomores. I pasted the metal working room and waved at Sooki, making more of her throwing knives. I finally reached my office and entered. The room was pitch black, the faint smell of incense still lingered from last night. I walked over to where my desk lamp was and turn it on. I messed with the mouse a bit, and my computer’s screen came to life. With a quick rundown of information, I dialed the number.

It rang six times before he answered. “Yeah, who’s this?” “Terra Firma,” my monochromatic voice was darker than usual, bidding bad news, “What! That’s impossible, Zeta made that inaccessible to those not of Base One!” My emotionless face slowly faded into one of anger and grief, “Zeta’s missing. Meet me tomorrow. We’re having a senate meeting.” “Yes Sir,” the voice on the other side of the phone said, his voice strained. Was he panicking? I knew I was. No one has ever broken into Base One before, it was considered impossible. No matter how Zeta stated it improbable, no one listened till now. The only worry was, he was the one to witness the truth in his words.

||School: Gibran||

            I was sitting over by the drama room with Lissa when Kira came running up to us. “Hey Kira, what’s up?” Lissa asked her, she was mowing down on a ham sandwich. Kira was jumping up and down with joy when I told her, “Well, spit it out. We haven’t got all lunch you know.” She calmed down some so she could talk, “You know that guy I like? Well, we switched seats in chemistry today, and now he sits next to me!” I saw some colour behind Kira, and glanced around her. It was Spence, looking a bit awkward. The girl nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard him from behind her.

            “Uh… Hey,” Spence seemed a bit nervous as he spoke, “Can, I sit with you guys?” I smiled and said sure. He sat down as Kira continued without hesitation, “He’s so dreamy guys. I really hope he likes me back; maybe we can get to know each other better now too!” Lissa and I chuckled as she continued about this boy. “So what’s his name?” Lissa asked finally. Kira blushed some as she tried to sputter his name out, “Raimundo…” I nearly spit out my food, “Raimundo Vasquez!?” She nodded blushing. How could she actually like him, that dude is such a prick. I sighed and let her continue. Lissa got talking with Spence some before we headed off to class. I introduced him to Ms. Hudson, our geometry teacher as the bell rang. I sat in my usual seat as our teacher went to find Spence a seat.

            Class went by in a flash, and French was starting. Mr. Bailey is my favorite teacher. He’s sarcastic, clever, and funny over all. We don’t have assigned seating, so I spent the time introducing Spence to the others, and helped him with figuring out what our class was teaching. He got the hang of it pretty fast and we spent the rest of that class practicing.

||Tokokyohi: Zeta||

            I awoke in a daze. I tried to get up, but my arms were cuffed to the ground. I was stuck in this kneeling position. As I started to regain consciousness, I remembered what had happened. Base One, the short lasting fight, the pill they made me swallow. I slowly opened my eyes to sounds muddled by drugs. I finally managed to open the lead gates to vision and saw only blurry figures. This energy did not last though, and soon I fell back to my state of unconsciousness.

            When I finally awoke coherent, I had no idea how long it had been. Hours or days? I looked around my little cell; there was a small light with a cage cover over it. A metal table was located to one side of the room; it seemed to have some type of tools on it. A steel door was the only entrance into this hell hole. The cuffs keeping me grounded were uncomfortable against the pink flesh. I still move in my sleep it seems. My bones ached to move, but it’d be pointless in trying. I was so deep in thought that I guess I didn't hear the door creak open and clunk closed.

            “Welcome Zeta Draco Isaacs, to my home,” a young man with a large bird on his mask spoke to me, mockingly, “I am Sokol, leader of the Altair.” I glared at him through my mask, “Why have you brought me here?” He just chuckled, “Isn't it obvious? You have information that is very important to me. Bases, members, account numbers,” He trailed off. I spat at him, “Never.” I bet he was smirking behind his mask because it sure sounded like it, “Oh, we have our ways of making you talk; even if it ends with overdosing or bleeding to death.” My face grew pale as he left and the smaller boy from earlier walked inside with a woman.

