Heroes: The story of Harlow and Annora

This is a collaboration between Nkurle and Akurle.

Credit to BlackDragonKid for the idea of the phantoms.

This story will contain some gore.

Prologue
Written by Akurle.

A phantom, scarred on one of his top tentacles, hurried through the huge building known as the phantom factory. He slipped into a room with large tubes of green liquid lined on the far wall. Inside were vague shapes of animals.

"Bolt!" someone shouted. The phantom turned around just as a large, bulky phantom burst in. "Have they reported yet?" The bulky phantom asked.

"Yes. They have found two that would be perfect for the job," the phantom, Bolt, answered.

"Only two? What about the third?"

"Wouldn't be needed. Plus, we already have the three beasts that are in the making. If everything goes well, they will be almost as powerful as the two that have been chosen."

"There should be a third. It's what the kings requested," the bulky phantom said gruffly.

Bolt sighed. "They said that they could only find two. Plus, I gave them orders to bring them here, that there is no need for a third."

"Then tell them to find a third."

"I can't. If we continue to communicate so often, they will be found."

The bulky phantom pressed one of his stubby tentacles to his head. "Arrrgh, fine. The kings won't be pleased."

"Well, tell the kings to deal with it. The others have their orders, and the two will be arriving soon. We can't risk going back to change their orders yet again."

The bulky phantom grumbled something and floated out of the room, leaving Bolt with the animals in the test tubes. He turned around and looked at the three tubes in the middle, which were the largest. The shapes inside wiggled and flinched every now and then.

But the vague shapes inside the test tubes were all but animals.

Chapter 1: Harlow
Written by Nkurle.

All Harlow the fox remembered before the phantoms came was walking around the cliffs of Coral Canyons after a hard day of school work.

Harlow loved walking around the cliffs of Coral Canyons. The wind would always blow through her gold and black fur. A group of eagles would fly together in the distance. Harlow had always wished to soar through the sky like them. And best of all Harlow would dream in the setting sun of flying past Jamaa with Mira and bring life back to the Badlands.

Today was just like all the other days. In the sunset, she dreamed of all the animals gathering around her after she killed a phantom king. Harlow was so into her dream she didn't hear one of her many brothers calling her name. Once the dream ended she looked down the hill and her brother was running up it. Her brother made it to the top with a frown on his face.

"I was screaming your name for like, 50 years," he said as he whipped back the tuft of brown fur on his head.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't hear," she said freely. This happened so much that she didn't even feel one bit sorry. It had soon become a thing that she would constantly say to her 2 sisters, 3 brothers, parents, grandparents, friends, and everyone she had ever met.

"Well, Mom wants you to come home for dinner," her brother said as he turned around and started walking down the dusty hill. Harlow followed.

Harlow and her brother where almost to the main grounds of Coral Canyons when they started to hear electricity crackle through the air. Harlow and her brother Ryan stopped walking. "Do you hear that?" she asked.

"Yep. The sound and smell of phantoms," Ryan said, tensing his legs.

"Why would phantoms be in Jamaa?" Harlow asked as she looked around.

"To attack," Ryan answered.

"But Jamaa is so well guarded. Why would they attack? I just don't get it. What would they want?" Harlow said as worry filled her voice.

"Stop being such a worry fox like you always are. Let's fight off the phantoms!" Ryan said with a loud ring to the last word. As if on cue, a lightning bolt shot through the air and hit a rock.

Harlow yelped and started running away but only to find that Phantoms had surrounded them. The Phantoms started closing in on them. Harlow backed up until her tail hit Ryan's.

"Come on Harlow. Let's scare them off!" Ryan said, then jumped at one of the phantoms only to get zapped mid-air and fall over, paralyzed.

Harlow yelped when she saw Ryan fall. She wanted to run to him and help but the phantoms threw a net on her. She tripped and rolled around in the net that was made of strings of goop. A phantom grabbed the net and threw it into a cage that came out of nowhere. She hit the ground with a thud and her vision blurred.

She felt the cage move along the rocky ground. Her head banged on the floor of the cage. Slowly her sight faded into darkness. The last thing she saw was the eye of the phantom behind the cage.

Little did she know that she would never be the same. Her life was about to change forever...

Chapter 2: Annora
Written by Akurle

Annora rolled out of bed and yawned. A small ray of sunlight was shining through the curtains. Annora blinked several times and opened to curtains to let the sunshine in. She did her usual morning routine and then sat down on the living room couch with a bowl of cereal in her paws. She wasn't your ordinary snow leopard. She had light blue fur with a bluish purple stomach and paws. She had bright green eyes and a long fluffy tail, but that wasn't what set her apart. She had golden spots that turned into her distinctive gold stripes on her wrists, cheeks, tail and on her nose. She also has beautiful gold spots under her eyes that were mostly seen on Alphas.

Other than that, Annora had the average life any high-schooler in Jamaa had. She had a kind mother, a funny father, and they all lived in a small, comfy house on the edge of Sarepia forest, right next to Coral Canyons. Annora didn't have any siblings, and she had few friends, but that didn't keep her from being happy. Her best friend that she had met in school was a cheetah named Finn. He was the closest she had to a brother, even though they had only known each other for a year.

Annora grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. It automatically turned on to Jamaa News Daily. Annora was about to change the channel when something popped up.

"Breaking News! High-schooled fox is believed to have been captured by phantoms in Coral Canyons!"

Annora set down the remote, instantly interested. She had always been fascinated by phantoms and loved learning about them. They were odd, mysterious creatures, and scientists were always learning more about them. Annora started munching on her cereal as she watched the news.

"A young fox by the name of Harlow mysteriously disappeared just before 5:30 along with her brother Ryan in Coral Canyons. Their parents started to worry and started searching for them, only to find the brother Ryan, alone and unconscious. After waking an hour later, Ryan stated that he and his sister had been attacked by-"

"ANNORA!"

Annora turned off the TV. "Yes, Mom!?"

Annora's mother, a light blue leopard with dark blue spots, came into the living room. "Annora, it's time to go to school!"

"Okay," Annora grumbled. She finished her cereal in a big gulp and grabbed her backpack. Then she rushed out the door and started down the path to school. She decided to take the long route, which had more nature and was used much less. Her school was in Coral Canyons, but the long route went through part of the forest.

Annora started down the path, which wasn't worn down like the other paths. This path was rarely used, meaning it would be nice and quiet. Annora didn't really care if she was late to school, she just loved admiring the trees and embracing the still silence. Taking a stroll through the woods calmed her down. She paused and breathed in the wonderful scents of nature.

"Hey, Annora! Getting distracted again?" someone called.

Annora spun around and saw Finn running down the path. He stopped just in front of her, kicking up some dust. He was a golden-brown cheetah with a light yellow underside, a green ribbon scarf, green ice sword, green arm cuffs, and dark green spots. He had startling lime green eyes. "Oh, hey Finn!" Annora said, smiling.

"Hello! Did you ever hear me when I said that getting distracted by nature will make you late to school?" he joked.

"I know, I know. But I can't help it!"

"Oh, yeah you can. You just don't want to admit it." He laughed and nudged her shoulder.

Annora couldn't help but smile. Finn was a handsome cheetah, that was no doubt. Her parents always joked that she was in love with him, even though she said he wasn't. She liked to think of him as the brother she never had, but if she had to admit it, she did like him. He was kind, funny, good-looking, and a great athlete.

"Hey, we should get going. Race you there?" he asked.

"What? You know I can't-" she started, but it was too late. Finn had already started running. He was going considerably slow for a cheetah, but still too fast for Annora. She started to chase after him when she heard a rustle in the bushes. She slowed down and looked around, but nothing was there. She was about to speed up when a foul scent hit her nose.

Annora froze, her eyes darting across the thick forest. She didn't see anything, but she could hear rustles in the bushes every now and then.

"Finn? Finn!" she called. No response. Finn was nowhere in sight.

Suddenly, something shot out of the trees and soared right over her head. It hit the tree behind her with a loud thunk. When Annora looked at it, she gasped.

It was an arrow. And it was tipped with some sort of poison.

Annora started running as fast as she could. "Finn?! FINN!!" she screamed. Still no response. Something flung out of the trees and expanded into a net made of hardened phantom goop. The net didn't get Annora completely, but caught her bottom half and tangled around her back legs. She collapsed to the ground, but adrenaline blocked out most of the pain. She had a deep cut on her upper leg that was starting to bleed.

Annora scraped at the net with her claws. The goop simply stretched instead of breaking. There was more rustling and three phantoms came out of the forest. They grabbed another net and tried to wrap it around Annora's whole body. She hissed and slashed at the phantom, but ended up shocking herself. The phantom swung the net over her tightly so she couldn't move her legs. Annora tried to call for help, but a gag was shoved in her mouth.

She could hear faint footsteps coming closer. It had to be Finn. The phantoms froze, then grabbed the net Annora was in and dragged it into the bushes. Something hit Annora in the head, and her vision went blurry.

Then, she was plunged into darkness.

