Outnumbered ~ I Am Number Four ~ Invite Only!

[hilde]

Richie nodded. He was trying not to cry. "The last time we saw each other I just stormed out of the house like a brat." He said. "I never got to tell her I was sorry."

[TheFae]

Amber
16
Location: Italy
Tagged: Gingko

Amber smiled as she stood up. She dropped back to the ground, fixing the issue. Then she back-hand sprang away from Gingko, and twisted in the air so she was still facing Gingko. She landed gracefully, and stayed in a crouch position, waiting for Gingko to respond. She was breathing hard, but she kept her cool. She was going to keep her cool, no matter what. "I'm ready for anything you got, Morgadorian." She teased Gingko.

Esme
36
Location: China
Tagged: Rowan, Sam, and Apricot

Rowan leaned back, and Esme's eyes slowly opened, staring into his beautiful brown ones. "You're damn right." Rowan chuckled. Esme just smiled, loving being around him. "Missing you everyday, training, running for Morgs. You know, the usual." She smiled, happy to be reunited with him. "Speaking of training," She stated leaning to the side of Rowan just she could see Apricot. "Apricot, honey, you okay? That was a pretty nasty slam." She called, knowing her Garde was behind the cabin. "And while you're at it, entertain our guest. It's nice to see you again, Sammy. You've matured into a handsome young man." She smiled, still clutching at Rowan. She then turned to the love-of-her-life and smiled. "We have a lot of catching up to do." She beamed up at him, glowing in his presence.

[SunnyJustice]

I will try my best. You be careful, especially with the idiot.
Maple was going to have some fun with these fools. She tossed her hair over her shoulder, then blew a kiss to the Mogadorians. One of them began shouting enraged comments in a foreign language. Maple gave him the pinkie finger again, then sprinted down the beach in the opposite direction the cowardly scouts had gone.
From behind her, she heard five pairs of feet breaking into a run. Maple gave a mocking laugh and looked back towards them, about to make another rude gesture, when she saw two of the soldiers stop to pick up Willow's body. Probably to mount her head somewhere like a hunting trophy. Enraged, Maple swore in Loric and ran faster. As the pair of Mogadorians followed the scouts, the other three gained speed. Maple made it to the tree cover and began to weave a convoluted trail through the dense undergrowth. Track this path, Idiot Alliance, she thought spitefully.
She heard the imbeciles -- the Idiot Alliance -- stumbling around and shouting at each other. Silently mocking their stupidity, she headed for the nearest major population center; the city she had lived in with Erin. Maple had a plan and she was about to carry it out. The Idiot Alliance wouldn't know what was coming.

"Cameron and Maria brought the body," said Lanette with a sigh. "I thought we told them not to get it." She turned around and frowned at the soldiers. "Tell them, Kathy."
"You idiots!" Janice roared before Katharine could say anything. "We said to leave her. We want to give Acacia's dad a surprise. Why do you have that thing?"
"I think Beloved Leader would approve more," Katharine argued, "if we simply brought the evidence to him. Besides, the humans would freak if they saw one of their own with a slit throat lying on their beach." She was running at a slow, loping pace. Katharine was not a sprinter, but when she jogged, she could maintain any sort of conversation. "Now that we are taking her, the waves will wash the blood away."
Janice swore but carried on in silence. Cameron and Maria kept a respectful distance behind them, not wanting to anger the Girl Scouts more. Though they were 'only' scouts, the soldiers saw them as higher-ranking because of Acacia's relationship to Icaron. It was the only benefit she really gave to the group, and that made her bitter. She wanted to prove herself, but in their violent society, she was almost worthless.
As if she read her mind, Lanette dropped back so she was running beside Acacia. "Sorry you didn't get to fight today. I know you want to. Tell you what, the next kill can be ours."
Acacia had a horrible, sinking feeling about this, but she nodded and forced a sincere smile. "Sounds great. I've always wanted to snap someone's neck," she rambled, trying to sound like a 'normal' Mogadorian girl. "It sounds so up close and personal. What do you think though?"
"I think it sounds boring," admitted Lanette. "I can't wait until I'm a soldier, so I get a real sword. I want to cut the head off a Garde. That would be really satisfying."
"Are we talking killing methods?" asked Blair excitedly.
Oh, boy, thought Acacia, exasperated. See what I've started?

