Work Text
Once upon a time, there lived a phoenix.
Her flames were brilliant, giving warmth and love to those dear to her and incinerating those that dared try to extinguish her to ashes in a fiery rage- and then reforming them from their ashes as people who learned their lesson and sending them off in the winds of life.
But then one day, when she had just spread her wings to fly home, the winds of life changed course, and they snatched her up in a freezing cold updraft.
The phoenix flailed in the air in vain, squawking, but when she plummeted towards a familiar tree, she found the hard way that the talons of her roosting friends had already scorched all the branches to dust.
So she fell, hit the ground, lied in the dirt void of warmth, shivered in the whistling winds, found her fire had been snuffed. A flightless gray bird, one who the falcons and finches assumed was just a pitiful little dove without a second thought. However, the miscreant mockingbirds knew of her history, so they veered from their rounds to circle and flutter around in what felt like an endless cycle to the phoenix, sneering and screeching and poking with needly little talons- or slashing.
She lied there for days, months, years, paralyzed and glum without her fire. Her only consolation was when an older phoenix flew daily from home to visit her without fail, and he managed to rouse her for a short while each day with what little fire he had left. But his own fire was too faint to fully revive her, so the pair of them were only strong enough to mourn their melancholies together and soothe each other from their sorrows, even if only for a moment.
Finally, one day... a tragedy.
Dragons- titans of legend- swooped down from the clouds out of the blue. A group of five, aware of nothing but their fierce battle of good and evil. Three versus two- evil was outnumbered. And yet, that did not prevent casualties.
The sparrows and songbirds screeched and took off immediately, taking to the skies in a frenzied panic before the dragons came to claim them. The phoenix, overcome by instinct, forced herself to struggle to her feet, and she began to shakily run for her life, her body frailer than a tree branch rotted to the core. The tumbling dragons unintentionally caught up to her in seconds, however; mythical powers of flight overpower a lopsided roadrunner's sprint in any and all situations. Even miles above in the sky, the beasts created incredible gales with their furious wings, whirlwinds that tore the very trees from their roots like plucked feathers, that flattened the phoenix to the ground.
Before she could even realize it, her weak gray body had been shredded to ashes.
-=- -=- -=-
One day, in a Californian home, ashes stirred. A spark of green. And a teenage girl leapt from the couch to her feet, a new kind of energy hastening her heart and thoughts. Her and a young man gaped at each other in utter shock as a mere dropped iPhone defied all scientific logic and levitated in the air between them, outlined in emerald light. And so, the phoenix lifted her wings and blinked at them with awe, wondering if perhaps she did have a second chance, a new way to change the world for the better, even if only a little bit...
What, are you expecting an ending? Oh! Ah, I don't blame you...Well, about that...I may not be nicknamed a little phoenix anymore, but my story isn't over. Not yet.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
I fell into a sharp dive, gritting my teeth to steel myself as I descended rapidly towards the newly shredded street below. Despite the inevitable lurch in my stomach, I had no fear of meeting that street; my telekinesis would keep me safe, sharpened by my adrenaline and thoughts speeding faster than naturally possible. Besides, there were much more important matters to attend to at the moment. My remarkably destructive opponent of the day stood atop the crumbled remains of the building he just toppled, his howling laughter sending terrified civilians in the area running like spooked cats for their lives. He was just begging me to try my luck against him once more despite my experience. Then again, he wasn't exactly a pitiful little dove in battle himself. What else did he expect me to do, though? Invite him to dinner? After all the destruction he'd already caused, he could kiss such a fantasy goodbye. With a yet further mental push, I pulled up out of my dive, put on a burst of speed, and weaved nimbly around skyscrapers while rocketing towards the super villain eagerly awaiting my assault, energy swirling around both my palms. In the next instant, I clutched the hilts of slender twin katanas, which thrummed with the pure energy they were created from and were aglow in all their green glory. Despite their science-defying composition, they were remarkably sharp, for I had sculpted them to be so nearly a year ago. An entire year? Two of my current seven trains of thought temporarily slowed to consider that, and they marveled at how time had passed so quickly. Call me young (go on, I dare you), but I was still at the age where a single revolution of Earth around the Sun was a very long time, but yet it wasn't really in the long run. So much had happened, I could hardly wrap my mind around it, and nowadays, that right there was seriously saying something. How did I even get here, anyways? How was I, acting under the alias some find bizarre of Emerald Aura, flinging myself through the air with my mind at precisely eighty-nine-point-seven miles per hour towards who was likely the craziest guy I'd ever met in my life? Well... it's a complicated story, but that's just how the dominos fell, I suppose. Care to hear it? I hope you feel privileged by my asking. I hide myself from all the rubberneckers and reporters and the media's cursed cameras for a very good reason, even if you assume like most others that I'm just some antisocial prodigy in a hood and fancy glasses. Heh... if only they knew. Well, they may know by the end of this, if you're the chatty type. Don't worry, I won't bind you to secrecy. It's about time the world was given an explanation, anyways. Or not, should you wish it. I'm the one telling you, after all, so it all rests in your hands. But enough of that. Now... For the most clarity, shall I start from the beginning?
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Mom told me once that I was born at noon. Well, not precisely noon, but close enough; 11:56 in the morning to be exact. May 24th, 2001, was a cheery day for my parents as was the birth dates of Cole and Cain, my two remarkably older brothers. The fact that my parents had a thing for "C" names limited their options, but they had settled on "Claire" relatively quickly since it complimented the other two quite nicely. "Brooklyn" then became my middle name due to how blue my eyes supposedly were at the time (they faded to what I'm occasionally told is a rich deep green a couple years later). "Greenburg" is of course the family surname, and yes, I know, computers utterly loathe the supposed incorrect spelling. You can blame that on the deviation from the usual "Greenberg" that allegedly occurred many generations back in my ancestry. Hey, it's not my fault I've got German in me. So, with all that said and done, Claire Brooklyn Greenburg was born... heh. That sounded a lot better in my head. Don't look at me like I have some mystical memories from when I was a newborn. If you're really that interested... well, I guess I do have some toddler glimpses I remember. But only of nap time and a few beginner books I loved above all and my short-lived abhorrence of seafood and a particular game of highly informal soccer with my brothers. Speaking of my brothers, it's time I formally introduced you to them. Cain was the first of us, the oldest. A full ten years older than I, he was a empathetical young man who never hesitated to take me on valiant quests through my bedroom and hunt down the monsters in the closet rather than shake his head and send me back to bed no matter what time it was. And yet, he was a fearless teenager with a thirst for adventure and nerves of steel; he always picked up the scorpions and spiders that made Cole and I respectively quail. Somehow, he never killed them, but just took them back on outside or moved them far away. Perhaps it was him who impressed upon me the true importance of life. Cole was right behind Cain in age, being just over a year younger. What he lacked in daredevilry he made up for in brilliance and innovation. A natural tinker, I'd seen him piecing together gadgets ranging from as simple as shoestring pulleys to as complicated as his own computer for as long as I could remember. As for my parents, Mark and Faith respectively, they both served in the United States Army for many years. They've achieved such high ranks that they were both asked a year or so ago to travel overseas for a few years concerning a Secret operation that even I don't know the details to. More on that later. Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking. "Too much family stuff, Claire! Yuck!" I'm a mind-reader, remember? Well... now that we're on that topic, I'll confide in you right now: I was not born with usable powers. Keyword: usable. But, you'll what I mean eventually. I'll get to that later, too. Now that all that introductory stuff's out of the way... I'll fast-forward just under ten years. How's that sound?