Chapter 3: Harlow
Written by Nkurle.

Harlow awoke in a gray cell. There was a window on the cell door with bars made of dark purple goop. There was a window on the right and left walls. There was a wolf in one cell and the other cell was empty. There was a pillow and rag in the back of the cell and a water and food bowl too. The food in the bowl was a rotting chunk of meat and the water was brown from all the dirt inside the bowl.

Worry filled Harlow's mind. Where was she, Where was her brother, why was she here. Then it hit her, the phantoms had captured her and must have dragged her here. Harlow started to panic. She tryed to think of things that would help the panic go away. Harlow loved dreaming, maybe that would help.

Harlow looked around then curled up on the rag. She closed her eyes and began to dream of what happened to her brother. In her dream, she was saved by Mira and her brothers. A smile spread across her face as she began to fall asleep. Her dream began to change and she soon started to save others. Finding Heartstones of lost animals. Finding old and lost Alphas...

A loud thud woke up Harlow. She shot up her head and looked around. A phantom had opened the door and was floating to her. The phantom was holding a black long collar in its hand. The phantom grabbed her snout and forced her to look upward. She tried to pull away but couldn't. The phantom stuck the black long over her head and onto her neck. The phantom grabbed a chain and attached it to the long.

A phantom appeared behind the phantom that was still holding Harlow's snout. "Why did you put the spikey ring on the animal" The phantom asked.

The phantom holding Harlow's snout grumbled. "We found it on an animal. We can use it as a lead. Just click a chain onto it and you can lead the animal anywhere. The King also wants us to use the animal's items because we are getting too many of them." The phantom let go of Harlow's snout and grabbed the chain and lead her out of the cell with the other phantom behind.

Harlow was having a hard time finding the right pace. The phantom would either be super slow then get super fast. She kept bumping into the phantoms front and back and would get a little zap. The phantom led Harlow to a large metal room with giant glass tubes that had green liquid running through them. On small metal tables where many computers and weird science equipment.

The phantom clipped the chain to a metal post. "Call in Bolt. Tell him we need to test this animal, to see if it is the right one." One phantom said to the other. Both phantoms went out the door then closed it. A click echoed through the room as the door locked.

Harlow sat in the room. She felt the spike across her neck. It was weird to have on at first but she was slowly getting used to it. It felt weird to know she had such a rare item around her neck. The thoughts of how rare the spike was where pushed away by the many worries. Harlow had never been a strong-willed, brave, and awesome fox that she dreamed of. She couldn't even watch certain movies because they had to much action. Now Harlow felt so alone. She felt weaker then she had ever been. Being captured by phantoms. She had always thought of what might happen if she was. But this right here was no dream, it was real.

A tear slowly dripped onto the ground. Moments later, the sound of a door being swung open echoed in the room. A large phantom with a scar on his tentacle came over to Harlow. The Phantom looked at her very closely. Harlow started to back up until her back hit the post. The Phantom looked away.

"How does this one act?" The phantom asked.

A small phantom came into the doorway. "This is Vulpes Róka Mway Hkhaayy. The phantoms that captured her said she does care for others and does not fight." The small phantom said to the large phantom that Harlow thought was named Bolt.

"Umm," Harlow said. The phantoms turned to her. "My name is Harlow. Not whatever you just said," Harlow was surprised to see that the phantoms heard what she had said, even though she talked so quiet.

"Alright. Test Harlow's blood." Bolt said.

"Yes, master Bolt," the small phantom answered.

The small phantom grabbed a needle and poked it into Harlow's skin. The phantom put the needle into a cup and hooked up the cup to a computer. After a few seconds, the small phantom whispered something to Bolt. Bolt nodded.

"Alright, she will be one of them."

Chapter 4: Annora
Written by Akurle

Annora woke up groggily. She opened her eyes to find herself in some sort of dungeon. Her arm was stinging, and she felt dizzy and sick. When she looked at her arm, she saw it stained with blood from the cut she had gotten.

Annora sat up and looked around, blinking away the dizziness. She was in a prison cell. On the right side was a rotting wooden bed with a large rag and a pillow lacking stuffing on top of it. There was also a barred window. On the far was another barred window with a metal door. In the corner were two shelves attached to the wall, each with a rusting metal bowl on it. The top had a chunk of rotting, stale meat, and the bottom bowl was filled with brownish-green water. On the left wall was another barred window.

Annora slowly stood up, shaking slightly. It was awfully dark, and one of the corners of the room was almost pitch black. She peeked through the window on the left wall. It was another cell, but it was empty. Annora was about to look inside the cell on the right when she heard a click. The metal door swung open and an oily black phantom hovered in.

Annora backed up, hissing. The phantom didn't look impressed. He held a metal band in one of his many tentacles, along with a chain.

"W-why am I here?" Annora stammered.

The phantom didn't answer, instead hovered straight toward her. He reached out and grabbed her snout in his tentacle and forced her head upward. Annora made a muffled scream and tried to squeeze out. She unsheathed her claws and lashed out at him, causing a long scratch down his bottom tentacle.

The phantom let go and backed up, looking very annoyed and angry. He called something in Phantom, and another phantom came into the cell. The other phantom had thick metal armor. It grabbed Annora and held her still while the first phantom put the metal band around her neck. There was a little hook coming off the front, which the first phantom attached the chain to.

The moment the second phantom let go, Annora lashed out and tried grabbing the chain away from the first phantom. He jumped to the side and shocked the chain, and the electricity traveled across the chain and shocked Annora.

"Agh! What do you want from me? WHY AM I HERE?!" Annora demanded. The phantom didn't answer and pulled on the chain, making Annora stumble forward. He dragged her out of the cell, shocking her whenever she stopped. He lead her through several long, dark hallways, some of which had prison cells on the sides. Finally, they entered a large room that was brightly lit. There were tubes filled with green liquid on one wall, tables with odd science equipment scattered around, computers on another wall, and diagrams and weird looking things floating in liquid on another wall.

On the fourth wall, the only empty one, there were hooks attached to the wall. There was a golden and black fox chained to one of the hooks. The phantom pulled Annora over and chained her to one of the hooks.

There was another phantom in the room, a large, burly one with a scar on his tentacle. There was also a small phantom looking at a computer.

The large phantom started observing Annora. He glanced at the gold fox.

"Alright, do the test," he muttered. The small phantom came over and drew some blood from Annora with a needle, then emptied it into a cup. Annora turned toward the gold and black fox.

"Hey, who are you?" Annora whispered to her.

The gold fox glanced at Annora and started fiddling with a black spiked collar on her neck. "Erm", the fox said with such a quiet voice. "My name is Harlow. Who are you?"

Annora gasped. "You're that girl on the news! The girl who disappeared!"

"The news?" Suddenly her eyes widened. "Is my brother okay?"

"I don't know. But my name is Annora." Annora glared at the phantom that had dragged her in here, who was watching them closely. "Do you know what they are doing to us?" she said quieter so the phantom wouldn't hear.

"I don't know. Bolt- the one with the scar, said that I was going to be part of something. Maybe-"

"Okay, bring the fox out," Bolt interrupted. He hovered over to her and unhooked the chain, then handed it to the phantom that brought Annora in. The phantom dragged her out of the room.

Annora looked up at Bolt and bared her teeth. He snorted and turned to the small phantom.

"So, what did he say about her?" Bolt asked the small phantom.

"Wait, do you mean the-"

"Yes, I mean him." Bolt glared at Annora, then turned back to the small phantom. "How does she usually act?"

"Her name is Annora. She likes nature and science, easily distracted, gets angry fairy easily, likes to have her way. She likes to learn about us, but doesn't necessarily like us."

Bolt observed Annora again and eyed the wound on her leg. "Gets angry easily? That should be easy to work with. Take a scan on the wound and try to treat it. I want her in good condition before we start." With that, he hovered over to a weird machine attached to one of the large tubes and started pressing buttons on it.

The small phantom put a small device on her leg and waited a few seconds, then wrapped a badly made bandage around her leg. He gave her several shots, despite her struggling and attempts to escape. One of them made her awfully queasy and dizzy, but it had started to fade by the time the phantom that had taken Harlow out came back and brought Annora back to her cell.

As she was going, she passed by a door that had been heavily locked. A phantom came by and opened the door to go inside, and Annora got a peek of what was in there.

It looked like another laboratory, but with fewer tables and more tubes. Inside, Annora saw one open and something crawled out. It looked like a phantom with legs and fangs.

"Yes, it finally worked! Jamaa will never know what hit them..."Was the last thing Annora heard before the door closed. Then she was thrown in her cell and locked inside.

Questions flooded her head. What were the phantoms doing to her and Harlow? Who was the mysterious 'he' that seemed to know everything about Annora? What was that horrible creature that had crawled out of the tube?

But among all these questions, Annora knew one thing:

Jamaa was in danger.

Chapter 5: Harlow
Written by Nkurle.

Harlow was thrown into her cell by a phantom after the chain was unhooked from the spike. Harlow sat on the rag in her cell. Everything felt so hopeless. Harlow was thinking about the strange colorful leopard named Annora when she heard a "Psst". Harlow looked around. In one of the cell windows was a gray wolf.

