The Liel Project: Begotten Memories.

[Vell]

the prologue is barely over a page long with size eleven calibri font. However, it serves it's purpose, and Chapter 1 will be up within a few days. Welcome, to the Liel Project. and welcome too, to the Memory Projects.

Prologue:



      Standard Capture Mission.



   The leader of the squad was Shyra Elcron Malius. He was well-known within the Memory Project as one of the few to always test 'would come out alive' in the trials for this very mission.

Trials... do you know about them? Nowadays every mission has a developed trial. Basically just a big holographic file on a big hologram computer, designed to see if the soldiers have a decent chance of living during a particular mission.

Usually, they say most people come out alive afterwards.

This one? On average about five of the several hundred sent in came out. Only by chance. In the trials.

So, naturally, Shyra had to calm his units down, as well as lead them. Which, of course, meant that he had to give them an award winning moral speech about every five minutes. High General Malius, as his subordinates had to call him according to standard protocol, feared for his life.

He'd bragged to his lieutenants and soldiers that he wasn't worried. This capture would be simple. "It's just one enemy after all, and it's a capture mission after all." He spoke into his radio once again.

He had opted to be alone on his ridge, overlooking where the target was, hopefully, sleeping. "High General Malius, sir, we, uhh, have som-" Shyra paid little heed to the interrupted notice at first.

They had been having a bit of a bad connection all day. His guess was that there was a storm brewing. "Unit, report." He returned lazily.

Just the crackle of the radio giving him a return signal seemed urgent, and it was then that the High General realized he was in a near panic state. He was clenching and unclenching his hand. He found his vision was a little hazy, even for the darkness of night.

Before he could hear the message being transmitted, he saw a flash of bright light. He took his own E-blade from its holster and turned the energy weapon on.

His body, slashed into several pieces, crumpled to the ground as the sound began to be transmitted. "GENERAL SIR! THERE ARE TWO OF THEM! I REPEAT, TWO OF THEM!"

[Vell]

Chapter 1


      The Liel Sisters: Product of Secrecy.


   It was the famous Celia Liel who had cut down Shyra Elcron Malius. Adorned with a blue dress similar to the Japanese kimono, held together in the back by a big, fake flower, and with wavy, to her shoulder long dark blue hair, going barefoot, she stood at about five foot six, give or take. Going along with the standard color choice her skin was tinged blue, but only so much that it feels more of a light purple, since put with the standard Caucasian human's skin color.

   As she was there were few ways to identify her as an Android. One was her complete and total lack of a need to sleep, no lessening of the bodily functions, which she indeed had, so as to be able to hound a pursuing enemy for days without stopping. Another was her incredible combat skills. Programmed to be the better than any human at close range combat, she has been known to go toe-to-toe with at least three of the best Swordsmen around, and to come out on top with few scratches.

   In terms of looks there was her unique skin color, her eyes, which indeed had an iris and a pupil separated from a standard white, but the iris and pupil were technological looking, with the strange red color and the black lines and dots and circles contained within.  She was designed to look like a teenager in her prime, and that she never aged was one reason her face was so widely recognized.

   Celia, who stood now over the human's dead, cut up corpse, pocketed her weapon and drew a different one. The one before resembled a Tonfa, but had a blade on it.

   The weapon she held now was a standard sword, and she grabbed the still energized weapon from the fallen human's hand. Following this she leapt a few dozen feet into the air in a back flip, and cut two soldiers armed with ranged weapons to death as she landed, then threw the pilfered blade before those two bodies fell and struck a third in the neck, slicing his head clean off.

   Utilizing her and her sister's Radio Link, she reported, "all finished here Tella, how are things on your side?"

   Tella Liel, the sister to Celia Liel, and five years her junior in time only, was more easily identifiable as an android.

   Color coded yellow, she had a helmet-like head, with two long rod-like things for ears that protruded from the helmet. She was obviously a female android, but her eyes were designed for long-range sighting, so they were odd in that they were merely glowing colors underneath the visor-section.

   Only about five feet, she was shorter than her sister, but Tella was what Celia wasn't, an expert at ranged weaponry. She had little artificial skin, but what she had was identifiable as Caucasian. This was the first time any human had her recorded in existence besides her creator.

