Chapter 16

The Invasion

            The rest of the night was uneventful, and at the crack of dawn, Ryeowook attempted to wake Katrina up, attempted being the key word. He tried shaking her awake. She ignored him. He tried pulling her out of bed. She kept a firm grip on the bedframe. He even tried to bribe her with the won he won during the betting the previous day. She replied that she had no use for Korean money if she was going to be locked up in a mansion miles away from civilization. It was then that Ryeowook brought in some reinforcements: Eunhyuk splashed her with icy water. She merely gave him a dirty look and covered her head with the pillow. Donghae then made the pillow levitate off of her head. She just kept her face on the covers, determined to stay in bed. Shindong tried to lift her out of bed. She squirmed out of his grip. Eventually, they had no choice but to recruit Sungmin. Using his power of body control, he forced Katrina to sit up and get out of bed herself. She shot him a look of hatred, but she finally complied and insisted she’d get ready by herself.

            The rest of the day went by in a blur of breakfast, exploring the mansion (with supervision of course), and talking to Leeteuk about various things in his office, and in no time at all, it was training time. Leeteuk decided that everyone would practice their individual power exercises while Sungmin worked with Katrina on her power. Because their powers were slightly similar, Leeteuk trusted Sungmin to teach Katrina how to expand her abilities. Since she obviously had slowing down time down pat, he decided to teach her how to speed up time. They started with speeding herself up, which proved difficult for Katrina at first. However, with a few tries, she finally succeeded in speeding her hand up, easily bypassing Sungmin’s defenses and allowing her to punch him squarely in the chest. Satisfied, he then coached her on speeding others up. Again, she was having trouble controlling her power.

            “Come on Katrina, you can do this.” Sungmin encouraged as he the air with a series of kicks. The goal was to make Sungmin move so fast that his kicks seemed to blur.

            Katrina tried as hard as she could, but she only succeeded in slowing him down instead of speeding him up. She growled in frustration. “It’s not working!”

            “Don’t get mad,” Sungmin ordered, getting ready to kick again “It’ll only consume your energy. Now focus.”

            Katrina breathed deeply and focused on speeding her mind up once again. She raised her hand as Sungmin started his kicking routine again. It took a few seconds, but she finally did it, much to her delight. Sungmin’s movements started to blend together, creating a raging whirlwind of flying feet. This got the attention of everyone in the room.

            “Dang, she’s a fast learner!” Donghae muttered to the others who nodded in agreement.

            “Yeah,” Kyuhyun whispered so no one could hear. “She really is amaz-“

            Crash!

            Suddenly, the middle window in the alcove burst open in a shower of shattered glass as two pairs of black wings flew into the training room, laughing and circling the clan. The Phantoms gathered around Leeteuk in a panic. The Valkyrie had arrived.

            “I’m sorry, did we interrupt your practice?” Jonghyun jeered as he swooped down upon Katrina. Luckily, Leeteuk created a protective force field around the clan before Jonghyun could reach his target. Jonghyun merely chuckled.

            “Oh what? You think your power is going to protect you? Please, your barrier around the mansion was brittle to say the least. What makes you think I can’t shatter this one as well?” Jonghyun tried to bash the force field, but it turned out that Leeteuk’s barrier was stronger than he anticipated.

            “How did you find us?” Leeteuk demanded as the others surrounded Katrina in case Jonghyun somehow broke the force field. The other Valkyrie, Key, scoffed.

            “We didn’t have to look hard. I mean really, we found you once before on the south border of Korea. What made you think that you’d be safe on the east side?” he replied as he too tried to bypass the barrier, but no matter how hard they ran into it, the force field just wouldn’t break. Jonghyun finally let out an ear-shattering screech of anger, causing everyone but the steadfast Leeteuk to cover their ears. He suddenly looked straight into Katrina’s eyes.

            “So, you’re the Phantom heir?” he asked, smirking as he placed his hand on the barrier. “You look so much like your mother.” He casually looked at his razor sharp talons. “Of course, your face is significantly prettier now. Onew has seen to it that the oh so spirited Christine be taught a lesson in submission.” He grinned evilly as he scratched the invisible barrier, making an eerie, high pitched noise like nails on a chalkboard. Katrina grew furious.