"Hey, who are you?" the wolf said.

"I'm Harlow," Harlow answered.

The wolf smiled. "How long have you been here?" he asked.

"Only a few days," Harlow said as she got up and stood face to face with the wolf in the window.

"I have been here for a year or two," he said as his head turned around to look at his cell.

"Have the phantoms done anything to you?" Harlow asked.

"No. They only tested my blood once. After that they had me do slave work." He said it so casually, it sounded like this happened every day. "But I have been here so long that I was able to make an escape plan," he said quietly.

"An escape plan? Wouldn't the phantoms catch you making it?" Harlow asked.

"Sometimes, you've just got to hope. It's not that hopeless here, ya know. Others have escaped before, all because they didn't give up and lose hope," the wolf said proudly.

I thought for a little bit. Whatever the phantoms had planned for her, it would not be nice. Maybe she could escape. "Alright, tell me your plan," Harlow asked. But before the wolf could even say a word, a phantom opened the door to her cell. The wolf backed away and acted like nothing was wrong. Harlow moved away from the window as fast as she could only to trip and fall. The Phantom came over and hooked a chain to her spike. The phantom forced her up and led her out of the cell.

Harlow was being dragged along the halls of the fortress. The phantom was going so fast that every time Harlow tried to get up she would trip and fall again. Soon Harlow did end up standing up and was led into the room that she was lead into before.

The room was darker now and gave Harlow the shivers. Many phantoms floated around the room. Some of the tubes now had green liquid in them, but others didn't. But what freaked Harlow out the most was that a tube filled with green liquid had a phantom in it and one other tube had a falcon with mask on that gave it air.

Harlow was lead to a empty tube with no liquid in it. A phantom opened the door to the tube and took off the spike and chain. A phantom grabbed a mask and shoved it on Harlow. Air was forced into Harlow's lungs that made her dizzy. She was put into the tube and green liquid poured into the tube from the top. The door to the tube was locked shut and Harlow started to fall asleep. The Phantoms started to look at computers and report to each other.

Then the colorful leopard Harlow had seen before came into the room being lead by two large phantoms. She was trying to fight back, but the phantoms didn't loosen their grip. They were bringing her to a different tube.

Then a sharp pain made its way into Harlow's bones. With that, Harlow then gave up and let sleep take over.

...

...

"Silence, child. I give all to me. Follow me. I lead you now. Give up. I know what's best for you."

The word silence echoed across the cavern Harlow now stood in.

"Silence," the weird woman's voice echoed again. Then Harlow was ripped out of the dream into another one.

Chapter 6: Annora
Written by Akurle

The last thing Annora remembered before being shoved in the tube of green liquid was sitting alone in her cell, thinking about how horrible her life had gotten in the last few hours. The bed she was given was horrible, as the mattress was simply a rag that was draped over the hard, wooden frame. The pillow was also devoid of any stuffing, apart from clumps of dust. When Harlow had removed the rag, she discovered 6 or 7 dead bugs.

After seeing that, Harlow decided she would rather sleep on the floor which was, surprisingly, more comfortable than her bed. But after laying there in pure boredom for what felt like hours, hunger started to gnaw at her stomach. She didn't want to even look at the food she was given, but soon her hunger got the best of her.

She took a small chunk of the meat she had been given and tasted it. It tasted even worse than it looked. She had spit it out instantly and took a drink instead of the muddy water. It tasted just as bad, but at least her throat wasn't dry. Annora tried another bit of meat, but it wasn't any better. She ended up swallowing it so her stomach would stop growling, but it probably wasn't worth it. Annora soon fell asleep.

Annora wasn't sure how long it had been, but she was no longer tired. She decided to check out the cell to her left, which she hadn't seen before. To her surprise, it was also empty. The bed sheets had been thrown off, and it looked recent. There was also a little bit of food inside the top bowl, and the water was empty.

Without warning, the door to her cell swung open. There was one, large phantoms outside. He came in hurriedly, preparing to hook the chain to the metal collar around her neck. Bad news for him, though, as Annora was also prepared.

Once the phantom got close enough, Annora ran to her bed and jumped on top. The phantom changed course, heading straight toward her, making him no longer blocking the exit. When he got within range, Annora jumped forward, landing on top of him. He landed on the ground hard, but Annora didn't waste any time. She jumped off and charged toward the exit.

"PRISONER #109 HAS ESCAPED! GET HER!!" the phantom screamed. Annora stopped for a split second to slam the door shut and shove a loose piece of metal in the lock so he wouldn't be able to get out. Then she ran through the halls as fast as her legs could carry her. She could hear the phantom in her cell screaming for help and demanding that the alarms be set off.

It wasn't long before they did. Green, flashing lights on the ceiling started flashing and sirens wailed. Annora blocked out the noise and focused on the phantoms charging toward her. Annora waited until she was close enough before she made a flying leap right over them. They started shooting bolts of electricity in every direction. One hit a glass pipe in the ceiling filled with what appeared to be acid, making glass and acid spray everywhere. Unfortunately, a few drops hit Annora's shoulder.

She yowled in pain and stumbled, almost falling, but managed to catch herself. The acid on her shoulder stung like crazy, making her slow down. Eventually, she slowed to stop and fell on the floor in exhaustion. She had no idea where she was or where she was going, and the only thing she was finding where seemingly endless hallways. Annora looked around for a map somewhere, but all she found was a small window.

Realization hit Annora. She got to her paws, very slowly, and ran over to the window, panting. It was barred, just her luck. But outside she could see the Phantom Badlands, and a few carts full of pipes and scrap metal. It would be the perfect place to hide.

Annora slammed her paw on the metal bars as hard as she could, but it only gave her more pain. She was exhausted and in pain, and the stinging on her shoulder only got worse. Annora looked around for something to use that would be able to break the bars.

She looked up and saw the pipe of acid. It was perfect. The acid was slowly emptying from being broken, meaning Annora would have to work fast.

She grabbed a loose piece of metal from the wall and threw it at the pipe. She ran away as fast as she could and watched as acid sprayed all over the window. The acid eventually stopped spraying everywhere and turned into a steady drizzle dripping from the crack in the tube. The bars of the window had melted away and even part of the wall, making the opening wider.

"PRISONER #109, WE HAVE LOCKED ONTO YOUR LOCATION. WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU SURRENDER NOW, AS ESCAPE IS FUTILE AND ANY ATTEMPT IS USELESS. WE ARE SENDING IN MULTIPLE GUARDS FROM BOTH SIDES TO ASSURE THAT YOU WILL HAVE NO ESCAPE. PLEASE SURRENDER YOURSELF AND THERE WILL BE NO BLOODSHED," blared from speakers above Annora. She snorted and ignored it.

Using the piece of metal from before, she wiped most of the acid off the window. Then she hauled herself up and squeezed through. A sharp bit of metal scraped her stomach, making her falter. That was her mistake.

A phantom tentacle wrapped itself around her tail just before she came out the other side. She immediately pushed herself out, but not before she was badly shocked. She fell to the rocky ground of the Badlands, partially stunned.

"Prisoner #109, stop right there! We have you cornered!" one of the phantoms yelled. He floated out of the window and pointed a long spear at Annora. Several other phantoms came out of the window and surrounded her.

Annora stood up shakily and snarled at the phantoms, trying to ignore the pain. "I refuse to be stuck in a prison for the rest of my life! I won't stand down!"

The phantom with the spear huffed. "No, no, that's not what we have planned for you at all." He extended his spear so it was almost touching Annora's chest. The phantoms around her started to close in.

Annora was too weak to fight. She didn't know how much more she could take. But she was so close- too close, to surrender now. With lightning speed, she reached out and grabbed the part of spear just behind the blade. She didn't pull, instead swung the spear to the side, dragging the phantom with it. The phantom smacked into another phantom before he could react and shock her. With that, Annora jumped out of the gap and charged across the flat, rocky grounds of the Phantom Badlands.

The phantoms behind her started blasting small bolts of electricity in every direction, trying to hit Annora. She swerved to the side and jumped onto one of the carts of weird supplies.

She felt a gust of wind on her flank and a loud chink beside her. One of the phantoms had thrown a spear at her, and it had almost hit its mark. It had grazed her side and now lay lodged in the cart. The cart tilted to the side from the force. Annora was about to jump when she realized she was making a huge mistake.

The cart flipped to the side and landed on the hard ground. Annora couldn't get any momentum and ended up falling pathetically to the ground. The metal objects in the cart poured on top of her. On hit her in the head, making her vision blur and darken.

She tried to stand up and shake the stuff off her, but she was far too tired. Then, a spear was pressed against her neck as the Phantoms pulled her up and dragged her back to the prison. She was still dazed and wasn't exactly sure what happened next, but she soon found herself back in that horrible lab where she had met the fox, Harlow.

Annora managed to pull free from the guards, only to be held down by the large phantom named Bolt. Bolt looked at the burn mark on her shoulder and sighed.