   She was different from her sister in that Tella often changed her design, and right now she had metallic wings folding out from extensions on her back, with energy slicing down from it so as to be able to help her remain afloat, and she had a small skirt-like piece of protective metal around her waist, and there was her bright color adorning both the skirt and the wings. The yellow mixed in with a black color, so she wasn't totally noticeable in the night.

   Her entire outer structure was designed of moveable plates, black and yellow, all of which her mechanical brain could move at will. So if she so wished she could be entirely yellow, or, as she was at that moment, entirely black, hidden among the shadows of night. Most of the time she had it so that the yellow and black formed a design across her body, and Celia often stared at amazement as her sister made the colors change rapidly to create the image of a dancing human figure across Tella's chest.

   As stated before, Tella had a fondness for blasting weaponry, and at that moment held a large Energy Cannon on her shoulder, and light gathered in a sphere in front of it as the energy charged, and launched out in a brilliant pillar of power heading straight for an enemy sub-camp.

Tella's mechanical face lit up in a smile as an explosion tore the place apart. She turned her own Link on and said, "just finished over here as well, is that the last of them Celia?"

The response came only a moment after, "yes, I believe so, they sent Malius to capture me - us, so they're starting to take this seriously. We can't keep your existence hidden forever Tella, come on, we have to get moving."

"But sis, my legs hurt, I've been running around and leaping and blasting people to death all night! I'm exhausted." Tella, ever the younger sister, and ever reveling in that, had a tendency to complain about any physical activity that didn't thwart threats to herself.

"Why did he give you such a troublesome personality?"

"who?" Tella wondered, having few memories, and most of them Celia's own.

"Our Creator." Celia responded simply as if it was an obvious fact, which it was.

"Was our creator a guy?"

"I think so... come on, we have to head out." If you wanted to grasp the concept of just what the Liel Sisters were, you have to think of a human, one who has every human sense and every human function, but has the ability to shut them down upon will should they become an obstacle, then has the ability to turn them back on at a moment's notice.

This human would also be capable of doing inhuman things, such as never tiring out, never wearing down, needing no sleep yet able to sleep and dream, and while this human's body would need no nourishment, it could still take in food and taste it, and use it. The person would be capable of leaping half-way up a skyscraper, and then grabbing hold of it, and climbing the rest of the way before a helicopter could reach them.

This human would also indeed be the best swordsperson in history, or be an expert with rifles and weaponry of that sort.

For at the basics, that is indeed what the Liel Sisters are.

"There's a town to the west a ways," Tella said after a moment's silence.

"I suppose we'll be able to find a place to stay... I'll go to town to see if I can find anything useful. Maybe there's a Blade store."

The new weapons which were widely used were another invention of the Liels' creator. This they were sure of. But no person alive could tell you who invented them.

And they had no name. Often they were called E-(insert weapon) or Energy (weapon), but nobody knew the intended name for the weapons, and so, that's what they were called. Some business's specialize in the close range weapons, and they are called 'Blades' by the common people, since that's what they were, blades, on many different styles of weapons, but blades they were indeed.

And so Celia led her sister to the outskirts of the town, and then they split up to look for an abandoned building. Tella spotted an old cottage outside of town, and they decided that it would be suitable for waiting out the rest of the night.

[Vell]

Chapter 2



Unbelievable





The one who lead the Memory Project, a tall man in the prime of his age, was displeased. Malius had failed. The man had been sure that that man would be able to hold his own against the Android. Celia Liel was a tough one, but she was still only an Android.

And an important one, to the Memory Project. The man sighed, and turned around, "I want you to gather twice as many men and women, use the Sattelite to find her again, and create a Trial that assumes there are two Celias. Malius wouldn't have failed if she was alone."

The scientist nodded, and walked off.

That was a sad day, unfortunately. Malius was one of their greatest. and the android surely killed him. They'd have to gather up all their best to send at Celia. Three people of Malius's skill should be able to handle Celia, and the one who created her must have made a clone of her.

Malius just couldn't be downed by any one person. The man was just that good.

-Liel Sisters-

"wonderful Tella." Celia had her own benefits that counteracted Tella's, or, rather, Tella had benefits that countereacted Celia's, since Celia was the older sister. Yet she still found herself in wonder as to how Tella managed to create that image of two people dancing by shifting her plates just so.