            “Well. Well. Well, look who we have here,” the boy said, “I just wanted to tell you, that later this week, I’ll be removing your mask to see who you really are. We were polite enough to keep it on you, earlier. Oh, and for more generosity, you can call me Taka Windsurfer, Zeta Draco Isaacs.” He moved away from me as the young woman strutted forward. Her mask had a swallow flying around a rose on it. “This is Rose, our Torturess,” Taka said, “She’ll be interrogating you while you stay here at Le Château des Oiseaux.” I could barely hold my laughter, “The Castle of Birds? That’s the best you could come up with. Wow.” Rose moved over to the small table, grabbing a small knife from it. I gulped a bit, readying myself for the worst, “Ego praemordeo mea lingua coram semper loqui verbum.” “Is that so? You’d bite off your own tongue before you ever tell us anything? I can do that for you.”

Rose walked forward with the small knife in hand, she knelt down next to me and put the blade on my thigh, “All I want to know right now is whether you are expanding your territory or not. If so, I’d like to know where and why. Maybe the locations of the other bases you have. Intel told us you have four others, and are building a new one,” Rose started to apply pressure on the knife some as it ran up and down my thigh. I tried squirming away from the blade’s edge, but she quickly added pressure, cutting my leg. I flinched, but keep my tongue closed. “You’re going to make this fun for me, aren’t you?” Rose was enjoying my unwillingness to talk, “You’ve made my week, I finally get to actually torture someone effectively.” She laughed at that, raising the hand with the knife, slamming it back down into my leg. I almost screamed from the pain. Taka watched the agony continue for the next hour, but I refused to speak a word. Finally Rose left the room, ending our session for now.

Taka walked over to me, a small bag in hand that he took from the table. He opened the bag and started to work on fixing my wounds. “What are you doing?” I asked him, questioning his motives. “If you go into shock, or get an infection and die, you’ll be useless to us. Not to mention I want you in good shape when I reveal your true identity to the boss and my generals. “Your generals? You a head of house, or…” I trailed off some as I observed him. He looked up at me, his short brown hair stuck to his head from being in such a humid room. His mask design was actually quite beautiful, a hawk dancing in the wind. As if understanding my thoughts, he answered, “Yes, I’m the second in command of the Altair, moving from city to city.” After he stitched up the cuts and gashes, he got up and left. I heard the faint murmur of voices outside before dozing off again. Did he drug me again, or was I really just this tired? I feel asleep, dreaming of Taka, him removing my mask. Over and over again.

||School: Lissa||

I walked up to the front door of his apartment, and knocked. Gibran opened the door and smiled, letting me inside. By the time he closed the door, I had already taken off my shoes, dropped my bag on his couch, and was raiding the fridge. He laughed, “Same ole’ Lissa.” I took out a small red box that said ‘Pocky’ on the side from the fridge then plopped down on his couch, “Ready for our Doctor Who marathon?” “Inferno quod sic!” He sat next to me and took some Pocky. I turned on the television and went to Netflix. About three hours later we were laughing, watching Rose and the Doctor fight off aliens. A bowl of popcorn on the coffee table, a box of pizza next to it, and two mugs of pumpkin spice tea. We stayed up all night watching Doctor Who when I finally passed out on the couch around four a.m.

