Angelberries: Chapter 1

[dehydromon]

The cycle was perfect. And it had worked since the beginning of time. The demons would make their move, bearing power not meant for the flesh to be exposed to. On behalf of the humans, the angels would counterstrike, but the demons would reunite, attack again, and the cycle would continue. Because of the angles, the humans took the least of the blows and didn?t have to even see the world in which war was being fought; they could live in blissful ignorance of the terrible agony they would face if it weren?t for their guardians.

But a great power ascended within the demons? forces, causing increased fear and destruction throughout the world. Even worse, this new power the demons had acquired individually granted them the ability to overpower their angelic foes, and they used this power to imprison them, exposing large numbers of humans to loss, death, and destruction without protection.

That is, the demons believed them to have no protection. Many angels, having sensed the impending danger, learned the likelihood that they could be defeated and took actions to prevent the humans from helplessness. At the cost of their own protection, which they believed to have already been compromised, they relinquished their angelic power to the humans they swore to protect. In doing so, they sacrificed their freedom and they were immediately captured.

With these powers, the humans became suddenly much more aware of the world around them and the realm of the spirit wars was revealed to them. Their humans forms prevented them from the capturing methods the demons had utilized to imprison the angels, and their flesh provided a kind of armor for their soul, providing them with extremely sturdy protection against demonic assaults. For the most part, it was these bodies that guarded them from damage before the angels had imprisoned and blinded them from seeing all that was happening, but with the powers of their guardian angels, there was suddenly much more they were capable of.

Although unbeknownst to almost all of them at the time, every human who lost their guardian angel was granted with a unique offensive ability to aid them against the powers of evil. Some humans could command the seas to do their bidding. Some could manipulate shadows in any way imaginable. Others could fight the demons with tremendous strength. Some learned what they were capable of early on. Others, though aware that their life had taken a sudden change, didn?t catch on to their powers quite so easily. Among them all, however, one thing was very clear: they did not have the same protection many of the people around them clearly had; they could see that they were not accompanied with guardian angels like everyone else.

?Why?? they asked, but they were unanswered. They had to pull the mystery together and rectify the situation on their own.

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[dehydromon]

Martin Pine

Martin sat quietly in his seat and watched the ground circle beneath them while the captain aligned the plane with the runway. At last his flight had come to an end and he could get some fresh air. Much of the 30-hour trip to New Zealand from England had been somewhat relaxing, but he had hardly taken the time to stretch his legs for over a day and quite frankly, he was growing annoyed with the prepubescent voices of the two giggling schoolgirls occupying the seats behind him - not to mention the newborn baby who had been screeching uncontrollably for the past hour several rows over and back. It made him sorry he had forgotten to charge his MP3 player before he left. He would truly be happy to finally be back on his mission once the plane landed.

The plane bumped lightly as it touched down on the runway and Martin leaned back in his chair before putting up the tray table he had been using to read over a couple of papers he had been given prior to the flight. They contained information on the man he was sent to track down and retrieve, and although he had read them before, he wanted to make sure he would be heading the right direction once they landed. Any setbacks could give their criminal a lead on them that Martin didn't think they could afford.

He heard a whisper to his right that seemed to say his name, but the seat next him was empty and the man in the next seat was having a conversation with somebody across the aisle. Thinking nothing of it, he shrugged and leaned back in his seat once more as the plane began to slow down.

"Martin," he seemed to hear again. He peered behind him and looked at one of the girls seated behind him.

"Did you say something?" he asked politely, but the girl shook her head and Martin returned to his forward-facing position. Either he was hearing things because of his lack of sleep over the past 20 hours of the flight or someone was playing some kind of trick on him. Either way, he didn't care much to learn which it was for now. He was much more interested in putting the mercenary leader to justice. He relaxed his muscles for a moment as a click was heard, audible enough for everyone to hear.

"Welcome to Queenstown," a voice said over the intercom, "where the local time is approximately 9:56am. We will be taxiing for a few more minutes, so please remain in your seat with your seatbelt fastened until the captain has parked us at the gate and turned off the seatbelt sign. Use caution when retrieving your personal belongings from the overhead bins, as contents do shift during flight. On behalf of your crew, we thank you for choosing to fly Virgin Australian airlines today. We hope you have an enjoyable stay here in the Queenstown area or wherever your final destination may be. Good morning and goodbye."

[Throndir]

Sanja Nosova

It took almost another ten minutes for the small plane to finally reach its terminal and allow passengers to pick up their belongings from the baggage compartments just above everyone's heads. By then Sanja was already tired from the long flight. The flight from the UK, the land of the Angles, or "The Old Dart" as Australians would call it, was a long and rather tiring one.  True, Sanja had traveled all over the world for performances with her orchestra, yet she was never really a fan of long journies, preferring more the comforts of stabler land. At least the last flight was from Sydney, meaning the last leg of the journey wasn't as long.

Still... Sanja thought. At least we're finally here.

The meeting with the rest of her orchestra wasn't supposed to be until September 22, but she figured that it'll give her a week to sight see. Queenstown was a tourist destination after all, and she wanted to fully experience New Zealand before the end of her stay. She hadn't been there before, and though she once visited its neighboring country, Austrailia, and wanted to visit New Zealand, she did not have the time to do it previously.

Sounds of compartments clicking open as people pulled their baggage out filled the next few more minutes. Sanja was unfortunately stuck near the back of the plane, not quite at the back, bust close to it. But she didn't mind. Her turn would come as it always does. Not to say that Sanja was laid-back, after all, already she was planning her day and her mind was busy with what she could do once they reached the airport, but more so to the fact that Sanja tended to stay calm and collected.

The rest of the people around her didn't look to be as calm. They looked almost as if they were rushing to get out of plane as the busy bees roughly drew pulled their baggage along with them. Sanja hummed as she watched the people and awaited her turn.

http://archive.org/download/FlightOfTheBumblebee/flight_of_the_bumblebee_2.mp3

Finally it was her turn. She pulled her duffle bag close to her as she carefully pulled her violin case from the compartment above her head. With that done, she once again had to wait as the line slowly crawled forward to the exit.

I made it. Sanja thought. The orchestra concert was only one of the motivations for Sanja to come to New Zealand, and as Sanja made her way following behind the crowd, she couldn't help but think of her other motivation as well. I only hope- She stopped herself in her thoughts and banished her line of thinking. This trip, after all, is sort of like a vacation.

As she faded away into the crowd of people, and even though her face seemed impassive, if one were to look carefully in her hazel eyes, they would see the hints of trepidation and anxiety.