"Celia, I'm hungry." Abruptly and entirely too soon, Tella ended the shifting of her plates and dropped down to the floor Celia sat on already.

Celia didn't even bother trying to stop the discontented sigh that came as a result of that mesmerizing shifting ending.

Celia was on guard the last night, and she used the time to think; the house had had lights, but they didnt use them; android eyes saw fine in darkness.

"Tella, we can't go to the town. someone will recognize you as being not a normal android, and my face is as much public knowledge as Blades are." As she spoke, Celia fingered her favorite, but least used, Blade.

It was a scythe, specially designed for her by their creator, but then, most of her weapons were. Like her twin bladed tonfa, and her sword.

But her favorite was the scythe, the last one ever made for her before she woke.

Celia wasn't sure how she knew that the Scythe was the last made for her, but she knew it. Before activation it looked like any Blade. a handle, where the energy would come out, small, maybe a foot long, if that. but the Scythe actually had two handles, connected normally, only seperable while it was operating, that held smaller plates inside one, that would be used to create the long staff that the blade of the Scythe would come from.

Frowning, Tella spoke, "I'm hungry. food." Celia was a little hungry herself.

Celia and Tella were above all other androids in many ways. a good way to see that was that they ate food.

Like their weapons, Celia and Tella kept their food in a version of a backpack; it was a small pack easily kept on someone's person that turned things into something akin to data that you could take out at any time as if you'd just put it in.

Another invention of the person who'd created the Liel Sisters. Nobody could figure out how one person made all these things yet was still known by... nobody. Not even his, or hers, creations.

"So, Tella, how was your dream?" Celia asked, while taking out a couple steaks and a small device to cook them with.

"It was cool, you were in it!" Of course she was, Celia was always in Tella's dreams, and Tella in Celia's. Celia and Tella didn't really make any connection betweens certain foods and certain meals. They registered the days by Percentages, not times. "Well, in the beginning, it was forty five percent of the day past noon." Celia didn't care to do the math, but she supposed that 45% was probably somewhere around ten hours into the day by the human time of counting. "And there were sheep!" Tella hadn't actually seen a real sheep, but Celia had, before Tella was created, and Tella had Celia's memories from before she was created.

So the basic run of Tella's dream was that a few men came trying to kidnap Tella and Celia saved her. With other men, as it turned out.

That would never happen; the two were programmed never to trust humans, unless under extreme conditions. and the number of men were such that Celia could have handled them alone.

Celia's dream was that Celia and Tella were back at the Creator's lab, happy. They were just doing chores for the Creator, but thats what her dream-self and her dream-Tella were made for. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Creator was never seen or heard, but his, Celia really did think the Creator was a guy, orders were understood.

After breakfast and talking about their respective dreams, Celia and Tella set out, wary of any intruders.

-Memory Project-

"You're entirely positive you can find no trace of whoever was the Creator of the Liel Sisters?" The tall man asked the fool scientist who'd come up with that news.

With the gall to sigh before speaking the idiot said, "yes, sir, we've done our best, but we'll never find anything on the person. nobody has an inkling of a clue. in the world."

It was truly a pity they had need of every scientist on work at the Memory Project, because the man thought this particular scientist could do with being executed.

[Vell]

Chapter 3



Two Targets.



Nev Milni was a man who only had a Blade because he stole one from an old traveling companion while he was asleep. After stealing it, he used the Sword to stab the person to death.

Nev and his two companions, who knew nothing of how he acquired his Blade, were sneaking up on the encampment of the two girls they had seen.

Nev only glimpsed them, but two girls versus three armed men wasn't much of a match. One of his companions said they looked young, from the height of one, and the quick look of the other he got.

It was night, and Nev figured the two would be asleep by then.

Him and his companions jumped into the camp.

And froze, midshout. The 'younger' one was an android, pointing a Pistol at them. In her other hand was a huge energy cannon. Charging.

Nev turned on his companions, slicing one down before they could realize there was a gun pointed at their faces, and the other fell before the one he cut down collapsed.

Nev shivered, scared stiff. Not because there was a gun in his face, but because the face of the other girl, who was sleeping on her side, was the face of Celia Liel, an Android.