When I woke up it was the afternoon and Gibran was up making crepes for us, tea already finished, cooling. After we served ourselves our tea and food, we went back to watching Doctor Who. Luckily for us, Martin Luther King Day was this Monday, so a two night sleep over was in order. I loved this weekend; it was cooler that we got to walk to school together as well. I love Gibran, like family, he’s the best ‘little bro’ a girl could have. I never knew Gibran made himself tea every morning to enjoy before walking to school. We chatted the whole way to school when we parted ways so he could show Spence their other classes. It’s like Gibran is not even trying to hide the fact he has feelings for that boy, it’s so obvious. I sighed. “Young love,” I mused. I met up with Kira for our A.P. Euro History class.

||School: Gibran||

I was helping Spence get a locker and P.E. clothes when the bell rang. He was assigned locker 134 D, a empty locker down my locker isle, about three lockers down. This was bad. I was going to see Spence undress twice every other morning for the rest of the year. I was becoming flustered slightly from the idea. I quickly got changed, not daring to even glance his way. I was waiting for him, outside the locker room, when Fury walked by. “Yo, Gibran, what’s up?” I smiled at her, “Nothin’ much. Just waiting for the new kid to get out so I can show him the works.” “Oh?” She seemed intrigued, cocking an eyebrow, “He cute? And if so, is he in my class?” I blushed a bit, “I guess Spence is okay looking, and yeah, he’s in our class.”

“I’m just okay looking?” It looked like I had just about touched the eight foot hallway roof when I heard those words. I turned around slowly, seeing it was in fact Spence behind me, looking a bit disappointed. “Uh… Yeah. Just okay looking, sorry.” I rubbed the back of my head awkwardly. Fury was laughing her ass off, causing more people to stare at us. Just then Raimundo walked out of the locker room. “Hm, looks like Gaybrin’s got a new boy toy,” he mused. “Shut up Raimundo, do not. I don’t even like Spence that way.” He cocked an eyebrow at me, “Oh really, so I’m guessing you wouldn’t mind if I just took the guy from ya, would you?” “Oh, shut up Raimundo. You don’t have to be an ass to Gib all the time,” Fury was standing next to him, hands on her hips. She looked very disgruntled, “Why not go pick on someone of your intelligence. Rocks usually don’t care if you insult them.” He grunted, but left us alone.

“Who was that, Gibran?” Spence asked me, a touch of concern in his voice. “Oh… He’s just the school jock, kinda. He just likes to insult me because I’m,” I bit my lip hoping he wouldn’t turn out to be like Raimundo, “Bisexual.” I looked down after saying this, but I guess Spence misinterpreted this as being shy. “That’s okay, man,” He smiled some, patting my shoulder, “Nothin’ to be ashamed of. To be honest,” He cupped his hands around my ear so only I, or well, Fury cause she was listening in, could hear, “I’m a bit bi-curious.” I backed up a bit, slightly flustered, but calm. “Oh, I see. Well, um, how about Fury and I show you around, huh?” Spence nodded and we walked around the halls, showing him the different gym rooms, then outside to see the football field, track, and tennis courts. By the time class started, I had nearly forgotten the whole earlier event. Almost.

Fury introduced him to our teacher, and he got seated in roll call. We spent the rest of P.E. doing our own things. When it came time to change I glanced once at him. I hadn’t meant to, and I really wish I hadn’t. He wore tight briefs. They were blue-grey, and really showed off is butt. My eyes started moving forward when I realized what I was doing and looked away. I showed him the other half of our campus when we headed for our next class. Sure, it was break, but it’s better to show him now, then him get lost trying to find a certain place. We walked into our U.S. History class, which was a popular place to eat and hangout. Mr. Wilson was talking to a couple students whom I knew when I introduced him to Spence. “Oh, and those two are Kelly an Aaron. They have this class next too.” I smiled at them and we all started chatting what little time we had left away. When the bell rang I went to my seat and took out my notes from yesterday. Today has been a good day so far, I thought to myself.

Lunch ended pretty quickly, I had already showed him to his art class and was off to Drafting II. I told him to wait outside the class when the bell rang, and I’d meet him so we could walk to French together, it was on the way from where my class was, so it wouldn’t be a burden.