            “Where have you taken my mother you feathered freak?!” Katrina yelled as she started towards the border of the barrier, only to be restrained by the others. Jonghyun snickered.

            “You want to see your precious mother? Then come with us, and we’ll gladly take you to her.” He smirked, hoping this approach to capturing the heir would work.

            “Yes little Katrina,” Key gave her a charming smile. “Come with us.” He tried to charm Katrina out of the barrier, but the only response Katrina gave him was a cocked eyebrow. Leeteuk scoffed.

            “Surely you haven’t forgotten that my force fields can protect against physical assaults and magical attacks?” Leeteuk smirked, proud that he could actually protect his family from the Valkyrie this time around.

            Jonghyun growled in reply. This wasn’t working! Time for Plan B…

            “You may not surrender willingly now, but you might if something other than your puny little life was a stake.” Jonghyun gave her his evil grin again as he turned towards the window. “Minho! Taemin! Show her!”

            At their master’s command, Taemin and Minho appeared in the window opening carrying a blonde-haired boy and a grey wolf respectively. Both were struggling against their captors, but it was to no avail as both Valkyrie’s grips were too strong. Phillip lifted his head, face plastered with exhaustion, and met Katrina’s eyes.

            “Katrina?” he asked, shocked that the Valkyrie took them to his friend. “Is that you?” Katrina teared up as she witnessed the innocent boy being treated in with such cruelty by the Valkyrie. At hearing Katrina’s name, the wolf looked up, finding his best friend’s face within the group of strange men. Katrina’s eyes widened in shock as their eyes met. She would recognize those green eyes anywhere.

            “Atlas?” she asked. How in the world had he turned into a wolf? Atlas whimpered, letting her know that he really was her best friend. Katrina was about to explode in rage, but she was interrupted before she could do so.

            “Let them go!” Shindong screamed, anger contorting the usually kind face as he started to walk past the barrier. Luckily, he was stopped by Siwon and Sungmin.

            “Yeah! What he said!” Katrina joined, waking to Shindong’s side. She was pleasantly surprised that he cared for her friends. Jonghyun smiled at their reaction.

            “Give yourself up, and we will let them go. Otherwise,” Jonghyun snapped his fingers, making Minho and Taemin drop their packages from the fatal height.

            “NO!” Katrina and Shindong yelled as Jonghyun laughed. However, a few seconds later the captors swooped down and reappeared with their prisoners, who were shaken by the free fall, but were not hurt. It was just a fake out.

            “Now, come peacefully, or we really will ‘let them go’” Jonghyun smirked, knowing that he had won. Katrina stood still for a moment, staring into the eyes of her helpless friends. As she started to walk forward, Kyuhyun blocked her.

            “Are you crazy? If you go with them, they’ll kill you!” he reprimanded her. She looked towards the floor in defeat.

            He’s right. My clan needs me. Katrina stole another glance at her two companions. But I can’t just let them die! She racked her brain in an attempt to figure out how to weasel herself out of this situation. Suddenly, an idea popped into her mind. With a few motions of her hands, she used sign language to get a message across to the two. Atlas and she had taken a sign language class together, and she taught Phillip all she knew on the subject. Therefore, she successfully passed on the phrase:

            Kick off of them while I distract them.

The two discreetly nodded as Katrina put her hands up in surrender.

            “Fine,” she started as she started to walk against Kyuhyun’s block. “I’ll go with you.”

            At this Jonghyun grinned, happy that they would finally be able to bring the troublesome girl to his master. The others grinned too, relaxing a little bit since their victory was evident. That was their mistake, because when Minho and Taemin relaxed, their grips loosened on their packages. Seeing this, Katrina suddenly shouted,

            “NOW!”

            In just a second’s time, both and Atlas and Phillip landed firm kicks upon their captors, causing them to cry out in pain, and used the momentum to fly across the gap that separated them from the training room floor. Phillip easily made the jump, though he accidentally landed on his back, causing him to squirm in brutal pain. Atlas, however, barely made it across the gap and landed on the window sill, leaving him half out the window, scrambling in desperation to get inside. With a swift movement, Katrina slipped around Kyuhyun’s outstretched arm and sprinted out of Leeteuk’s barrier, causing the later to yell out in panic.

“Katrina, no!”