An android known for her untrust of humans.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, he didn't feel it when a Blade pierced his shoulder-blade, and his life dwindled down to nothing, and his body fell next to his companions.

Celia sprang up immediately, her Scythe activating and, in what would seem an instinctive response, parried a blow from a Spear Blade.

She and her attacker went on like that for a while, feinting, stabbing, cutting, trying to get an attack on the other, when a second jumped in the fray, and Celia began to switch to a mostly defensive mode, blocking attacks.

For a split-second break, she knocked back her foes' Blades and leapt into a tree, exchanging her Scythe for two Swords. she looked to the side, and didn't see Tella.

Celia made use of her Radio Link to contact her sister, "two of them are on me, how are you?"

"Celia, I don't like forests. Too many obstascles. So many people... Heh, but they can't aim so well. Four down here."

Celia nodded, and jumped down again, and instantly moved to parry the two resulting attacks. She caught two consecutive slashes on one sword, and then made a kick and tossed one Blade from it's holder's hand, and stabbed the other in the same motion, then ducked, avoiding a punch, and tripped him from below and jumped on him, driving him to the ground, and stabbed both Blades she held into the man's chest.

One pierced his heart.

The only warning she had was the swishing sound of something moving fast, and she parried a blow, and suddenly she had a swarm of enemies crowding on her.

Tella shot down another target, using one of the guns she didn't like too much; a sniper. She clicked the trigger, and once again a little shimmer of light shone before the energy bullet cut the man's brain in half.

Tella much preferred the big flashy ones; her favorite was her energy cannon. Tella's weaponry wasn't as numerous as Celia's for the main reason that Guns weren't as easy to carry as Blades. Blades consisted of a handle and the energy of the Blade. Guns physically weren't very changed from what they were before Tella's creator made the new generation of weapons. They still required the whole makeup; trigger, grip, barrel.

So where Celia had dozens of different Blades, Tella had around seven or so Guns.

Her Cannon, the Sniper, Two Pistols, a Rapid-Fire, a shotgun and rifle.

She called Celia on the Radio Link, and Tella smiled.

She had to stifle a full-out laugh when the large shaft of light pierced the forest, and then cut through several targets in front of Celia. Tella had to jump out of her tree fast; several bullets passed where she was, as she took out her Rapid-Fire and let loose into the trees.

Celia feinted towards her opponent's legs, and dashed back, switching her Swords for the bladed Tonfa she carried.

Celia liked the Tonfa almost as much as she did the Scythe. She slid one blow off one of the tonfa, and sliced the man's chest, killing him.

"Well, Tella, that's the last of them that have any relative skill."

"They're firing at me, lots of them. Celia, they are shooting bullets at me!" Celia sighed, and took out her Scythe again, and began tearing through her enemies, being careful not to get surrounded.

Celia barely managed to jump unto a branch of a tree as Tella's Energy Cannon blasted more enemies.

A few minutes later Celia and Tella stood among a mass of dead.

"Celia." Tella said, "I'm bored."

[Vell]

Chapter 4



Dancing





Celia wasn't sure how they'd found the place, but Celia and Tella stumbled upon a small dance-bar in which everyone was so drunk that they'd never recognize Celia.

Celia was dancing with a tall man, who was, even when he should be dropping drunk, light on his feet, a good dancer. The other androids might report Celia's presence at the bar the next day, but she and Tella would be far from there by then.

Their feet came down hard, as a loud drum beat sounded the end of a song, and the next one flowed swiftly and near perfectly. The band certainly wasn't drunk. Not in the least.

The first few beats reminded Celia of a leaf twirling in a gust, and her and her companion spun around twice, backs facing eachother before they grasped eachother's hands and danced back until their arms were fully stretched. then they let go with one hand and spun, and Celia let go, did a twirl, and grabbed his hand again with both, and swung him, somehow making it seem as if his feet never touched the ground as he danced around her.

In time with the energetic music Celia lifted her arm, and he pulled her close, and she grabbed his back with her free arm, and the music grew a bit slower, though no less energetic. They spun around, slowly, one of her arms hanging on to his back, another held up, him grabbing that hand with one of his own, and having the other held out.

Abruptly, as the song kicked up once more, they broke away, kickign their feet around them in a spin. The song was part of a blast of 'spin' songs. The songs seemed to twirl around somehow.