Drafting was the same as it always is music, lines, numbers, computers, and laughter. Mr. Katron was a funny teacher, and also the cross country coach. The bell rang and I nearly jumped out of my seat to make Spence wait the least amount of time. I was around the hall, up the stairs, and inside Building 2 by the time someone could say ‘Rose destroyed the Daleks’. He was surprised to see me waiting outside for him instead. I had shown him where my drafting class was, so he knew the distance. “Uh, hey,” he said, a smile growing on his face. “Hey.” I smiled back, and we walked over to Building 1 for French.

That Tuesday had ended the same as any other. Not too bad, and with me hopping a fence to go down into the sewer tunnels as a faster way home. Except for one detail, Spence was walking and hopping with me. We planned to hangout this afternoon at my place.

||Tokokyohi: Zeta||

Taka came in with the, bulky, young man I remember from the attack. “Iguru, keep a hold of his hands.” Iguru held me by my wrists as Taka unlocked my shackles. Quickly, just in case I was faking my weak state, he slapped on some handcuffs. “Get up,” I heard Iguru say from behind me. I groggily tried to stand, but fell in the attempt. Taka seemed to rush to my aide, “Not so rough, Iguru. He is still healing from Rose’s interrogations. We didn’t let him have a single session today cause he needed to stand and be coherent.

Taka got under my arms with one of his and helped me stand up. My legs were shaking, but I could slowly walk forward. I could feel tears well up in my eyes from the pain in my legs. Rose purposely targets my thighs. The pain while walking was unimaginable.  We slowly headed to a small room, where Sokol, Rose, and some others waited for us. They sat me down on a chair in the middle of the dreary room. “Today, Zeta Draco Isaacs, second in command of the Tokokyohi,” Sokol was speaking in a booming voice, “will be unmasked, his identity shown to the members whom are in this room. As we all know, this honor goes to my second in command, as well as good friend of mine, Taka Windsurfer.”

Taka stepped forward as Sokol moved away from behind me. He stepped closer to me and leaned down, putting his hands behind my head, feeling for the latch that held the hard plastic barrier. Just as he found it, and clicked it to undo, the power switched off in the room. I took my only chance as I kicked Taka will all the force I had. Even in my weakened state, I was still strong. A good ‘Ooof’ sounded in the room as I heard my mask clatter to the ground. The echo of the door slamming open and the sound of something bouncing on the cement floor is what hit my ears next. Then a whistling sound of something being sprayed into the air. The smell was retched, tearing my eyes again. The sound of people entering and exiting the room was loud.

||School: Spence||

I had so much fun hanging out with Gibran. We played some video games for a while, and then watched some TV. He had pizza from the weekend left over, so we just had that. I didn’t mind though. I had no idea Gibran lived alone in his own apartment. That was crazy, I’m so jealous. I wonder how he did though, wasn’t it illegal to rent an apartment unless you’re eighteen? I’ll ask him about it later.

My mom let me stay over for the night instead. We spent the rest of the night watching a cheesy horror film. Gibran fell asleep near the end and was snoozing on my shoulder. I didn’t really mind though. His peaceful face illuminated by the TV’s glow. ‘Wow,’ I thought to myself, ‘He looks pretty… cute when he sleeps.’ His short dark hair ruffled a bit by the days movements, and his pale skin tinted a light green from the TV screen. His usually piercing grey eyes blocked my his long eye lashed eye lids. God, when he said he was bi, my heart fluttered. Everything about him seemed like it was meant to make him as attractive as possible.

I awoke to the faint blaring of a alarm in another room. There was weight on my lap, and I slowly opened my eyes to realize it was Gibran. He had fallen in his sleep, and was resting his head on my lap instead. I looked at the time, six a.m. I nudged Gib awake so I could get up. When he realized where he was he shot up, face red as a tomato. I chuckled as we got ready for school. He lent me some of his clothes, luckily we wear the same size. Gibran handed me a mug of tea before we left his house to go to school.

