The five phoenixes were not alone-they were in a public beach filled with many unsuspecting people expecting to enjoy the water and sunlight, not a meteor shower.

Sensing the discomfort Mr. Perry said, “Are you surrendering? I’m disappointed.”

Kasey knelt forward, his Illuminos transformed into two daggers. “Don’t be.”

“Kasey,” Destery warned.

“We need answers,” his partner reminded, eyes locked on their target. “And we need Lydiana. Don’t forget our orders.”

The girls reluctantly pulled out their Illuminos also, morphing their own gold and red weapons in their hands.

Felicia gripped a glowing yellow bow, a flaming arrow blazing in the middle. Lia’s palm flickered as she held a miniature star that begged to be freed.

Destery ripped his Illuminos off of his chain belt and sliced down, creating his classic rapier.

Felicia yanked back her arrow, letting a fiery bolt shiver through the air straight for the target’s heart.

Mr. Perry dodged it with a slight bow of his body and zoomed forward, ready to press a miniature fireball through her torso, when Lia appeared on his left, her hand spitting vengeful sparks.

Mr. Perry jumped away, diminishing his fireball, and slid into the parking lot.

“Come on!” Kasey ordered, chasing their opponent through the maze of automobiles.

Suddenly an eighties green Volkswagen truck exploded from its right side towards Kasey.

Destery grabbed his partner and threw them out of the way as it crashed onto the road.

They scrambled to their feet, seeing Mr. Perry’s hands creating a vaguely familiar giant bright fireball in their direction.

“Get up! Up, up, up!” Destery demanded, yanking Kasey to his feet.

Mr. Perry aimed in their direction and released the massive sphere, allowing it to do its work.

“Wha-”

“Shhh!” Destery pressed his hand against Kasey’s mouth, forcing them to kneel behind the side of a black Focus. “Be very quiet.”

“We have to fight the guy,” Kasey whispered.

Destery shook his head. “Not right now. We have to depend on the girls.”

“The girls?!” Kasey shrieked in dismay.

Suddenly a hole drilled through the Focus, the sphere barely missing Destery’s head.

“Holy freak.” Kasey gaped.

“I forgot he didn’t send any after you last time,” Destery mumbled.

“Send what?”

“Just run!”

The two hopped to their feet and separated, confusing the sphere for a slight moment as it attempted to decide who to burn alive.

Destery searched the parking lot with his desperate green eyes and saw nothing but cars.

His friends couldn’t possibly have returned to the beach. The girls would never risk innocent people getting hurt.

Every voice he heard ended up being people on their way to or from the rippling waves and silky sand, and the urge to yell and draw attention to himself was unbearable.

Before he could scream of frustration and draw the enemy and the sphere to his location, there was a huge and brief explosion on the opposite side of the lot.

Cars bounced in the air and rolled around like ocean waves in a storm and alarmed witness’ screams echoed straight to Destery.

Destery shoved through the hysteric mass of individuals and discovered a smooth parking space, void of at maximum ten truck spaces, the ground covered an ash black.

Dread overwhelmed Destery as he saw Lia sitting in the middle of the abandoned chaos; her entire left leg had been scalded into dozens of hideous burn bumps, rendering her incapable of walking.

“Lia!” Destery appeared instantly by her side.

“Go,” she said through gritted teeth, not meeting him in the eye.

“But-”

“I’ll be fine. Just go get that monster before I get him myself!” She hesitated. “I won’t forgive you if you don’t.”

“But I-”

A white object blurred through the cars and came to a sudden halt on the opposite side of Ophelia.

“I’ll take it from here,” Felis assured Destery. “Go with Kasey.”

Without another word Destery hopped to his feet and disappeared, ready to call for his partner, when a black haired boy appeared on his right.

“Where are you going?” Kasey asked.

“Looking for you. Lia was injured. Felis has her though,” Destery summarized. “It’s up to us.”

“Do you have your Illuminos on you?” Kasey pulled his own forward, the golden cloud slowly diminishing.

“He’s leaving?"

“That way.” Kasey rushed further north, grave determination set in his jaw.

Destery’s eyes scanned the scenery as they abandoned the parking lot and entered the beach.

“What is it?” Kasey asked.

“What happened to the fireball?”

“The what?”

“The Charcoal Volucres’ fireball that he threw at us. It wouldn’t stop chasing us for no reason.”

Kasey grimaced and shoved his right arm towards Destery, revealing a scorched black hand that needed to be tended to quickly.

“I took care of it."

Instead of asking how, Destery said, concerned, “You need to get that looked at immediately.”