Left with no choice, he let down his defenses, running to Katrina’s aid. The others also sprang into action as the Valkyrie swooped down towards their prey, determined to complete their mission despite their target’s trickery. Donghae levitated and started chasing Taemin around, trying to lead him away from the heir. Eunhyuk froze Key’s wings, causing him to fall to the floor with great force. Siwon and Sungmin attacked Jonghyun, working together with fire and force as they did a hundred times before. Shindong went after Minho, brutally wrestling him to the ground. While the others fought, Yesung, Ryeowook, and Kyuhyun joined Leeteuk, running after Katrina who just arrived at the still pain ridden Phillip.

“It’s going to be okay Philly.” She assured him as she tried to sit him up, though this was proven to be difficult since he couldn’t move without wincing. Leeteuk finally arrived by Katrina’s side with the other three Phantoms. He immediately formed another force field around them all.

“Katrina, what were you thinking?! They could have captured you!” Leeteuk scolded as Ryeowook and Yesung bent down with Katrina, making sure Phillip was alright.

“She was thinking that she couldn’t let her friends die.” Kyuhyun informed Leeteuk since he had read her mind before. Suddenly, Phillip screamed in agony, arching his back in excruciating pain as two bony growths started to push themselves from his tender skin on his back. Katrina and the others looked on in shock and horror as the growths started to take shape into snow-white feathery wings.

“He’s a Valkyrie too?” Ryeowook asked incredulously as Phillip flapped his wings in panic. At that moment, Atlas howled to get Katrina’s attention. He couldn’t hold on much longer. Leaving Phillip in the care of Ryeowook and Yesung, she scrambled to her friend, running out of the force field again to Leeteuk’s dismay. He didn’t go after her though; he figured it was best that he make sure her feathered friend was safe. Shindong, who had just managed to subdue Minho, also ran to Atlas’s aid as the wolf started to lose his grip on the ledge. Katrina and Shindong were about to reach him when his paws finally gave out. They looked on in horror as Atlas plummeted towards the ground, but in a black flash, Minho, who turned out to be not as subdued as Shindong had thought, flew out of the window and caught Atlas for the second time. Figuring he could still use the wolf as bait, Minho reappeared at the window, staying a few yards away from Katrina and Shindong.

“You want him?” he asked as he dangled Atlas in a taunting manner. “Come and get him!”

Without thinking, Katrina leaped from the ledge, grabbing for Atlas as Minho started to fly away with his package.

Wow, déjà vu. Katrina thought as Yesung’s picture came to mind. However, she didn’t dwell on it long as she caught hold of Atlas’s fur. Grabbing her friend around his abdomen, she kicked Minho, causing him to let go. Thinking she had won, she celebrated for a split second until she realized that she had another problem: They were hurtling towards the ground at rapid speed with Atlas in tow.

Crap

Her first instinct was to slow herself and Atlas down, but then she remembered Eunhyuk’s words from the night before:

“You may be able to control time, but you can’t control force.”

Double crap

But her worries were just beginning, because as she looked up, she saw that the Valkyrie, who had apparently escaped their attackers, were in hot pursuit. Katrina yelped in panic.

I knew I shouldn’t have gotten out of bed!

She frantically searched her mind for answers on how to get out of this situation, but she found none, and decided to close her eyes, waiting for either the crushing impact or the piercing claws to register. After a few seconds however, she suddenly felt something that was neither ground nor talons. It was a familiar force around her waist, which could only mean one thing.

“Donghae! Thank goodness.” She looked up to get a better look at the rescuer, but it turned out that it was not Donghae. It was Phillip. He cocked his head in confusion.

“Who’s Donghae?” he asked as he flapped his wings rapidly, struggling to keep the girl and wolf from falling. It turned out that when he saw the Valkyrie pursuing the couple, he ignored his back pain and flew with great speed after the chase, whizzing past the shocked black-winged adversaries. He was actually pretty good at flying, and the feeling of freedom he felt was amazing. Katrina was shocked at first, but she eventually smiled, happy that her friend was ok and that he was helping them in their dire situation.

“Never mind,” she replied as she looked down, seeing Atlas’s astonished face.

 First I become a wolf,he thought, And now Philly’s a bird? How could this day get any weirder?