The leaped back toward eachother, and continued dancing.

Tella wasn't have nearly as much fun as Celia was with her tall man. Tella was dancing with another android, whose movements were so... automated, that it was obvious she'd been programmed with it.

It did amaze her, but Tella and Celia appeared to be the only androids that were able to learn. Or maybe they weren't, but either way most androids only got new knowledge when it was programmed into them.

Tella's partner got every part of the dance perfectly, each movement precise. Tella thought the android was as graceful as a swan. A dead swan. With it's wings clipped and feathers plucked. The thought of this android being compared to a dead anything made Tella chuckle.

Then the thought of the word dead brought memories of the battle in the forest to her mind. There were alot of them, but Celia never tired, and she countered every attack, and killed plenty, and Tella first handled any of the enemies with ranged weaponry, then began picking off the ones crowding Celia.

She remembered saying she was bored. Tella always felt bored, though. Some thought about her personality tried to form, but it receded. Tella tried to call the memory up, but it resisted being fully recalled.

Tella frowned, and broke away from the android, the void she left quickly filled up by some drunk teenager. Tella was an android; memories were files to be accessed. If they weren't set to a block by the creator, she'd be able to remember the moment of her creation; her birth, in a sense.

So why couldn't she remember that memory?

Celia affected to heavy breathing, like the graceful teenaged girl she danced with was. Somehow, becoming slightly exhausted from dancing made it all the more exhilarating.

"Hey, you're more graceful at this then the other Dance Androids," the girl said, in between gasps for breath as her and Celia moved their feet to the fast beat of this song.

The tall man she had been with passed out, and someone dragged him away, leaving this girl to take his place. Celia thought it a fair enough trade. "Am I now?" Celia asked in a breathless manner that someone nearly out of breath would use.

"Yeah, the rest just seem to move through the motions, you do it with real feeling." Suddenly, she missed a step, "I won't have to pay extra, will I?"

Celia laughed, and made up for the girl's mistake, "I'm not a Dance Android, girl. I'm just an android enjoying a dance. You're not too bad yourself, you know."

The girl blushed a bit, and said, hurriedly, "well, you know, I've had classes."

"Celia." Tella's contacting Celia over their Radio Link caught Celia a bit off-guard, and she nearly stumbled.

"Yes, Tella?" she responded, then to the girl said, "I can tell, must be a pretty decent teacher."

The girl giggled a bit and said, "I'd rather be taught by you; you're a lot better than my stupid teacher," at the same time Tella sent the message, "I think a memory almost bypassed the block set by the creator."

That time Celia did stumble, and hurriedly said to the girl, "sorry, I have to go now," and broke off the dance, ad rushed for the door.

She met Tella outside, and they raced away from the Dance-Bar.

[Vell]

Chapter 5



Bypass



"What happened?" Celia spoke, as they raced through the grass. "A memory almost bypassed the block?"

Frowning - unusual, for Tella - Tella nodded, "something to do with my personality I think. I didn't get it much. The Memory was being accessed one second, and was gone the next."

Celia nodded as well. Tella modified her design, she looked like a typical android, save for the helmet, then.

The Radio-Link opened up as Tella dashed away from Celia. "We need supplies. I won't be recognized, I'm just an android on a mission to get stuff for it's owner." Celia nodded, and that, too, went over the Radio Link.

Celia wondered why humans bothered to keep the grass alive. They'd overtaken everywhere else, it seemed. She went over the MAP in her head. Map Access Programs. They told her where every known city was, when she was born. there were barely any natural forests anymore, and only three in the world unowned by some corporation for some reason.

Looking around, the older Liel Sister realized she was nearly in the direct center of the meadow, so she took a few steps, and sat down, fingering the Handle of her Scythe.

Seifo Aural. Head of the Murmur Corporation, known for its research in curing heart diseases. She accessed a local internet-provider. Humans still used computers for stuff. The Internet survived.

That was certainly interesting. Celia opened the webpage on her search. Something about suspicion against the Murmur Corporation for using Seifo's forest too...

Tella was in town, and had bought several food-supplies. She shopped around, wondering where there was a Blade shop in town.