It was already Geometry; the day had already gone by so fast. I was sitting in my seat a row apart from Gibran’s. Ms. Hudson was passing out graded texts when I saw her gasp at the kid behind him. He was wearing a gay pride shirt and had dyed the tips of his blonde hair rainbow. “I’ll have to ask you to go to the office and change your shirt Mr. Clark.” The boy by the last name Clark looked at her bewildered, “May I ask why?” Ms. Hudson sneered at him, “Because, Mr. Clark, I find your shirt very offensive. Now, please, go to the office and change your shirt. Otherwise I will have to write you up for defiance.”

The boy glared at her, “I’d rather be written up and go to the office than be the one who got bullied by a teacher to change my shirt.” Ms. Hudson was fuming; I was about to get up to say something when she went to her desk, took out a pad of paper and started scribbling wildly. She ripped it off and walked back over to the blonde boy, handing it to him. He got up and went to leave, when Gibran stood up and walked over to him. The kid looked perplexed when this happened, but before anyone could even say anything, he took the paper right out of the kid’s hands and started reading it aloud. “Student defied authority of teacher and spoke disrespectfully to authority figure. What kind of shit is that? He was telling you he wouldn’t stand down to your disrespect for orientations. He proved that closed minded, arrogant people like you will even bully kids like us when you’re the ones we’re supposed to go to if someone does this to us. You make me sick.”

Ms. Hudson look like a vein just burst in her head. “Get. Out. Of. My. Class. Now!” She shrieked. Everyone, myself including, were gawking at not only her reaction, but still processing exactly how true Gibran’s words were. He just shrugged, but an arm around the blonde kid’s shoulders and they walked out together chatting as if nothing happened. Ms. Hudson instantly swooped over to her desk and called the office, informing them two of her students would be arriving there to receive punishment.

||School: Gibran||

Who knew Ms. Hudson would turn out to be such a bigot? I left the class smirking and amending Jack for standing up for himself. Halfway to the office we parted ways. “Erm, where are you going, Gibran?” I smiled at him, “I’m gonna go home. If the office asks where I am, just tell them a giant rainbow took me to a world where every human is treated equal.” He smiled at me and kissed my cheek, “Thanks for standing up with me, dude. It really meant a lot to me.” I blushed a bit, not expecting the sweet gesture. “No problem, man.” With that I went over to the back gate and literally, walked right out of school.

I took the sewer tunnel shortcut to my apartment again, but I thought I’d make a pit stop before I got home. I walked down the fairly empty streets of my hometown, in a trance almost. I will remove the hate in the world one day, and if it takes a little violence, then let it be that way. Batman Complex, yes, I would call it that. I passed the pizza shop and comic book story and made a left. A little ways down and the entrance to the tunnels were in front of me. I swiftly climbed over the fence and made my way down the tunnels. What a day it had been.

 ||Tokokyohi: Alice||

I looked over at Apollo. His nervousness shined through his mocha eyes. A bead of sweat beat down his face as we continued with our meeting. Rani was pleasantly very enthusiastic that we find Zeta as soon as possible, “This was obviously a planned attack. Why else would they have ambushed him when he was alone?” The others on the hologram nodded. I smirked a bit, when you have the funds, endless advanced technology was in your grasp.

Mad Hatter, Savage, and Victor were all on the table sized holographic screen, three of the five Generals of House, the other two standing beside me. We’ll be looking for a sixth as soon as the sixth base is built. We have been considering Ali C. Gun. My thoughts snapped back to more important matter when I heard Savage say, “I think I can help you. A while back Zeta and I did a covert mission that involved stalking members of the Altair, and locating their bases,” he paused a moment before continuing, “My thoughts are he’s probably in the base closest to where you’re all located as of right now.” The others and I nodded, “Send me the location of the nearest found bases. With that, this meeting is adjourned.” The hologram flicked off.

I looked to Rani, “Have your men located how they gained entrance?” Rani nodded, “Yes Sir, they used one of the old entrances from a year ago. My bet is that they followed a member like Zeta and Savage did at that time, and figured it was still operational.” I nodded again, deep in thought, “I’ll be checking on Shadow. Apollo, Rani, select three of you finest Tactical Specialists for the rescue of Zeta Draco Isaacs, our second in command. We leave at O’ Twenty Hundred this evening.”