"Acid, huh? And just when I was trying to get you in good shape! You better be careful what you do around here, miss." Bolt lifted her by her scruff and tossed her to the guards, who grabbed her and held her still.

Annora was about to retort when she saw what was going on behind Bolt. Four tubes had been filled with green goop and had an empty one beside the first two and second two. The first two had a peregrine falcon and a phantom in them. The second two had a micro-bat and a phantom.

But that wasn't was scared her. It was the fact that phantoms were shoving Harlow the fox inside the empty tube beside the falcon and the bat. She was thrown inside and forced to wear a mask, then the tube closed and filled with green liquid.

Then, it slowly fit together. The other empty tube. The blood test Harlow and Annora had been given. The fact that Bolt wanted Annora in 'good' shape. Why the phantom with the spear said Annora wasn't going to be stuck in a prison all her life.

Bolt ripped the bandages off Annora's leg and forced her toward the second empty tube. He pushed her in and shoved a weird mask on her face, despite all her struggling. He backed up and the tube closed just before Annora could get out.

The mask forced air into her lungs that made her feel dizzy and sleepy. She slumped down, trying to fight back the tired feeling. But it was useless. She tried taking the mask off, but before she could, something dripped onto her head.

Then, green liquid started pouring into the tube. It was thick and sticky like syrup, restraining Annora's movements. Soon it was above her head, then seconds later the tube was full. Annora squirmed and wiggled, but the sleepy feeling was taking over. Everything was turning dark. Black spots danced in front of her eyes, everything started spinning....

And then it all went black.

Chapter 7: Harlow
Written by Nkurle.

Harlow had so many weird dreams. Most of them where ones where she would be rolling on the ground as spikes grew out of her. She was ripped out of every dream with a flash of pain. Harlow could tell what stomach ache she had by the type of pain and where the pain was. But Harlow had not felt like this before. It was like growing-pain, but much worse. She felt like her shoulder blades were being ripped out her body, or growing super fast.

Harlow tried to scream in one dream as pain filled up her body. Harlow could sometimes tell she was asleep and tried to use her trick to wake herself up, But she was only pulled into a deeper sleep and found out again she was dreaming.

Soon Harlow found out she was dreaming for the tenth time. She use her trick she used to wake up. Slowly she felt herself wake.

Harlow gasped and flung her eyes open as she entered the world again. Everything was tinted green. Then it all came back to her. She had been thrown into the tube and green liquid had poured into it. That's why everything was green

Harlow looked at the table with the computers on them. Many phantoms hirried across the room. One went over to Harlow and put its tentacle on the glass of the tube. Harlow looked down and put her paw where its tentacle was. The phantom seemed to be watching something on Harlow's back. Harlow turned around but couldn't find out what was on her back. Then she saw a mirror on the wall. Through the green liquid Harlow saw herself in the mirror. She saw what was on her back. A lump of dark brown feathers that were wrinkled like a butterfly's wings when it comes out of the chrysalis. Harlow slowly moved the lump and it took a shape. The phantoms had given her wings. Soon all the green liquid was drained out of the tube and a phantom pulled Harlow out of the tube and ripped the breathing mask off. The phantoms forced Harlow to stand. Harlow's legs where tired and she felt no will to stand. But she managed to. The phantoms opened her wings for her and looked at Harlow. Harlow turned her heavy head to the mirror. The phantoms didn't just give her wings. They made her colors darker. Her black feet where now very, very, dark, muddy purple. Her golden body and face was now a chocolate brown. Her wings had that muddy purple colored stripes.

Harlow looked at what one of the papers a phantom several feet away from her was holding. The letters where written in phantom but Harlow could tell they made a list. One part of the list had a check mark on it. The other parts didn't. But Harlow could tell now that the wings where only one part of what they added to her after looking at the list. And Harlow now knew that she was the phantoms new tool, new toy. But then shock hit Harlow right after she looked away from the paper. How had she seen the paper from that far away? She could see every detail.

Harlow's old spike collar was shoved back on. Rage filled her for a second. Why dare do that to her without asking? Harlow pushed away the rage. The phantoms where the ones that controlled her now. If she did something wrong they would hurt her. But she had her OWN will. They should NOT tell her what to do. NO ONE could tell her what to do now. Soon a battle of thoughts filled her head. Her calm, always letting people push her around, normal self was gone. Now rage filled her thoughts.

Harlow was so into the battle of thoughts she didn't know she was being dragged away from the room. She looked up and saw the door of the room be shut closed. But before the door was closed, she saw with her weird, awesome new eyesight, Annora in a tube.

Harlow was dragged into a dark hallway. At the end of the hallway was a iron door. One of the 4 phantoms dragging Harlow went up to the door and started spinning a huge metal wheel on the door. The door soon unlocked and Harlow was dragged inside.

The room she was now in was HUGE. It was made out of metal. The room was very empty and dark with only one bit light in the middle. Huge shelves lined one wall and on the opposite wall where 5 huge cages. In one corner were a few test tubes with green liquid in them that cast a green light around that corner. There were also tables with computers and all the things that where in the other room. But the only thing that was weird was there there where chains piled next to a test tube. One test tube had something wiggling inside.

The room more looked like a storage room. Random boxes laid around and the lab in the corner seemed to have been put there for a one-time thing. The ceiling was made out of pipes and smaller pipes crossing over those pipes that crossed over even more pipes. Harlow was dragged over to the darkest cell that was in the far corner. One phantom spun a huge wheel that was like the one on the other door. The door to the cell soon opened. The inside was so dark that with her new eyesight she could only see the dark shapes of objects inside. Just before she was shoved into the cell, the new rage-filled thoughts filled her head. Only one thought was the clearest.

Kill them.

Harlow screamed and her vision dimmed. She felt her body change. Her fur become more stiff. Her new wings become more powerful. her back legs seemed to change. Large, sharp and deadly claws grew from her front paws. The muscles moved around her back legs and then clicked back into place in other spots. She opened her eyes and then everything became clear again. Every small nail in the wall she could see. Her eyesight was even better then before. All the sleepiness from before faded. Rage filled her head and only one thought stayed clear.

KILL THEM ALL.

Harlow did a 14-foot jump right over the phantoms and landed about 4 feet away from them. The phantoms started screaming orders to the phantoms over at the lab. But Harlow would not let them come up with a plan to stop her. She jumped right at a phantom. Her new, sharper claws dug right into the phantoms goop-like skin. Harlow flung the phantom at one other phantom and they both fell to the ground. Harlow jumped into the path of one more phantom. her claws dug into the metal floor as she slowly skidded to a stop in front of the phantom. Long claw marks lined the floor.

Harlow growled. The phantom screamed and turned the other way and ran. But Harlow was faster. She ran and bit into the phantom and smashed him on the floor. The phantom, before he died, zapped Harlow. Harlow jumped back in fear. But the fear was drowned out by rage. The zap didn't even hurt Harlow much because her fur was now so thick. Harlow, in rage that the phantom zapped her, jumped on the phantom but before she could do anything She remembered the other phantom. She turned and saw about 20 phantoms with spears and chains coming to her. Harlow wanted to rip them up but they started shooting lightning. Harlow jumped from side to side. The lightning didn't hit her yet. She was then hit in the leg.

Harlow almost fell over but managed to catch herself. Many other lightning bolts started being shot at her. She soon was hit by about 8 lightning bolts. It was not safe down here. The phantoms were getting closer. Harlow looked up at the ceiling. She jumped. She made it about half way to the ceiling before she started to fall. She felt her wings start to flap and soon she was in the air. A lightning bolt hit her wing and she almost fell, but then used all her might and in one strong flap her claws where around a pipe in the ceiling.

Harlow pulled herself up. She was in a dark, empty space. There were three rows of crisscrossing pipes covering a dark, empty space between the pipes and the ceiling above. The only light was the light from the under side of the pipes. Harlow looked down. The phantoms had stopped shooting. It was now time to attack. Harlow walked along the pipes until she was under a small group of phantoms. Harlow then jumped off the pipe and landed on a phantom.

She killed all the phantoms very fast with only a few slashes. They had not been ready for her attack. Harlow then flew back onto the pipe on the ceiling before being spotted. Then she jumped down and attacked, then flew back up. Harlow did this many times until only one group of phantoms were left. They were next to the small lab in the corner of the room.

Harlow was going to jump down when she slipped and a small pipe that fell down with a sound that echoed across the quiet room. A phantom looked up and shot a bolt right at Harlow. Harlow jumped to another pipe, but that was shot down too. Soon there was only one nearby pipe left to stand on. Harlow jumped onto the pipe, but in mid-jump it was shot with lightning. Harlow started to fall to the ground. She used her wings to slow the fall but couldn't stop it. Harlow landed on the tube with the wriggling creature in it. Her wing hit the glass the of the tube, and green goop and glass shattered everywhere. A deformed reddish-purple creature with three tails fell out of the tube and landed in the green goop. Harlow landed on the ground with a thud and her vision dimmed.