"Excuse me, sir, but my master would like me to purchase a Blade. Is there a store in town?" Tella asked, in all the monotones of a service-droid. She hated having to be as one, but she'd turned of all her emotions and most of what set her apart from other Androids. It was simply logical that being different would cause a scene, and she wanted to avoid notice, so she was as they were.

"Yeah, its right down the road and after a left turn there should be a Blade store." The man said, then walked away abruptly forgetting her existence.

Tella would have scowled, but she didn't feel anything.

That tickled a thought. Must always have thoughts, the creator said. Tella accessed her Link with her sister.

Celia was shut-down. Odd. But Tella wanted her Bow-Blade, and Celia would say something if she was in danger.

Another thought came, and emotion flooded back in as her protocols took over.

Tella shifted her form; she had the glide-wings from that night when they fought off Shyra. Now Tella did scowl, Celia was shut down. Celia never told Tella she'd be shutting down.

She launched into the air, putting her bag of groceries in storage. Atleast Tella had managed to get that before time ran out. That memory about Tella's personality came back, almost. It vanished once she recognized it, and she couldn't access it, again.

Tella much wanted to say a few things to Celia. Tella had Wanted that Bow-Blade. But Celia's safety must come first. If the Memory Project got to her...

Memory Project?

Whatever, Tella had to rush. She knew that just shifting, and flying had attracted attention, and it wouldn't be long before the world knew about Tella Liel. But Celia might be in danger.

Tella landed, and she utilized the Link - the Link was always active - to find Celia.

She was being moved.

"Damn it." Tella didn't have time to be a child, but thats what part of her personality was. Tella changed her form again for speed, and ran.

Malvin laughed. It had been so simple. He wondered why nobody else had captured the Famous Celia Liel yet. She was a sitting duck. She'd just stood there, as he picked her up.

Well, Melvin had some friends. And Celia was an android. Before long, he'd have the perfect slave and bodyguard. He laughed again. It had been so simple, and he'd just stumbled on to her.

And he stumbled again, this time literally.

[Chaze007]

This is magnificent. :]

[Vell]

Thanks.


Chapter 6


Literature.



Tella was quickly rising to a panic state. Celia was in some form of a transportation vehicle. She had to be. Tella was losing distance. So she shifted the plates that made up her frame, and added a pair of energy wings, and lifted off.

She scanned the area she sensed the Radio Link coming from. Tella spotted the vehicle, nodded, took out a Blade-gun. She dropped herself. Reshaped herself again, adding extra plating to where she'd come into contact with the vehicle when she crashed.

Within moments she burst through the vehicle's outer plating, and shot down three guards. her left arm was pulled into a manuever that should have doubled Tella over. It would have, too, if she didn't shift her plates to allow for that arm to bend more. Reacting, Tella delivered a swift kick to a fourth guard's chest before whirling around and slamming her helmet-head into the forehead of the guard holding her arm.

That's what Tella saw them as. Guards who captured her sister. She replaced her Pistol for a Rifle, and momentarily the man was left without a head. the vehicle was still moving; the driver hadn't stopped.

Looking around, Tella saw Celia sitting against a wall of the vehicle. Tella took the time to notice what type of vehicle it was. Some form of mobile storage vehicle. One of the most prominent forms of ground-vehicles. She grabbed Celia and blasted open the doors in the back. Jumping out of the vehicle did some small damage to Tella's back-plating. She shifted it around so the damaged part was hidden until repairs could be done.

Then she set about performing a test on Celia. Tella discovered her sister had become infected with a powerful android-virus. It had to have evolved, or been developed specifically, to shut-down Celia. Or atleast an android with an extremely well-developed anti-virus system.

Tella set to work to repair Celia's systems. Android Viruses were similar to human ones in many ways at that time. They'd evolved, somewhere along the way. The effects they had varied, but a shut down was in the same type of response as a fever in a human.

It had taken Tella a while, but she got her sister functioning again.

Celia opened her eyes, and looked around. Tella was there. She had gotten rid of that virus. The Memory Project. That was all she remembered from her forage into the internet. Something about it... Viruses had evolved in recent times.

Off to her left, Celia noticed a book. Old things, those. Still popular, however.

"Hello Tella." Celia said, as she picked up the book. Birds was the title. "How long was I out?"