I left two of my most trusted generals discussing plans and whom they should select for this mission. I walked down a ways when I reached the Evidence Lab. I entered, knocking as I did do. “Oh, who is it?” Shadow was deep in research. “Someone you better have some information for,” I said in a half joking tone. He looked up and saw me, “Ah, yes, of course I do.”

Shadow led me to a table with photographs of the kitchen. It was already remodeled and in use again. “I found a sauce pan on the ground near the middle of the kitchen. My hypothesis says that was probably the cause of alerting Zeta. I can say that when he entered the kitchen, he was faced with two adversaries. One caused the damage in the floor,” Shadow took a breathe before continuing, “The tiles were broken by an impact of extreme force, I’m guessing one of his foes lunged at him, but missed, hitting the tile. At this point the struggle with one another caused some of the other pans to fall near the kitchen entrance.”

I cocked an eyebrow at Shadow, “You said there were two assailants. What of the other one?” He pointed me to the blast doors to the taser he found, “My guess is that this is what beat him. He must not have been wearing his protective vest. His other foe must have pulled this on him and shot him. Due to where the blast doors were found and how the evidence of battle was only found near the entrance, it proves there had to be two assailants.”

I left, thanking Shadow on his hard work. Those damn bastards, pulling a taser was dirty. Not like we fought fairly, but still. And an impact that would shatter tile from one blow? We were up for some trouble when we find Zeta.

||Tokokyohi: Alice||

It was seven fifty. We had a team ready. Rani got Sooki, Ali, and Welsh prepared as Apollo picked out Aqua, Pyron, and Malice. I was about to take my soldiers out to battle. No prep talk, no your mother would be proud, and no you’ll carry a legacy. Savage sent us the map of found bases, one was right near Chaotic High School. We made our way down to it, we each looked pretty casual, but still. We each had a back pack on, full of weapons and gear we’d need. As we got to nearer to the enemy base though, we quieted down, becoming less and less noticeable till finally we disappeared in the scenery.

I was crouching next to Aqua, and Welsh. We were on the east side of the entrance of the base. Hidden behind an old car, this field was a perfect base camp. Hidden from street view, but still close enough to be accessible. An aerial view would show nothing, for the entrance was part of the abandoned bunker. I was directly in front of the entrance, Rani’s squad to the south side, Ali’s squad right behind mine, and Apollo’s squad to the north side of the entrance. Rani’s squad would be our second wave, coming in exactly two minutes after my squad. Ali’s squad would follow her in, and look for the power source, at that time, Apollo’s squad would set up detonations on the entrance for direct post evac.

Two guards stood watch at the bunker’s entrance. Two males, birds on their masks, one holding a short sword, the other seemed to be unarmed. I signaled Aqua to get ready. I had my brass knuckle knives ready to go, a smoker ready to be launched at them. She pulled out a strange thing from her pack. A black cylinder on one side, a crescent of sharp metal on the other, what kind of weapon was this? She flicked it on one side and the metal crescent flung out, as the cylinder started expanding out the other end. “A scythe?” I looked at her inquisitively. She smirked as I saw Welsh ready himself with his ko-katana.

I set the ticking smoke bomb I had, gave the final signal, and chucked it at the two guards. They seemed utterly surprised that a canister was being thrown at them, but prepared when it started dispersing a smoke screen the instant it clunked at their feet. I swooped out from behind the old car, racing towards the cloud of smoke. Aqua was trailing behind me while Welsh took the other side. I went straight for where the door was, slamming it open while Aqua spun her scythe around herself, gashing the sword wielding male in the stomach. Welsh had already taken out the unarmed male, slitting his throat.