Phantoms surrounded Harlow, but were too afraid too get very close. Harlow stayed still, slumped on the hard, metal ground. A phantom grabbed a shard of glass and poked Harlow with it so see if she was alive. Harlow's head shot up and she opened her mouth wide. Out came a loud, ear-piercing scream. All the phantoms covered their ears and backed away.

After the long scream, Harlow stood up slowly. She looked around, then saw a large phantom come into the room. Before Harlow could do anything, she was shot with a lightning bolt from him.

Harlow fell over and her vision faded into darkness.

Chapter 8: Annora
Written by Akurle

The pain never ended.

The whole time she was asleep, she felt never-ending pain. It was almost to the point of unbearable. It was mostly her back and her head that hurt, and she heard a constant ringing in her ears. She also had a ton of weird dreams. She saw flashes of the phantom badlands, and had several weird dreams that she instantly forgot. It seemed forever before the pain in her back started to fade and the ringing in her ears dissipated.

Annora opened her eyes, very slowly. She saw the blurry image of the phantom lab. Everything was tinted green. There were few phantoms in the lab, but suddenly the door swung open and a few phantoms came in, covered in claw marks. One was missing a tentacle.

There were three phantoms huddled together, but Annora soon realized that they were holding an injured snow leopard. One of the phantoms turned toward Annora, and she quickly closed her eyes so they wouldn't know she was awake.

Annora heard one of the phantoms talking. She could hear him surprisingly well. "Master Bolt, we found the escapee. Should we put him in Annora's cell, since his is still in need of repair after he broke out?"

"No. Put him in the room with the beasts. That should scare him into being obedient again." Annora guessed that that was Bolt.

"But aren't they occupied for the two mutants and the three beasts?" the phantom from before questioned.

"The mutant- the one who called herself Harlow, broke the tube that the first beast was in. It didn't survive."

Annora heard something heavy being dragged and guessed the phantoms were dragging the leopard away. Then Annora heard another voice, coming from the left, where the computers were. "Sir, the subject's breathing rate has regulated. She must be awake by now, or pretending to still be asleep."

Annora flinched, and instantly regretted it. She hoped the phantoms didn't notice. She heard a knock on her tube. She tried her best not to move or flinch.

"The transformation is complete, she should be awake. Open the tube."

Annora felt the liquid around her empty from the tube she was in. Once it was empty, she realized how sticky her fur was. Annora heard the tube door open, and she tumbled out.

Annora snapped her eyes open and charged. It didn't go as planned. She stumbled and fell, smashing her face on the metal floor. She groaned and ripped the mask off her face. She had been moving so little in the tube that her legs were weak, and the sticky green goop was heavy in her fur. There was also something floppy on her back. Annora tried to shake it off, but it had attached itself to her back. She managed to stand up and look at what was on her back.

She gasped. There was a pair of bat wings on her back. It felt so weird to have extra limbs. She tried to move them, which was easier than she thought, but felt very weird. When she looked up, she saw a dusty mirror on the wall. Inside, she could see herself. Not only did she have a pair of huge wings on her back, but she also seemed a bit larger and had two large bat ears on her head. Before she could do anything more, several phantoms hurried over and grabbed Annora. She yowled and tried to pull away, but the phantoms kept her still. Annora had a sudden burst of anger and started shaking, trying to get the phantoms off. She had never felt so angry. More phantoms came over and grabbed Annora. She swung her tail around and flapped her wings, knocking several off.

"Don't let her go into a rage!" Bolt screamed in her ear. Annora looked up and realized that he was several feet away. She was amazed at how much her hearing had improved.

A phantom came over from the table with computers, holding a syringe filled with milky white liquid. He came over to Annora, who struggled and struggled but couldn't get away. He aimed the syringe at her leg.

Annora suddenly flapped her wings as hard as she could. It came almost naturally to her- as if she had done this so many times before. She jumped as high into the air as she could started flapping her wings. She pushed them back a little as if she were swimming, and she was soon flying through the air. The phantoms below her started to panic and throw bolts of lightning at her.

Annora easily dodged and landed on the top of a tube, digging her claws into the metal. Bunching up her muscles, she leaped forward and landed right on top of bolt, pinning him down with her claws. Rage was boiling inside her.

Suddenly, something pricked her leg and all the rage dissipated. Annora lashed her tail, smacking the phantom behind her that held the syringe. Underneath her, Bolt gave her a strong shock and squeezed out of her grasp.

Annora staggered back, swaying. That sudden rage that she felt had disappeared, along with her will to fight. Suddenly, her whole body went numb and she collapsed to the ground. She had been paralyzed. On the ground beside her was the syringe that had been filled with white liquid. Now it was empty.

Several of the phantoms had recovered and hovered over to Annora. They each grabbed onto one of Annora's limbs and dragged her through the halls of the phantom factory. They brought her into a large room with crisscrossing pipes lining the ceiling. In the corner was a small laboratory, and one of the walls was covered with tall shelves. The third wall had five huge metal cages. On the forth wall, next to the lab, had several test tubes near thick metal chains.

Annora was shoved into one of the large cages. She felt the paralyzation wearing off and tried to stand up or slash at one of the phantoms. The most she could do was flop her right arm around, which wasn't very intimidating. The phantoms backed out of the cage and slammed it shut.

Annora waited for the paralyzation to wear off completely and slowly stood up. The cage didn't have anything in it, apart from a tiny slot in the bottom of the wall where they probably shoved food in. Next to that was a large bowl with a small bit of dirty water in it. It was awfully dark, but with her leopard night vision she was able to make out most of the details.

Annora looked around the empty cage again. In the phantoms eyes, she was no longer an animal. She was a monster. A test subject. They didn't even treat her like a living thing, or even give her a measly bed, for crying out loud!

Annora slammed herself against the metal door as hard as she could. It didn't budge. She sat down and rubbed her sore shoulder and sighed. There were small windows on each side of her, covered with thick, metal bars. Annora stood up and looked through the one on the right. She saw the injured leopard she had seen before, lying unconscious on the ground. He was covered in scratches and bruises, and had a particularly large scrape on his back leg. He was green with a yellow secondary color and light brown leaf pattern.

"Hey, you okay in there?" Annora asked. She didn't get a response. Annora waited for a few minutes before getting impatient. She backed away from the window a peered through the one on her left. She saw some sort of feathered animal slumped on the floor of the cage. At first sight, it looked like a large eagle. But upon closer inspection, it was actually a fox. But it was no ordinary fox.

Annora's mouth gaped open. It was Harlow. Harlow's fur had darkened to brown, and her black legs had turned into a very dark purple. But that wasn't what surprised Annora. It was the wings.

Harlow had beautiful golden-brown falcon wings with dark purple tips. Among the brown feathers, Annora spotted a few golden-tipped feathers. There were a few specks of gold among Harlow's fur as well. It was a crazy mix of beautiful and creepy.

The pieces slowly clicked together in Annora's mind. The experiment, the blood testing, the weird tubes. The phantoms had captured Harlow and Annora to create monsters. The falcon and the bat in the tubes that Annora had seen before getting shoved in the tube were the animals that the phantoms used to give Harlow and Annora wings. And why Bolt had called Harlow a mutant... the phantoms where turning them into their own little monsters. But what were the three beasts? What was the weird phantom with legs Annora had seen? And why were the phantoms doing this?

A phantom knocked on her door suddenly, scaring Annora. She recovered from her shock quickly and peeked through the tiny barred window high on the wall where the door was. She saw a phantom staring up at her.

"What do you want?! Is my torture still not enough to please you?" Annora screamed angrily through the bars.

The phantom gave her a look that seemed to say You've only seen half of it. "Is the fox awake?"

"Why do you care?"

"I'll take that as a no." The phantom turned toward a large phantom hovering several feet away. "Hey Corrupt, can you help me get the leopard out of here? She's ready to be tested."

The phantom named Corrupt nodded and started gathering phantoms. The first phantom looked up at Annora, smirking.

"Let's see how angry you can get."

The door swung open, and a huge net was flung over Annora. Before she could react, something hit her in the head and knocked her out.

Chapter 9: Harlow
Written by Nkurle

Harlow awoke to the sound of a large bag being slid across the floor. She looked out a small cell window on the cell door and saw Annora being dragged away in a large net. Harlow sighed and sat down. Her head hurt SUPER bad. It felt as if a phantom was running around in her head hitting her skull. Harlow had been knocked out so many times by the phantoms that she had a right to blame them for a headache.

So many weird things had happened within that day, Harlow wouldn't be surprised if a winged pig flew in her cell and gave her cake. Harlow's fear of the phantoms had left her because she had been around them so much. Suddenly, a wave of dizziness hit Harlow, making her vision waver. Harlow knew that she needed some real sleep. Not the kind of sleep you get from being knocked out. Harlow lay down and closed her eyes and let her head rest.

Harlow's dreams were weird. There was a dragon flying at Harlow holding a watermelon. For some reason, in her dream that was normal and it happened every day. Harlow had other weird dreams too weird to even talk about. She was then woken up by a giant phantom zapping her to death.