“We have better things to worry about.”

…

Perry had never seen a metallic doorknob melt off. In movies, sure, many things melted. Skin, metal, witches, robots. But in real life, metal in Ashwood just scalded.

In summertime people had to turn the doorknob of their home with gloves or pliers. And as Perry saw her own house’s doorknob and lock slide away like lava, she began to realize that that would no longer be an issue of hers.

Usually, when facing the sign of danger, like being hit by a car or facing the barrel of a gun, most have the urge to run. But they can’t. They’re frozen.

And Perry never understood that. If they were scared, if they didn’t want to die, how hard was it to just move a few muscles and run? Not hard at all.

But as she stood before her open doorway, staring into the black sunglasses of the mysterious melting intruder, she finally understood why nobody ran: Curiosity.

The ability to face danger, see what it really is like to possibly die, is irresistible. Even if this man frightened Perry to her core, she wanted to know what he looked like beyond the fish eyed door hole. What he would do once there was no boundary between them.

It was only a few seconds of staring at each other until Perry had her answer: He was going to kill her.

The man lurched forward, attempting to snatch her, when she kicked him in the shins and ran further into the house.

Perry could hear him following and no matter how fast she ran, how things blurred, he could keep up just as well.

He isn’t human.

She passed plenty of exits. The garage, windows, balconies, the giant backyard door that led onto a platform and to the eyes of multiple witnesses’, but Perry didn’t go to any of them. She couldn’t. The killer would have definitely caught her if she tried.

Perry reached the second level staircase and placed her hand on the metallic rail when a hand latched on her leg and yanked her down.

She screamed as she fell flat onto the stairs and scrambled desperately as the stranger tried to drag her towards him.

“Stop fighting me,” he growled lowly. “I’m not here to hurt you.”

Perry wanted to laugh. A burn scar was emerging on the ankle that he was handcuffing.

She kicked him in the face with her free foot once, twice, five times quickly until she heard a crunching sound.

“Augh!” the hooded man cried, releasing Perry to feel his crushed face.

Without hesitation she clambered quickly onto her feet and rushed up the stairs two steps at a time. When she reached the top she turned around to see the man, his face smeared with blood from his injured nose, ready to pounce upon her with murderous rage.

Perry kicked her pile of luggage, pushing the rest down the stairs. She watched with slight satisfaction as they came rushing down at the man, ready to drown him under the weight of her entire wardrobe.

As he attempted to dodge the paraphernalia, Perry raced into her room, slamming the door shut and locking it tight.

Almost instantly was the crazed man against the door, banging his body against it.

“I’m here on your uncle’s orders!”

“Why would my uncle send a killer after me?” she shouted through the door.

“I’m not here to kill you, Brat,” he sneered.

“You’re actions say otherwise,” she answered, shuffling through her desk in search of her school kit supplies.

When she finally found the item she was looking for, her bedroom door was quickly devoured by flames.

The intruder stepped through the hole in the middle as the rest of her door continued to dissolve into ash and Perry stepped cautiously, slowly, backwards, her arms behind her back.

“I’m taking you away for your safety,” he assured her, his eyes black with rage.

“My safety?” she repeated, as if the word was completely foreign, and when the two were combined, it truly was.

Since when was her safety of packing bags so dangerous? Perry obliterated cars-if that wasn’t a risk of her safety, then she didn’t know what her uncle’s true definition of safety was.

Her left hand wrapped tightly around her safety weapon as the man stepped closer.

“There’s a lot you don’t know,” he began. “If you come with me quietly, it will all be explained. You will see Mr. Perry soon.”

Instead of agreeing, Perry said, “What are you?”

“What do you mean?”

You run really fast. Like me. And…, Perry glanced down at his hands, expecting to see some sort of tech torch but to her surprise discovered red glowing palms glowing brightly-like it had a heartbeat.

He’s definitely not human.

Perry thought of her uncle. Of last night, of his phone call, of how he would take care of things, about killing.

Did her uncle want to kill her?

But why?

Maybe he found out what she was and couldn’t accept the freak she was. Or maybe he was sick with her felonies.

Perry whipped her back from the murderer and threw open her white balcony doors.

Instantly the man had grabbed her shoulder and yanked her back, forcing her to smack her head against the edge of her left door, and she collapsed onto the floor, unconscious for only a few seconds.

As the killer reached for her body, the seductive heat radiating off of his palms, Perry swiftly stabbed his right foot with her sharp blue scissors, hearing them seep directly through the shell of his shoe and puncture his flesh.

