[Fiction] Party Crasher

[Wakinyan]

Across the crest of Inyan Kara he paced. The days that passed without her had been the longest he had gone without her since his incarceration last winter. But that was just one thing the other was his friends gathering without him. He knew this might happen his last part was not a very flattering moment for him even if Slattern helped tip him over the brink of carnality.

Ptesan-Wi's link began to slowly fade from his mind as the distance between them became greatened and by the day she arrived on the small island he was fretting and gnashing his beak. Knowing she was safe was a good thing and it found some comfort within his heart as the faint link finally disconnected entirely.

Two hours.. Two hours until the gathering began in the Phoenix room. He could behave himself dammit. He could prove it to everyone. Thunder rumbled to the south as a thunderhead sprung to life. Wakinyan stopped himself in mid seething and quickly dismissed the cloud whose only crime was reflecting his own anger. The fact was he could behave. Samhra and the others were wrong about him. He could go and show them how well he could behave.

At the same time he knew Ptesan-Wi needed to do this on her own. She needed to mingle; she was her own goddess. Not his own little priestess who he hid away out in the Black Hills. Idly he wondered if she might sleep with someone tonight. He was sure she wouldn't do so, not that he would dare hold it against her if she did. All is fair in love and war he thought with a grin.

The griffin peered into the sky. Even if he wanted to go now he wouldn't make it. At his best speed it would take eight hours. Suddenly the griffin was a fox looking with contempt at sour grapes. "I don't need to be at every gathering." He grumbled to himself. It was at the moment of self-pity and more selfish desire he recalled something Procyon had told him not long ago. "You are not limited by anything more than the limits you create for yourself and you should always push back those limits." Really how bad would it be just to go but not let anyone know you were ever even there? Cinderella had her pumpkin and he had the node as big as one, time to use it.

With that Wakinyan jumped down from the ridge to the cavern mouth of his home only going inside long enough to grab a credit card and passport which he tucked into his eufiber collar hidden in his mane.

"I can do this. Two hours.." He coiled his legs beneath him. "Two hours. Cake. I can go faster than that. Fuck it. Make it one hour!" For a moment he was grateful Ptesan-Wi's mind was not present. He knew she would be unhappy with the sudden reckless bravado that his ego was stoking. Still despite that internal warning bell he unlocked the node pulling back the floodgate to let the torrent of power flow within every cell in his body. The air around him crackled as the pure energy began to bleed from his form.

Focus.

His muscles tensed.

Focus.

The feathers and fur of his body hardened and slicked back across his body instinctively.

Focus.

Two hours.

A sudden burst of power shot from the young Nova. His muscles sprung him into the sky cracking the granite where his paws had rested. Wings folded back and rising on a pillar of lightning the thunderbird blazed heavenward like a rocket ascending into space.

Faster.

The sky protested his beak began to feel warm. The air ignited around him as his node pushed him harder still.

Faster!

The land below was distant the curve of the earth was visible and the blue sky turned black above him. Eyes narrowed with determination and he tried hard not to notice the blood that began to flow from his nasal slits on his beak to be wicked away by the rush of air turning into plasma. He ignored the burning feeling in his mind like a fire that that began to burn to brightly.

FASTER!!

The sky tore in two for him as he hurtled through it. The sun began to fall away behind him and he could see the large coastline of the eastern seaboard. A few minutes later and he was over the ocean. He suddenly realized he had never been so exhilarated and scared of his own power as he was at that very moment.

Still he ignored the pain that now slid from his mind down his spine to curl into his stomach. He wondered if the Knights had gone on alert the moment his signal began to move so quickly. Skirting the edge of his no fly zone. Anything to keep himself from acknowledging the growing pains in his skull. But soon the pain was simply to great to ignore, it demanded his attention. Anger engulfed him, he was the Thunderbird! There was nothing he could not do. Procyon had said that hadn’t he!?

Wakinyan pushed harder as the burning pain went into his lungs. Why was this happening?! The blood flowed more freely, splattering into his wind whipped eyes. The griffin opened his beak to gasp for air and suddenly he realized his folly. He was to high, there was no air to purchase on the edge of space. There was not much time to realize it as the foolish young Nova dove hard back into the atmosphere of the planet that he still very much needed to live. Even for his massive stamina he had gone without to long. Eyes of lightning fluttered and went dull and the power dive turned into an uncontrolled reentry.

Unceremoniously the proud young Nova who thought himself a god fell to earth. Splashing down in the Atlantic and disappearing from sight.

[Wakinyan]

Water rushed in around him the cold Atlantic waters slapping him to his senses. Oxygen starvation still burned and blurred his mind and senses. There was no up or down just dark water all around. Wakinyan kicked and tried to roar but instead water rushed into his throat and lungs.

He was going to die the water felt like his tomb. He scrambled for puchase but none was to be found. His wings beat the water but only caused a maelstrom around him that confused him further. His body ached as extremities lost their slim final rations of much needed oxygen. Stiffening and begging to slip into the peaceful embrace of a foolishly brought death Wakinyan's mind wandered.

"Open your eyes." He whispered in a familiar voice. Thoughtwave did so and came eye to eye to a young man hovering over her. A lanky muscular frame covered in fine brown fur from head to toe. So close to human yet not. Distinct chiseled features of a Native Sioux graced his face yet still his glowing brilliant blue eyes remained staring down at her. A thick mane of long black hair flowed from his head splashing down upon her tickling her cheeks and neck.

There was no mistaking him for human though. Atop his head where his familiar brown furry ears nestled within the crow black hair. His fingers still ended with sharp nails. A feral magnetism surrounded him in this form. Something that flirted closely to humanity yet still rejected it.