Harlow bolted upright. Once she found out that everything was a dream she stood up and looked out the window on the cell door. What she saw reminded her of why she feared the phantoms. There were about 8 phantoms hovering around a metal rod that was sticking out of the ground near the lab. A chain was attached to the rod. The chain was wrapped around the neck of a creature that made Harlow want to rip her eyes out. The creature looked fairly reptilian, with a strong, lean body that was ripped with muscle. It had two clawed toes on each foot and three tails, with the middle being the longest. It had two black, curved blades on each tail, and a row of 4 long, black spikes coming out of its head. Farther down its back, it had more black spikes. It had long jaws filled with large, sharp teeth, and it had slanted, beady red eyes. On its upper arms, it had three black spikes. What shocked Harlow most about the creature was its color. It was bright shiny purple that faded into bright blue on the legs and tail. The creature could only go so far with the chain around its neck. The creature would hop to one side with crazy agility and balance. Because it kept hopping to other sides and doing little spins it looked like it was dancing.

Bolt the phantom came into the room and looked at the creature. The phantoms said things that Harlow could not understand because she was too far away. But Harlow didn't need to know what they were saying to know this was also part of the plan that involved Harlow and Annora growing wings.

Seeing the creature and seeing Annora being dragged away, Harlow could not stand being in this place. She needed to tell everyone in Jamaa. The fact that so many would suffer from in this place if she didn't tell someone made gave her the courage to do so. Also, she had a crazy mad power that could kill many, many phantoms.

The phantoms right now only cared for the creature, so Harlow would have some time to escape. Harlow backed away from the door. She closed her eyes. It was now time to be the great hero she always dreamed of being. Well, she would be the great hero if she didn't die just trying to break down the door.

Harlow used her great falcon eyesight to look for loose screws in the door. She found one and started to unscrew it with great trouble. Soon there was a large screw on the floor. After about what felt like 45 hours due to unscrewing screws without the right tools, there were 6 large screws on the floor. Harlow backed up away from the door until she hit the back of the cell. She got ready to pounce. Harlow leaned down and looked up at the door. "Here I come. And I'm stronger because of what you did to me." Harlow smiled as new faith filled her bones. This was the true Harlow, the one who didn't hide, the one who will fight for what is right.

Harlow jumped up and landed in the middle of the cell then pounced again at the door. Harlow felt her paws hit the hard metal as she closed her eyes. She heard cracking and metal hitting metal. Harlow felt her back hit the ground and opened her eyes. She had fallen backward, but the door had been pushed out of place and a light was sneaking through the parts that were no longer attached to the door frame.

Harlow jumped at the door again, and with a loud creak the door fell down. Harlow was standing on the broken door looking at many phantoms who were staring at her, along with the fiendish phantom monster. The room was silent for about 5 seconds before Bolt started screaming orders at the other phantoms who were ramming into each other as they failed to grab spears.

Harlow's burst of faith started to fade. But the fact that she didn't want to get knocked out again brought it back. Harlow jumped up and started flapping her wings hard. She fell down with a thud but got up again and shook herself. The Phantoms had regrouped and were ready to face her.

Harlow tried again. This time she let the instincts take over. She jumped high and flapped slow, but hard. Soon Harlow felt herself lift up. Harlow grabbed a large pipe and pulled herself up. Her wings were sore. Why was flying so hard and painful? Before, it had come to her easily. Perhaps the rage that had filled her had made her better at fighting.

Harlow looked down. The phantoms were getting ready to throw the spears. Harlow started running across the pipes. on the ceiling. She jumped from one pipe to another, and then another. She felt the adrenaline running through her. She had never felt stronger. She felt like the beast. Jumping lightly on every paw till it looked like a dance. She felt like she was dancing. Pipe-hopping is what it should be called.

Harlow made it as close to the door as she could. She jumped down from the pipe and used her wings to slow her fall. She hit the ground and started turning the metal wheel on the door as fast as she could. Spears hit the walls next to her. In a panic, she opened the door and ran out. She ran past phantoms who were carrying things around the halls. Harlow ran around the halls that didn't seem to have many phantoms. Soon enough, she came across a large door. She turned around, knowing she would never be able to open it. She ran out of that hallway and saw many large and armored phantoms coming down one hall. Harlow ran the other way.

Soon bolts of lightning shot past her, along with spears. Harlow turned and saw a larger, brighter hallway. She ran down it. Sounds of metal being thrown around filled her ears. The hallway turned sharply, causing Harlow to go sliding across the floor and hitting the wall.

Harlow looked up once her eyes adjusted to the light and saw a huge room even bigger than the one before. This one looked like a factory. Pipes coming out of walls into other walls. A huge pipe in the middle of the room. Piles of tubes here and there. A wall with tables against it with computers on the tables. The only thing that shocked Harlow was there were hardly any phantoms, just a bunch of sick looking animals that had chains or around their necks.

Harlow touched the black long on her neck. A few others had a black long. But the joy of having one around your neck was overpowered by the pain the animals were put in. The animals were working for the Phantoms against their will. Harlow might have been in this room if she had not been chosen for the test.

Harlow looked around the corner behind her. The phantoms were getting closer. Harlow turned and ran into the factory. A voice boomed from the speakers on the sides of the wall. "TEST #501 HAS ESCAPED. BEWARE, DO NOT KILL. TEST #501 HAS ESCAPED. BEWARE, DO NOT KILL".

All the animals in the room start looking around, but the few phantoms in the room forced them to work again.

"FOUND YOU!" Bolt's voice boomed behind Harlow. Harlow turned. Bolt and many other phantoms were behind him. Harlow turned and ran. "GET IT!" Bolt screamed.

Harlow jumped and flew to the top of the large pipe in the middle of the room. From atop there, she spotted another exit. She ran and jumped off the pipe. The animal looked at Harlow with wide smiles. Harlow opened her wings and soared over to the exit. She opened the door and ran, hearing Bolt scream angrily from behind.

Before Harlow ran down the hall she closed the door, hoping it would slow them down. She didn't make it far down the hall because Phantom Watchers opened up on the side of the walls. Harlow stopped quickly. She didn't have time for this. She started jumping over the watchers. It was hard because they slowly moved as if inspecting the room for dust. Harlow looked back but then slipped. As she slid she flatted herself to the floor, hoping to slide under the laser of the next watcher. Most of her body did, but the tip of her wing was hit, along with some of her back.

Numbing pain filled the spots that were hit by the laser. Harlow suddenly felt extremely tired, like she wanted to fall asleep forever. The numbing pain spread to her legs, tail, and slowly to her wings. Harlow kept her eyes open with much pain. She struggled to get up but couldn't.

Slimy tentacles wrapped around her neck and legs. "If I could count how many animals these watchers have put down, it would be more then every drop in the ocean," a phantom voice said from above her. "There is not even that many animals on this earth, BlackBolt!" a higher voice shouted back. The Phantom, who Harlow guessed was named BlackBolt, sighed.

Harlow felt herself being lifted and up and being dragged away. "You can't give up now!" The voice of one of her many brothers Ryan said in her mind. She smiled as the memory came back to her.

''She was coloring a picture for her dad, but it didn't turn out as awesome as Ryan's did. "Yours is better. I am so bad at art and you are so good, and you're even younger than me!" Harlow cried as she was about to throw away her picture. ''

''"I work hard on my art," Ryan said, smiling. He was only 5 at the time and Harlow was 7. "You can't give up now! Daddy says that many times. He say it true. I believe it is true."''

And after that day Harlow loved drawing with Ryan and loved her art even when Ryan's was way better than hers. Now Ryan's words filled Harlow's mind, even when she was not drawing. The saying can even compare when you're running away from phantoms that gave you wings.

Harlow looked down. She would NOT let the phantoms take her like this. She would NOT fail now. The rage she felt before boiled up again. Harlow started to growl.

"Stop it. You can't fight anymore," a phantom said.

"Oh, I can fight. You haven't even seen the best of me." Harlow's tone came out more snotty then she wanted. Before the phantoms could respond, Harlow broke free from their grasp. Harlow turned and looked at the phantoms. Many evil ways of killing them filled her mind. "Can't stop me," Harlow whispered evilly.

Harlow's body changed. Her legs got stronger her fur got thicker. She felt the rage fill up in her. Some phantoms ran, but others got ready for battle. Harlow jumped into the crowd of phantoms. She ripped off unlucky phantoms tentacles. Well, in this case, every phantom not running was unlucky. Soon Harlow's feet where knee deep in black goop and her fur was filled with bits of phantom and animal blood. Harlow turned and looked at the dark hallway she failed to run through. The phantom watchers couldn't catch her now because she would be too fast.

Harlow jumped onto a wall then jumped onto the other wall before she could fall. She jumped between the walls using her great jumping skills. Soon she was bolting between the walls at full speed. She left dents in the places on the walls she jumped off of. A high and psycho laugh came out of Harlow's mouth filling the dark hallway with a creepy, deathly feeling.