She smirked at his expression before spotting several flashes of black smoke below. The clan had transported outside. She could clearly distinguish Leeteuk’s face as he mouthed,

“Get down here now!”

Katrina nodded as she looked up at Phillip. “Take us to those men.” She pointed to the clan. “They’ll protect us.” He nodded in response as he narrowed his wings, gaining speed. However, the Valkyrie, now over their shock of Phillip being one of them, gained speed as well, closing the gap. It was apparent that they would catch up to the trio, on account that they were more experienced in flight. The three looked around in panic. Seeing that they might not make it, Donghae used his power to propel himself towards Jonghyun, who was the closest to his target. He latched on to the leader, trying to slow him down, but with a solid punch, the impatient Jonghyun rid himself of his attacker, sending Donghae back down to the ground with a firm thump. Luckily, he was able to levitate just enough to land without majorly hurting himself. The clan looked into the sky helplessly. Katrina, Atlas, and Phillip were twenty yards away, and by the looks of it, the Valkyrie would inevitably catch up before they could make it to safety. It didn’t seem like they could do much to help either; long range attacks were dangerous because they might hit the trio, and, as Donghae discovered, even if you could attack them at close range, it was useless. It seemed hopeless.

Then, Sungmin suddenly remembered Katrina’s last lesson. He cupped his hands over his mouth and yelled. “Do what I just taught you Katrina. Speed up!”

When Katrina heard, she nodded, and sped her thoughts up, focusing only on her and her friends so that only they would go faster. In a few seconds, it worked, and they were speeding towards the clan at a speed even the Valkyrie couldn’t match. In no time, Phillip finally landed them on the ground next to the Phantoms, letting go of his friends and collapsing from exhaustion. Both he and Atlas stared at Katrina with shock.

“How did you do that?” Phillip asked as Leeteuk formed his barrier once again, causing the Valkyrie to stop in their tracks. They looked upon the now protected Katrina and friends with shock. They failed. Jonghyun violently shivered in fury, screeching in overwhelming anger.

“Fine!” he spat. “You win this time, Phantom heir, but I wouldn’t celebrate for too long. In less than twenty-four hours, Master Onew will the life force from your precious mother, and she’ll be nothing but a dried up corpse!”

With that, the Valkyrie left for the north, back to their master’s lair. Katrina looked on with hatred on her face, but as she did, she saw something peculiar. In the middle of his flight, Taemin suddenly shuddered, stopping in midair. He turned towards Katrina, meeting her eyes. Katrina observed that his were not heartless and black like before; they were now a soft brown. He never looked away from her as he quickly mouthed the words:

“Tonight on the roof.”

He shuddered once more, and his eyes were replaced with black again as he broke his gaze from the confused Katrina and joined the others. When the Valkyrie were finally out of sight, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The chaos was finally over.

Well, almost.

When Atlas finally relaxed his muscles, knowing that they were out of danger’s grasp, his body transformed again. His fur and claws retracted into his skin as he stood up on two familiar legs. He breathed deeply as the transformation became complete. He was human again. He looked at his hands and smiled.

This is so cool!He thought before he was smothered by Katrina in a huge hug. At first, he stiffened in shock, but then he smiled again as he hugged back. It was good to see his friend again, though she had a lot of explaining to do.

Hesitantly, Shindong stepped towards the couple, becoming very nervous all of a sudden. Atlas looked up from Katrina to see who was approaching. His breath caught at the sight of Shindong’s face, letting go of Katrina in the process.

“Shindong!? What the heck are you doing here?” he asked as he stood there in shock. Glad that Atlas recognized him, Shindong smiled.

“Nice to see you too Atlas.” He replied as Katrina and the rest of the Phantoms looked on in astonishment.  He gave Atlas a big bear hug. It took a few moments, but Katrina finally came out of her shock to ask,

“You guys know each other?”

The two slowly broke their hug, looked at each other, and shrugged. Everyone had to know sometime. They both answered,

“We’re half-brothers.”

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Surprise! :D I love plot twists if you haven't noticed ;) Haha! Anyway, sorry about not updating in a few days. I got sick :( In fact, I'm still sick, so I'm sorry if this isn't as good as the other chapters, but it sure was fun to write ^^ As always, please comment and subcribe, and thank you to those who have! :)

~Justjoking <3