Gingko landed hard but regained her footing quickly. "Better, Icaron Matthias," she shot back, then imitated a Mogadorian woman's low, threatening voice. "You could almost beat a Loric Cepan. Congratulations, Girl Scout." She laughed mockingly, then a chill ran down her spine. "One second," she said, raising an eyebrow and looking absently to the sky. "Something's wrong." After a moment, she shook it off.
Everyone was fine; Amber didn't even have a single scar on her ankle that marked the death of a fellow Garde. Gingko, however, always needed to be sure. In their fights, she was always testing if the charm still held. That was why she tried to injure her Garde at least once every day; it wasn't because of reckless force, it was because she was too careful. After all, every time she 'hurt' Amber, the girl would be fine. The only injuries would be on Gingko, because the charm would reflect the violence. She hadn't quite hit Amber today, and it was getting late.
"Your fighting ability is seeing much improvement," she congratulated her before high-fiving Amber as violently as possible. This time her hand was not at all sore. Gingko's smile fell.
"Did you feel that?" she demanded.

Rowan blushed harder when Esme spoke of missing him. "I'm glad you're not a Mogadorian," he admitted. "If you were, I would willingly stick out my neck for you to stab. Anything for you, First Lady." He flinched at a loud, violent noise behind the cabin, but kept looking at Esme with the same silly smile.

"Stop!" Apricot wailed in dismay. She didn't want anyone to know she was there. In anger, she kicked the wall. A board flew loose and nailed her in the knee. The girl howled in more rage than pain. She had kind of forgotten that her nose was bleeding, and only noticed it when she saw blood had dripped onto her shirt. Someone just stabbed me, was her first thought before realizing what the real issue was. Embarrassed, she pinched near the top of the bridge of her noise, tilting her head back until the bleeding had stopped.
The girl messily wiped the blood off her face before stepping out into the open. "Hey, who said they were guests?" she said with a flirtatious wink towards her Cepan and her uncle. "Make them stay," she said, "tie them up if you have to." Nonchalantly shrugging, she ran over to the river and jumped in to wash the blood off her. She still had her clothes on, as usual. She was used to it, because she swam when the weather was colder, too. If she did not wear all her clothes, that would present an issue. So she just swam around, completely ignoring everyone.

[Amberlight]

Paie literally face palmed and ran towards the call of Alder's scream. She tried her best to hide her smirk at the sight of her beloved Garde stuck on yet another appliance. "Should I even ask?" She laughed as she grabbed the stepladder and put it in front of the washing machine. The story would have to be amusing.

Rosemary thought of another person to ask about. "What about the other ones my age?"

[SunnyJustice]

Alder let out a whimper as he clung onto the washing machine, trying to get off. His feet dangled in midair, and he flailed in panic for about half a minute before falling off. He landed with his behind hitting the stepladder hard. "Don't ask," he whined, groaning in pain as he tried to get away. It did not work. He ended up faceplanting into a laundry basket. "No fair!" he complained, his voice muffled by the newly washed clothes as he struggled.

[TheFae]

Amber
16
Location: Italy
Tagged: Gingko

Amber winced at the high-five, and she tried to hide her pain, even though it smarted something fierce. It never hurt before, why did it hurt now? "Yeah. I don't remember you ever high-fiving me that hard." She winced as she shook out her hand. "Maybe you should start doing handshakes and forget about high-fiving." She tried to tease, but her hand was stinging something fierce. "Stop being a sissy." She hissed to herself. "Thanks for the compliment by the way." She smiled, one step closer to achieving her one and only goal: making Gingko proud.

Esme
36
Location: China
Tagged: Rowan

"Please forgive my Guard-" She started to say, but then she felt something. A little twinge, if you will. "Something's wrong." She stated, face falling. "Apricot, come here!" She called, trying not to panic. If she hit Apricot, it shouldn't hurt her. It wouldn't hurt her. "Test out the charm on Sam." She hissed to Rowan, fear and urgency filling her entire being. She sprinted towards her Garde, diving in after her. "Apricot!" She shouted, yanking the girl closer to her. "Tell me right now if this hurts." She stated, as she slapped her Garde across the face. Esme's eyes widened when she didn't feel the reflected violence. "Get into the Cabin now." She told Apricot, as she turned around and started pulling her Garde after her. She was going as fast as she could, her brain running a mile a minute. "The Charm is broken." She thought to herself, the single thought shaking her entire being to the core. Her Garde was Number 1: the first one to be hunted. She had to protect her.

[SunnyJustice]

Gingko was not in the mood for banter. "I high-fived you harder before," she began to explain. "You didn't feel it because you weren't Number One, couldn't get hurt until everyone before you was dead." She didn't care if her grammar was atrocious today. Gingko wasn't known for her scholarly aptitudes anyway, and this was not the time for useless things. "This means the charm's broken. Not just One, but everyone down to Nine can be killed."
Anger rose within her at the thought of this. "Some idiots have gotten together and made things harder for us all. Let's go inside, we need to regroup." Or rather, she needed to calm down. Gingko walked back into the house and poured both her and Amber a couple of cool, tall glasses of water.
This was going to present an issue.