Harlow made it to the end of the hallway and broke down a door. Cool air filled her nose. She had made it out. Harlow started to run away from the huge factory as her rage started to fade. She slowly went back to normal as she ran through the phantom badlands.

But then she stopped and looked behind her. ''I escaped. I made it out. But what about the other animals in there? They need my help. Annora needs my help. I need to go back in. ''A battle raged in Harlow's head of what to do. She made up her mind.

Harlow started to walk back to the fortress. She needed to save everyone.

Everyone...

Chapter 10: Annora
Written by Akurle

Annora wasn't sure where the phantoms had taken her. She had faint memories of being thrown in a cart and driven to a different, huge building, but that was it. Now she was in just another prison cell.

This one was twice as bad as the other one. It was tiny, cold, smelly, and had nothing in it. There weren't any windows, apart from the one on the door, and there were clumps of fur in the corners of the cell, as well as blood stains on the floor. Her ankle was chained to the back wall, which was long enough for her to pace, but too short for her to reach the door.

Annora rubbed her sore head and sighed. She was never one to care about looking good, but even now she could admit that she looked horrendous. She was covered in bloody scratches, dirt, and grime. Not to mention that she also smelled horrible.

Annora's ears twitched. With her new, incredible hearing, she could hear distant talking. It sounded like two phantoms having a conversation. At first she wasn't sure what they were saying, but as the phantoms neared her cell, she could make out their words.

"...that powerful?"

"Yeah. It's too strong to be tested in the factory."

"Whose their opponent?"

"I dunno."

"What about the King?"

"He didn't choose. The General said he would choose."

"And the King was fine with that? Usually he likes to pick."

"The General said he wanted to surprise him. I think he isn't being completely honest, though. He won't say exactly how powerful it is."

"No, Bolt is completely trustworthy. I'm sure he told the King, he's just not telling us. After all, that project is mostly secret. It's so important."

"True. Do you think-" the phantom paused suddenly. Annora looked up and saw the two phantoms just outside her cell, staring at her through the small window. She glared at them and snarled.

"Woah. Does it talk?" one of the phantoms asked.

"Of course I talk, idiots!" Annora hissed.

"Sheesh. I was just asking." He turned to the other phantom. "When is she going?"

"In just a minute. We should take her out now." The phantom grabbed a key and unlocked the door.

Annora backed up and tried to spread her wings, but the cell was too small for her to fully unfurl them. Only one of the phantoms seemed scared. The other one hovered over and grabbed Annora's scruff and tried to clip a chain to the metal band around her neck. She shook her head and tried to shake him off, but the other phantom came over and helped hold her still.

Annora could have kept struggling, but she decided not to. She couldn't escape anyway because she had the chain around her ankle. She would wait for the perfect moment instead.

The phantoms unchained her ankle and dragged her out of the cell. She found herself in a hallway similar to the one in the factory. The hallway was long and narrow, with small cells lining either side. At both ends of the halls were thick metal doors. The phantoms led her to one of them and opened the door with a key. One of the phantoms pushed Annora inside and unclipped the chain. Before she could react, the door was slammed shut.

Annora looked around and was instantly disappointed. It was just another empty, dark room. This one was dirtier, but at least it was bigger. Annora laid her head on her paws and sighed. She couldn't stop thinking about what the phantom had said before knocking her out. Why was he trying to make her angry?

Annora heard gears grinding loudly. She jumped to her paws and looked around. The wall farthest from the door was slowly lifting up, into the ceiling. Beyond that were purple metal bars. Once the wall was lifted completely, Annora heard a voice.

"And now, we have a special contestant! Please welcome Annora!" The voice blared from outside the bars. It was followed by wild cheering. Slowly, the bars rose up, allowing Annora to leave the dark room. She did, slowly, and found herself in a huge ring. The ground was made of sand, surrounded by a purple, metal wall. Above that were stone seats, and behind that, a tall metal wall. Above was the night sky, and glowing rings along the walls illuminated the area.

Annora gasped. She was in an arena. The stone seats were filled with phantoms, and a net made of wire was strong across the first wall, preventing Annora from flying away. There was another opening on the opposite side of the first wall, where bars covered it. Above that was a small platform, where one of the phantom kings was seated. Next to the king was Bolt.

"And now, her opponent! Or should I say, opponents? Annora will be facing off against three sprouters!"

Three phantom sprouters erupted from the ground in the center of the arena. Instantly, one phantom crawled out of the tubes on each sprouter. Cheering erupted from the crowd of phantoms.

Annora started to retreat, but she was forced to stop as the bars slammed shut behind her. Behind that, the wall slid back into place. Annora was trapped in there, and she would die unless she was able to win this fight. She had fought phantom sprouters in adventure training before, but she had used boomseeds. Now, she only had her claws and teeth.

Annora turned around and saw the three phantoms advancing. She bolted and ran along the edge of the wall so she wasn't cornered. As she ran, she saw three more phantoms crawl out of the tubes. The phantoms turned toward Annora and charged at full speed. If she didn't hurry up, she would have an army of phantoms against her.

Annora waited until the six phantoms were far away from the sprouter. Then, she bunched up her muscles and launched herself in the air. She had flown only once before, and that had been little more than a few seconds. Now, flying out in the open with an easy chance of falling and hurting herself, she wasn't sure she could do it. But she wouldn't be able to get out of there if she didn't try.

The moment she was in the air, she started pumping her wings. She soared right over the phantoms that had been surrounding her a second ago, but ended up flying so high that she smacked into the wire net above her. The claw on the tip of her wing got caught in the wire, leaving her stuck. She reached up and grabbed the netting with all four of her paws and tried untangling her wing. Before she let go, however, she tried to think about how bats normally flew. She recalled having a sleepover with one of her friends when she was younger who had a pet bat. She remembered being amazed by it and would watch it fly around the den.

Annora dropped herself from the net and mimicked what she had seen the bat do. She spread her wings to their maximum length and soared down from the net. As she neared the ground, she tilted her wings to slow herself down and flapped them to steady herself. She landed gracefully on the ground, right in front of the three sprouters.

Annora flexed her claws and thrust her front paw at the metal tube as hard as she could. Pain flared up her arm, and she yowled in pain. Staggering backward, she looked at her paw. She had broken a claw, and it was beginning to bleed. She hadn't made a single scratch on the sprouter.

Annora heard booing coming from the crowd of phantoms. They started throwing insults at her, and her newly enhanced hearing allowed her to hear every single one. She flattened her ears against her head to block it out.

Suddenly, she heard a crackle of electricity. Annora looked up and saw three more phantoms crawl out of the sprouters. Annora snarled and threw a punch at the nearest one, who backed up but didn't seem to be damaged.

More booing came from the watching phantoms. The king gave Bolt a look that seemed to say 'Why did you make me watch this?' One of the phantoms in the crowd threw a rock at Annora, but it was badly aimed and ended up hitting the phantom Annora had punched.

Anger boiled up inside Annora. Ever since getting taken prisoner, all the phantoms had done was torture her. They gave her a disgusting cell with horrendous food that was barely edible, turned her into a living experiment, and left her to die in an arena for their kings amusement. Now they were insulting her just because she wasn't entertaining.

Annora looked up to see that the other six phantoms had caught up and had now surrounded her. The rage inside Annora built up, filling her head with whispering voices and giving her a headache. It felt the same as the rage she had felt when she had first been given wings in the laboratory. She let it take over and felt herself changing as her vision dimmed.

Annora's golden spots darkened to a rich orange. Red stripes appeared on her enormous wings. Two large, red parallel blades formed on the end of Annora's tail, with the tips colored orange. She felt herself grow bigger and stronger, and red spikes grew from her back. Her eyes turned pure black with a red outline around her pupil, and her teeth grew longer. Her claws grew longer and sharper, and the spots under her eyes turned into curved triangles.

Her vision cleared and her headache dissipated. Annora made a loud, unnatural roar. She spun in a circle, swinging the blade on her tail at the phantoms. Six of the phantoms were hit and sliced clean in half, spraying goop and and black dust everywhere as the phantoms dissipated. The other three dodged, suddenly feeling less confident.

Annora hissed and jumped on top of one of the phantoms, squishing it under her large paws. Before it could zap her, she grabbed its tentacle and threw it as hard as she could. That must have been pretty hard, because it smashed into the wall surrounding the arena so hard it cracked, and the phantom exploded into dust upon contact.

More phantoms crawled out of the sprouters and charged at Annora. She sent then flying with a swipe of her paw and swung her tail at the nearest sprouter. The blade on her tail cut it right in half, causing it to collapse on top of itself. Then she swung her paw at the second sprouter with such force that the thickest tube in the center went flying. She sliced the other tubes apart with her enormous claws.

The phantoms in the crowd cheered wildly. Annora smashed the third spouter, along with the phantom that was starting to crawl out. Cheering erupted from the crowd. The phantom king stood up to announce the next battle.

But Annora wasn't done yet.