Tella responded fast, "only about seven hours. I was getting bored."

There was no author on the book that Celia could see. "I see. Must have been a tough virus." Celia still felt like her data was fragmented. That would remain for a few days, while her anti-virus systems found and corrected whatever infected files Tella had left. She supposed the human equivalent would be the headache that follows a severe sickness.

Celia yawned. She noted that they were in a cabin. "Where do you manage to materialize these things from?" In addition to Tella's ability to shift her plates around, Celia found that she had the uncanny knack to discover lodgings in impossible locations.

"They're around," was all Tella said before she sat down a couch. "The residents are apparently on a vacation of some kind. Found a note on a wall."

Celia yawned, "very interesting." She paused for a second before talking again, "I think I'll read this." And she opened Birds.

Celia took her time to read the book. She read each individual word, and memorized every page. She read. It was quite interesting in her opinion.

Birds was about a group of young humans who were the unfound survivors of a meteor crash. The Author, whoever it was, never explained how a meteor crash could make these humans be able to grow wings, but thats what they did. They sprouted them, and made them retreat into their skin when they didn't need them. The book opens up when the main character - a Male with dark brown hair that he never cut except when it went over his wings, so it was about shoulder length. And rarely washed, since they remained on the move. - it opened with him reminiscing about the crash...

"Celia, I'm gonna go to sleep now." Tella said. Celia realized that a few hours had passed. "Can you stop staring at those words?" Tella got jealous when Celia was focusing on something rather than her.

A few hours had passed?

"Be right there, I'm tired myself." Celia called.

"All you did was stare at something."

[Vell]

Chapter 7

Birds.

Hemm was an average man, for the most part. He had gone to school, gotten good grades, and had been successfull in college. He'd had something of a career. One night, he had gone out for a drive, bored, and with nothing better to do. He went to a nearby lake. He didn't enjoy water specifically, but at that moment it was going into dusk, and twilight glittered on the surface of the water.

He noticed a girl who looked about three or so years younger than himself, staring at the water. She was a distance away, and already with a group, but Hemm only noticed her. She looked exactly like the type of girl he'd always wanted. Her hair was golden, and he could tell she was cute around the face. Not overweight, but not noticably skinny either. Healthy.

She was the only girl there, except for a child about the age of twelve. Hemm was 22, so he figured the child couldn't have been the girl's. There were two boys, as well. They were all laughing and seemed to be having fun. Hemm turned and looked back at the water. He wasn't about to intrude a social event between obvious friends.

"Hey! Why don't you come on down here?" He'd heard a shout. He had gotten lost in his own thoughts for a while and had forgotten the other people. "We're about to go for a swim!" It was still bright enough for that.

He was on his way down to respond, Hemm didn't like raising his voice, when a loud roaring sound -

"Enjoying my book, Tella?" Celia had seemed to appear behind Tella.

"No. I don't get it, why is this fun? Tella appeared to be pouting, though it was difficult to tell with her.

"Because, when you read the words, the images come alive in your mind. Don't they?" Celia had only discovered the joy of reading the day before, but felt she would enjoy many a night from then on doing so.

"No. Let's go. We need some tools." Tella tossed the book over at Celia, who caught it, then wondered what Tella meant.

"What kind of tools, Tella?" Celia put the book in her little pack, and almost went into thoughts about why no sound came when physical matter was datafied. Realizing she had no time for such thoughts, Celia put her pack on and pulled out her Scythe Handle.

"You always fondle that thing. Why?" Tella had no favorite weapons.

"I like it, you'll know what it's like to like something someday." Celia put it in her pack. "Anyway. My question."

"I got damaged rescuing you. I wanted my Bow-Blade. Now I'll never be able to get it. They know who I am, now." Tella sighed, thinking about how it'd feel to pull that energy string, and the spring of it when she'd release. The arrow would form automatically. that's how Bow-Blades worked.

"Then I'll get you a Bow-Blade," Celia said.

Tella shouted, and turned, "How?! You can't get into town, I can't! What will we do for supplies?! For food?!"

"I'll handle it, Tella. Don't worry." Tella and Celia then got into a fight. Their very first. Tella was all childish and kept shouting about how they'd never get anything. Celia tried to calm her sister down, saying they'd be fine, she'd find a way.