Apricot scowled in rage, this time not joking. "Esme, dude," she said irritably, "of course I could feel that. I'm Number One," her voice was rising to a shout of fury, "I was never protected by your stupid charm in the first place! This doesn't change a thing for me, I was meant to die, according to Lorien. I thought you at least would care that I was always the most screwed of us all." She yanked her arm away from Esme and marched into the basement, which was flooded, but she didn't care. It wasn't like anyone ever cared.

"Is everything alright?" Rowan called out, severely concerned. Testing the charm wouldn't have worked on Apricot; she was Number One anyway. He could understand Esme, though. She was in a panic, and fearful people did inexplicable things. Sam, though, could be experimented on.
"Sorry, Sam," he murmured guiltily as he walked over to him, "this will only take a moment." He gently reached over and pinched the boy's wrist, with the minimal force necessary for him to feel the slightest discomfort. Rowan felt nothing on his own wrists, and then he knew Esme's suspicions were true.
"Come on," he said softly, leading the Garde inside. "Esme?" he called out. Rowan found her not far from the living room. "Esme, you were right. Come here," he whispered as he pulled his fellow Cepan into a comforting embrace. He didn't know where Apricot was, but she had to be inside. "Apricot is Number One; she's used to being first in line," he said reassuringly. "And the Yangtze River was an excellent place to hide. We still have time."

[TheFae]

Esme
36
Location: China
Tagged: Apricot, Rowan, and Sam

Esme felt incredibly stupid. She let the situation get the better of her. "I'll be right back." She murmured to Rowan, brushing past him and going downstairs. "Apricot?" She called into the darkness. She climbed down the stairs feeling awful. "I'm so sorry with how I reacted. A fellow Cepan died, but I don't know who. I freaked, because I don't know where they were or how they died. I let the situation get the better of me." She started to explain, wading through the flooded basement. "Could you ever accept my apology?" She murmured, tears pricking into her eyes. She hurt someone she thought of as a family member, as a daughter. It made her feel absolutely awful.

Amber
16
Location: Italy
Tagged: Gingko

"It's a Cepan isn't it? I only get scars when someone dies-" She started to say, but she stopped as she thought. "Did you say we can be killed out of order?" She whispered. "We need to get in contact with the others. There may be some Garde's who do not understand or know, especially the one whose Cepan was killed. We need to warn them and protect them." She stated evenly, somehow staying calm. "We also might want to move, just to make sure if a Morgadorian was hunting us, they would be off our trail." She suggested as she followed Gingko inside the house. She was gripping at the spear in her hand, hard enough her knuckles were turning white. She wasn't scared for herself, though. She was scared for everyone else. She somehow felt responsible for everyone, and a sudden weight was placed on her shoulders. She was determined to hold it, though. She wouldn't let anyone down, especially Gingko.

[SunnyJustice]

Apricot had been smashing useless objects all around the basement when she heard Esme. Feeling ashamed, she splashed through the water to meet her Cepan. With a sob, she threw her arms around Esme's shoulders. "No," she said, "I'm sorry. It's not you I'm mad at," she tried to explain, not sure if she sounded very convincing, "it's that they made me Number One and never gave me a good reason. I was thinking: Maybe they didn't like me 'cause I'm a bad person or somethin', and they said, 'oh, we won't care if she dies 'cause she isn't a good person like everyone else.' It just makes me mad 'cause I really don't know why." She tried not to clench her fists. "Don't be sorry, it's not your fault. I just thought you might have an answer and you never told me one. I just really hate everyone sometimes."

Gingko raised an eyebrow in disbelief. This was not the annoying, giggling girl who spun around like a child with a bubble blower. This was the true Number Six; warrior, protector, someday leader. "That's the spirit," she said, finally approving in earnest. "But you mentioned a Cepan dying. I don't know, I just had a bad feeling, and an Adamson woman's intuition is rarely wrong." She frowned. "I hope you are wrong," she said with a dark glare at her glass of water. More than half the other Cepans were her direct family. Hopefully Amber's own intuition was going awry today, and it was nothing.
"My bad feeling was probably just about the charm," she said, more to reassure herself than Amber. Gingko didn't know what she would do if her husband or one of her children had died.
Without her permission.

[TheFae]

Esme
36
Location: Her Basement
Tagged: Apricot

"Oh sweetie. They chose you as Number One because they know you are the toughest. They know they will have the best chance of keeping the charm if you are Number One." Esme explained as she hugged Apricot back. "Take it as a compliment: they thought you were the strongest." She whispered. "They aren't wrong either." She smiled as she leaned back. "Come on, let's go talk to our guests and see what we can do." She smiled, talking a step back and radiating an aura of positivity.

(I'll post with everyone else tomorrow. I'm going to bed!)