I was cautiously fast walking down the halls, when I heard voices from around the corner. I stopped, my arm out in front of Aqua and Welsh. I flattened myself against the wall, trying to peer over the corner. I saw three masked males. Two of them had obvious birds on them; the other though, was that? They were taking Zeta into room two doors down from the bend. I heard faint footsteps from behind me, I looked back to see Rani and her squad. I signaled to them where we were heading and they nodded.

Right before we sprung into action though, the power switched off. I smirked, “Ali.” The six of us went to action, around the corner, and busting the room open. I set another smoke bomb and threw it inside. Coughing and sputtering could be heard, as four of us went inside the room. I heard a commotion, Zeta was fighting back. He was barely visible in the smoky room. Welsh grabbed him as Rani, Sooki, and I fought against some of the members in the room. I noticed Zeta's mask on the ground right before I evaced the room. I grabbed it and ran. Aqua and Pyron were the last to flee from the scene. As we ran out, we ran into Ali’s team near the entrance. Mere seconds after we left the bunker, Apollo’s detonation went off.

As we were running, I noticed Altair were coming out from near by brush and above the bunker, crap. A multi-entrance bunker, this was the perfect base of operations if they guarded it correctly. Welsh and I took off with Zeta as Rani and the others got held up with the enemy. We were already in the nearest tunnels by the time we gave Zeta a rest.

||Tokokyohi: Zeta||

            My chair had fallen backwards from the impact of my kick, me along with it. I wrestled to find my mask, but the smoke blurred my vision. I saw a blurry Taka get and come running at me, but stop suddenly. He just stared at me, a still in the motion of chaos. He pulled off the bottom half of his mask and smiled at me. I looked at him strangely. He walked right up to me, grabbed my face, and kissed me. Suddenly he was pulled from me, as a man tackled him. I was so shocked by the mere second long kiss that I hadn’t even realized I had been picked up and was being carried out of the room.

            I snapped back to reality though, “Hey! Let go of me!” The man set me down as I looked at his mask. It had a cup of tea with the symbol of Rani on it. “Welsh?” He nodded, “This is a rescue mission Sir, now we must hurry.” I tried running my fastest, but it was more like Welsh was dragging me by my waist. I saw Alice behind us holding something in her hand. She stuffed the object in her pack when I saw all the others. Ali, Aqua, Alice, Rani, Sooki, Welsh, Malice and Pyron. We were in what seemed to be a bunker, but we were soon on the ground. A giant explosion knocked most of us off our feet, stumbling around.

            We got up; sprinting away from the Altair. Alice took lead and headed for the sewers, as the others fought off the flooding amount of Altair members. Right before we entered Alice handed me my mask and baton. I put on my mask, knowing that know it was too late. “Alice, I think they’re following us,” I muttered. “Agreed,” She said in a whisper, “Turn all light off.” I did as told. Now it was completely pitch black, I could feel Welsh next to me in the dark, his arm still beside my side if we needed to run. We heard footsteps coming closer, than halt. “Alice, Zeta?” The shadowed figure spoke, “It’s me, Rani.” We turned our flash lights back on to see Rani in front of us. “I-I thought you were one of the Altair,” I stammered. She just hugged me. We went a little further when we heard more footsteps. I prepared for the worst, yet again.

            A young woman with a tidal wave and the symbol of Apollo on her mask came walking up to us, with a young man being semi-supported by her. “He jumped on his own men, and helped me escape,” Aqua panted out, “I couldn’t just leave him there to die.” Alice nodded, understanding. The boy had a gash in his side, he groggily looked up, half of his mask was missing. It didn’t take long for me to recognize that mask though, it was Taka. “Did the others take the planned routes?” Welsh asked Aqua. She nodded, she was obviously weak so he offered to take Taka from her. “I’ve got him, you shouldn’t push yourself so much Aqua.” Alice looked questionably at my own condition, but let it slide. 