"This is as close to what I once was as I can be without passing out from pain. I wanted you to be the first person to see it. See, me."

"Oh...my...god..." She reaches up and touches the...man? standing above her, feeling his smooth skin solid beneath her fingers. A part of her wants to ask if he's really Wakinyan, if her mate is really inside this strange person, but the link tells her the truth of the matter.

"I thought that you couldn't dorm...how are you doing this? Are...are you shape-changing like in the legends?"

"I cannot dorm. I am changing the skin as legend." He grins for the first time a smile that is genuine and warm. The white teeth are feral an amalgam of animal and man. "I knew I could do this if I was truly the Wakinyan so I didn't give myself a choice. I just did it."

The hallucination drifted through his mind. Talking to his beautiful young wife about the first days of his new found gift.

Somewhere within the back corner of his mind the whisper echoed. 'I knew I could do this if I was truly the Wakinyan.' And then he felt foolish Quantum still flowed through his body. If he died here he would only be choosing to do so. The peaceful expression on the face of the feral Nova turned to a happy one. Large patches of the furry mane on either side of his neck fell away revealing large rows of slits in his neck and then he breathed deeply. Oxygen flowed into his dying body depleted blood filled with life surged through his form.

As his body recovered from the hell he had foolishly put it through he thought deeply about his mistakes how pushing himself without thought almost cost him his life in such a simple and ridiculous manner. Doing to himself what others had not managed. As he slowly realigned his senses the griffin turned and made his way for the surface gulping in the Atlantic ocean deeply as his new gills filtered the water and replenished him.

The setting sun greeted him as his raptor head rose like a ancient sea monster from the surface. Another adjustment and he coughed sea water for a moment as his respiration system began to return to normal.

One wing beat slapped the ocean the next brought him into the sky once more. Carefully with a now immense headache he circles and shook his frame letting the water drain from him until he was ready to set off once more.

Endeavor's tough little OPnet device luckily survived the crash, tucked safely behind his ear. It dutifully informed him of the time and showed him the most direct heading which he resumed at once. This time however he pushed himself but kept still kept himself under control and aware that foolish mistakes could cost him his life.

One hour to go he thought with pleasure as he resumed his trek to Ibiza.

[Wakinyan]

Ibiza or more specifically Eivissa came into view the lights of the city guided him like a moth to a flame. Still there would be no grand spectacle Wakinyan made the last leg of his journey invisible to the world around him.

With a new Directive base on the northern end of the island and patrolling Rooivalk choppers he knew well the island had taken the riot seriously. Wakinyan had not been to the island since before the riot. A lot of it looked the same, as if nothing had happened but a lot of the old building where gone. The little restaurant where he had his conversation with Sin Eater was gone swept away in the natural disaster that was Novas.

How could they have been so selfish. He thought as he landed in a small park not far from the Phoenix Room. Everyone just comes here for a good time how could they have let it get so out of control. It took him all of the time in which he shape shifted to realize how hypocritical he sounded to himself.

The trees in the park where all saplings save for one. One that while maimed survived the night in Ibiza it had signs of burning limb upon it but it was a survivor.

He tried to brush the thought of what had happened here aside and began focusing on his elaborate disguise. The first part was easy, Wasicu. Becoming a white man was a good start but he needed to get creative on the rest of the disguise. Many of his friends had other means of detection than simple sight. Next came scent carefully he channeled quantum over his body like a sculpture. The taint of fur and feather that adorned his body began to melt and twist by his will until finally what had been feather and fur was no shimmering waves around him like heat rising from a road on a hot summer day. Another minor modification and his body chemistry changed altering enough that was no where near anything he or anyone would recognize.

He thought for a moment. There was more to do and despite the pain in his head from the earlier foolishness he once again delved into his node asking it to do his bidding. The monster within him the feral self that he both loved and loathed rested in it's cave within his mind. Without hesitation he grabbed it and despite it's protest began to alter it. Changing his very mind, where once there was a feral creature of instinct and passion instead was a firm believer that he was the inanimate objects around him could speak and be spoken to. Wakinyan grinned at his mimicking of someone he knew and started to cross the plaza only to stop dead in his tracks.

In front of him stood a broken slab of concrete. Erected in the center of the park as a memorial to the victims of the tragedy. In the stone was etched the names of each victim of the tragedy. Wakinyan stopped and looked at the names carefully. Carver did this he realized before even looking at the plaque that acknowledged.

"Hello. I am Melanie." Came a sweet voice from the stone. Wakinyan at first was confused before he realized that the it was by his choice the stone spoke to him.

"Hello." He responded as he ran his fingers over the concrete. "Did you know anyone? I lost my family." The concrete slab said with a hint of sadness. "No not really. I am sorry you lost people." "A lot of people come here and touch me they cry and I cry to. It was terrible what happened."

"I am sure it was." He might have been here but his mind was thousands of miles away. In Chicago ten months ago his body slamming into the bus, crushing all those people inside. Was there even a memorial for them? His careless action had cost them their life. They were whites what would one less white matter. He snapped that thought off as he had it angrily he walked away from the monument. He hadn't meant for those people to die. He hadn't meant to hurt Carver. But he had still let it happen.

The Phoenix room lay ahead of him. He looked up at it glorious front facade but he was troubled. Suddenly guilt had overwhelmed any desire to be here. Guilt for what had happened here that he had nothing to do with. Guilt at what happened in Chicago. The form he had shaped disappeared from view once concealed his true form emerged once again and took flight.

Heading for home at a much slower pace.