He hissed in pain and before he could enact his revenge Perry hopped to her feet, raced onto her white balcony and leapt off the railing, plummeting straight into the simmering sapphire pool below.

The chlorine water turned a depressing red as it was tainted by the cuts Perry received by slicing her thighs when she grazed the shallow end of the pool.

Ignoring the burning sensation, Perry scrambled out of the pool, hopped off of her patio and blended into the crowded beach.

…

It was dark and Destery and his partner could never have been more wound up than at that moment.

“Nothing could make me feel better,” Kasey confessed, aggravated. “No girls, no memories, nothing.”

The two stood on a dim beach, the sand a somber gray and the sea a cruel cold coal black with waves the sound of sarcastic clapping for their failure.

They had lost the Charcoal Phoenix. And if they lost the Charcoal Phoenix, then they lost all hope of finding Lydia. At least anytime soon.

“The Ash Order is going to be pissed,” Destery mumbled.

“Who cares about the Ash Order?” Kasey demanded, scraping his hair aggressively. “The Charcoal Volucres knew stuff, Des. Stuff about us. Stuff that was important-you know it is. It’s not just about that Lydia girl. It’s about us, too.”

“I know that.”

“So then why did he get away?! If anyone cares about catching him the most, it’s us! It’s definitely us!”

Destery was silenced. He couldn’t say that they didn’t try, because they had. They ran and flew for what seemed like hours, to the point both could barely move a muscle without tearing up.

“Clearly he didn’t outrun us. He just found a way to hide.”

“Hide?” Kasey arched his eyebrow. “Our Illuminos can find anyone-it doesn’t matter where they’re hiding.”

“Within a certain radius,” Destery reminded. “Kasey, come on, I’m not giving up. Just because we didn’t find him today doesn’t mean we won’t tomorrow. He still has to be in Ashwood.”

“Does he? He found out we’re here. Maybe he split the second after he took down Lia.”

“If he did we’ll find him.”

“How?”

“The same way we found him before.”

“Talking to a shaman?” Kasey rolled his eyes. “They don’t exactly grow on trees, Des. And I can’t think of one that even likes us.”

“The feeling is mutual,” Destery replied, holding his right palm straight forward. “Just calm down your PMSing for a moment. We should see how Ophelia is doing.”

Kasey reluctantly closed his mouth and watched as Destery focused on his hand with furrowed eyebrows and intense grave green eyes.

“Emblaze Felicia,” his partner ordered with a strict, flat tone.

Almost instantly his hand was gloved in fire, which slowly unglued itself and morphed into one giant golden flame floating above his palm.

It blinked consistently, like wind was cutting through it, until it flashed and settled into a steady flame.

“Des?” a female voice echoed through the fire.

“Felicia,” Destery answered, “how is Lia?”

There was a pause of consideration.

“She’s healing. Cale says it’ll be two weeks until she can actually go back out on the field.”

Kasey smiled bitterly from the background. “She’s gotta be pissed.”

“Yeah, well, we all take risks when doing our jobs,” Felis said irritably. “Did you catch Mr. Perry?”

“The fact that we haven’t returned yet should have been your answer,” Destery replied, just as irritated.

“Just keep looking. You’ll find him again.”

“This isn’t the time I lost my Illuminos,” Kasey retorted.

“I didn’t say anything about an Illuminos.”

“But that’s exactly what you said when I lost my Illuminos.”

“Well,” Felicia stopped trying to maintain her tolerance, “have you looked at your Illuminos lately?”

“Yeah. A few hours-” Kasey clamped his mouth shut. “He’s probably long gone if we look, anyways.”

“If Ophelia and I were there, we wouldn’t be standing around throwing a pity party. We would be out there searching for him, even if our Illuminos’ weren’t working.”

Kasey rolled his eyes to Destery, who only shrugged.

“The most exercise you and Lia have ever done is shop so,” Kasey began delicately, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Felis scoffed. “Goodbye.”

“Bye,” the boys answered, watching as the flame evaporated in Destery’s palm.

After some silence, Kasey said, “You know, getting a cell might not actually be a bad idea. It looks weird talking to a piece of fire.”

“Then you get one,” Destery replied. “You can have fun texting other Ignis Bellators while I do all the work.”

“There you go, being a girl again. What are you doing?” Kasey asked, looking at Destery as he pulled his gem off of his hip. “You actually aren’t listening to Felicia, are you?”

Destery was abnormally still as he stared at his Illuminos, tempting Kasey to tiptoe to his side.

“It’s activated,” Kasey noticed out loud in surprise.

Destery turned his head to him, eyes excited. “He’s near.”