            Once we got inside Base One we all but collapsed. I faded away into a world of horrific dreams, replaying all the past events, namely the sessions with Rose. I awoke in the infirmary, Taka, still masked, in the bed next to mine. I tried pushing myself up, sleepily rising from my cot. Alice, Rani, and Ali were asleep, leaning on each other on the visitor’s chairs. I smiled under my mask. I heard a groan come from next to me, and I shifted my gaze to Taka again. He was waking up, obviously in pain.

            “You’ll need to take some more of your pain meds,” I said to him as I pointed at the bottle next to him. He stared at me, than nodded. I remembered the kiss, and wanted to ask him about it. I also wanted to know why he helped Aqua and the others out, but he was just waking, so I’ll give him some peace as he regained consciousness. “I know you may not be in the mood for chatting, but I just wanted to let you know, Angel won’t let us go till we are most of the way healed. A couple days and we’ll be fine.” He grimaced, “My family will worry.”

            I looked down, understanding. “I’ll get to the point; I want to know two things from you. Before the others wake up.”  He looked at me as he grabbed the glass of water next to his medication and took one of the tablets, “And what is that?” I looked straight at him, “Why did you kiss me, and why did you help out my friends?” He chuckled slightly, “Really wanna know?” I nodded, as Taka slipped his hands behind his head, unlatching his mask, letting it slide down his face. I starred right into his eyes, shock and confusion flooding into mine. I was looking right at Spence. “I didn’t think that you’d turn out to be Zeta Draco Isaacs though, Gibran. Just doesn’t seem like you.” I flustered some, and stuttered back, “Yeah, well, you don’t seem to be the type who’d let people get tortured for information.”

            Spence looked down, frowning, “I’m sorry for what Rose did. We were just following orders,” he trailed off. “Were you following orders when you fought your own men?” He looked at me astonished, “O-O-f course not!” He stammered. “Then why’d you do it? If Aqua had left you there, you would have been killed.” Spence just looked down again, muttering something. “What was that?” I moved from my bed to his, sitting in front of him. Spence looked me straight in the eye, his hands going behind my head, undoing my mask. “I did it because I wanted you to be safe.” Right as he said that, he kissed me, on the lips. It was so sudden, my instincts made me back away. He glanced down again, “I guess you don’t feel that way for me though.” He trailed off. Without a real thought, or maybe I did think about it, and at that moment and said, ‘Eh, what the hell.’ I grabbed his lapels, and pulled him into me, kissing him.

||School: Gibran||

            It had been two weeks since Alice and the others rescued me. Spence and I are dating now, I couldn’t believe it! Raimundo finally came out as being gay, he’s nice to me know. He’s dating Jack Clark, but most people know him as the Welsh Hornet. Spence joined the Tokokyohi, it’s not like he could go back to the Altair. He still goes by Taka Windsurfer, but he has a new mask. Spence was happy to meet everyone in the Tokokyohi. He has a very special position, my personal body guard. Trust me, he is, dare I say, very enthusiastic with his job. The sixth base has been completed finally. Ali accepted the position as General of House for it. She has two other members with her till she gets a hang on everything. Aqua and Sooki were glad to help her, so it’s no burden to anyone. Taka was able to identify other members of the Altair for us even, making them sitting ducks. The school didn’t fuss too much about me being gone for that week an a half; I only had to have my guardian to sign some slips saying I was sick. Luckily for me, Mr. Revnik is a very good sponsor of the Tokokyohi.  The whole ordeal ended miserably happy. I am upping security for all the bases, with the help of Zen, one of my best men, a genius . Lissa was relieved to find out that the stab wounds had missed the dangerous spots. Rose was very precised with her work, causing as much pain, with little real harm to the victim. Kira, Lissa, Raimundo, Jack, and I all eat lunch near the drama room still. Even though the experience was traumatizing, I believe it has turned out better than anyone could have hoped. My mission to cease hate in the world is becoming more and more in my grasp. One day, I hope that the Tokokyohi will lead us to true peace once everything is equal.