She heard Bolt saying something to the king as she flew up to the wire net. "...told you she was strong. I will test her other powers and then begin the process of turning her to the phantom's side." Annora didn't wait for him to finish. She grabbed the wire net in her claws and pulled. With a mighty roar, she tore the wire net in half.

The phantoms in the crowd gasped. A second later, they screamed and scattered. A few tried throwing bolts of lightning at Annora, but they didn't do any damage. She pulled herself out of the arena and lifted into the air. The phantom king started screaming orders, and Bolt had disappeared.

Annora roared and charged at the phantom king, then swug her bladed tail at him. He jumped back, barely dodging, causing Annoras tail blade to get wedged in the stone platform the king was on. The king swung his huge tentacle at her, sending her flying. She landed on the seats that the phantoms had previously been. The breath was knocked out of her, but she got up anyway.

Rage boiled inside of her, but she could feel herself weakeneing. She heard a snap somewhere nearby the king and a huge net made of phantom goop was flung at Annora. It landed on her before she could dodge, and the thick goop instantly stuck to her fur and kept her from ripping it off. The goop was hard and thick, but bendable. Annora kicked and slashed, but the net restrained her movements and wouldn't break.

Through the strings of the net, Annora saw the king coming closer to her. Annora hissed and bared her fangs. Suddenly, bright green acid shot out from her fangs and hit the net. The net started bubbling and steamed, and then slowly melted away. Annora managed to squeeze out as the net burned away. The king glared at her and prepared to attack.

Annora launched herself forward and grabbed onto the king with her claws. She bared her fangs and sprayed acid at his face. The king made a gurgling screech and slammed his tentacle into Annora, knocking her off. The acid wasn't incredibly strong, but the skin above the kings eye started bubbling and steaming. The king screamed and staggered backward, losing his balance and beginning to drop to the ground.

Annora prepared to finish him off when she heard someone call her name. She whipped around and saw Harlow flying through the air- right toward Annora. Harlow looked even more beautiful with her golden-brown wings spread. The rage inside slowly burned away at the sight of Harlow.

Suddenly, a giant tentacle swung Annora into the air, which was quixkly followed by a quick zap. Annora fell, crumpled, to the ground. Her vision dimmed and her sensed dulled, and a tingling feeling washed over Annora as her body morphed and changed back into her normal form. Her senses sharpened again, her vision remained dimmed and tinted with black spots. Annora staggered to her paws, just in time for another crushing blow from the phantom king.

Annora was flung all the way into the wall surrounding the seats. She got up slowly, then began climbing the wall as fast as she could. But now that she was no long her her 'rage form', her claws were just as long as a normal leopards. She slid down and watched as the phantom king advanced on her. She wanted to run away, to attack him, but she was too weak. She jated being weak, it limited a lot of her options.

Annora wished for some sort of distraction so she could get away. She also hated running away from a fight, but there was no way she could win this one. As if Mira had heard her prayers, a chunk of stone came flying out of nowhere and hit the phantom king in the back of his head. He spun around to look for the one who had done it, but no one was there. And just in time, because Harlow came soaring over.

"Annora! Come on!" Harlow cried. Annora got to her paws and spread her wings. She lifted herself into the air and flew over the wall, leaving the phantom king gurgling angrily behind her. Harlow flew up beside Annora and smiled. Then, leading the way, she headed southeast. Annora followed her, leaving the phantom king and the arena behind.

"Thats for distracting the king so I could get away," Annora said breathlessly. She was weak and tired, but surprisingly, flying didn't use as much strength as Annora though it would. She glided easily over the phantom badlands.

"What are you talking about? I didn't do anything," she answered.

Annora raised and eyebrow. "Then who threw that rock at the king?"

"Not me."

Annora looked at her suspiciously. If she didn't throw the rock, then who did?

"Wait, I almost forgot." Harlow suddenly dipped down and landed gracefully on the ground. Annora followed and crashed a bit less gracefully.

"We need to go back and save the others. There were other animals in there, working for the phantoms against their will," Harlow explained.

"What?! No way! We can't go back there. We would need help if we were going to save just a handful of prisoners, and plus, I'm to weak to fight. I'm also starving and dehydrated, which doesn't help the slightest bit."

"But who else is going to save them?" Harlow asked.

Annora paused and though about that. After a few minutes, she sighed. "Fine. We can come back and save them, but after we get some food and water, and some rest. I'm talking about going back to Jamaa. Plus, if we die trying to save them, who will tell the Alphas about what the phantoms are planning in there?" Annora explained.

Harlow slumped her shoulders and looked around. "You're right. But what exactly were the phantoms planning to do with us?"

"I'm not exactly sure. But it was important, and had something to do with a weird creature I saw them make. Bolt also said something about testing our powers and turning us evil."

"Wait, you saw that weird blue and purple creature too?" Harlow asked.

Annora raised an eyebrow. "Uh, no. I saw a phantom that looked like it was walking on its bottom tentacles, and it had fangs that probably belonged to a mouth. I didn't see it that clearly."

Now it was Harlow's turn to be confused. "I never saw that. I saw a reptilian creature that was purple and blue with three tails. Actually..." Harlow paused. "Actually, I saw two of them. One was in a tube that I broke. It looked similar to the purple one, but it was red and magenta instead."

Annora got an uneasy feeling. Whatever the phantoms had been planning had to be involved with those weird creatures that Harlow and Annora had seen. But she couldn't think about this now. She had to get home, where she could eat, rest, and tell someone about that horrible prison.

Annora shook her head. "We should go now. Which way is Jamaa?"

Harlow smiled sheepishly. "I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but we have to sneak into the factory and get a map. I'm not sure how to get out of the Badlands."

Annora sighed and stretched her wings. "Alright. But we aren't going to do a full-on rescue mission, all right?"

Chapter 11: Harlow
Written by Nkurle

Harlow and Annora found a spot to rest. The resting spot was in a forest that was slowly dying from the phantom sickness, causing leaves to wilt and purple colored fog to linger around the sick, dark purple bark of the trees.

In the forest there was a small clearing where Harlow and Annora ate a wild bunny Harlow had caught. Annora had taken the metal band on her neck off. "This bunny tastes as bad as the rotting food in the phantom cells!" Annora complained.

"At least we have something to eat," Harlow reminded her. Annora had been complaining about the food and water Harlow had found ever since they had left the arena.

"I wish one of us had fire-breathing powers so we could start a fire," Harlow said as she picked up a damp stick that had fallen from a tree.

"Yeah, I wonder what other powers the phantoms gave us. Rage form takes up a lot of energy," Annora thought aloud, looking at Harlow. Harlow looked back at Annora. Her fur was matted and black goop was splattered across her paws.

"Did you say 'Rage form'?" Harlow asked.

"Yeah, I just started calling it that," Annora answered.

"Is that where you get super angry and, well, want to kill everyone?" Harlow asked quietly.

"Yes! Has it happened to you before?" Annora yelled.

"Yes, it has. I don't really like it though. What if it happens and I hurt my family or friends? What will my family think of me once I come home?" Harlow though aloud as many other worries filled her head.

"I don't know.." Annora muttered as she laid her head on her paws, closing her eyes. Harlow did the same and started thinking of how she found Annora...

''...Harlow stared at the fortress that lay ahead of her. The phantoms are going to be coming after me, Harlow thought. Then, as if on cue, phantoms started racing out of doors on the sides of the fortress. Harlow turned and ran.''

''Harlow started to run and instantly got tired. Her legs felt wobbly and weak. Harlow guessed that going into 'rage form' used a lot of energy. Harlow wouldn't be able to run from the phantoms any longer unless she got a nap.''

''Harlow's eye lids slowly started to close. Harlow felt herself slow down. Just a little nap, I can wake up in the morning and play with Ryan... WAIT, Harlow thought. ''I'm no longer at home, I'm being chased by evil phantoms!

''Harlow woke herself up and started to flap her wings hard. She jumped up and felt her feet lift off the ground.''

''Flapping her wings felt so tiring. She looked back and saw the phantoms getting ready to throw spears. "Oh great. I feel like every time I try to fly away the phantoms are right behind me with spears." Harlow said to herself.''

''Harlow turned to face the phantoms. She opened her mouth and tried to do the creepy/psycho scream she did when in 'Rage From.'''

''Harlow held her breath, then screamed the loudest possible scream she could do. The scream first came out screechy, but with more force it turned into the high pitched, ear-killing, psycho-sounding scream she wanted.''

''The phantoms below covered their ears. Some phantoms slowly melted into black goop. Harlow was surprised that the scream could melt phantoms. She surely did not want to scream at any of her friends at school. That would end in very bad consistences for her, and more work for the janitor.''

''Harlow then turned and started to fly away at full speed. Harlow flew so high that she flew into the toxic, dark green fog that came out of large pipes that stuck out of the fortress roof.''

''Breathing become hard for Harlow when she entered the fog. Harlow, not wanting to suffocate in the sky because she flew into toxic fog, dove down toward a large metal phantom cart that was being driven out of the fortress. The cart looked like it was carrying prisoners. Harlow flew behind it. She grabbed onto the back door handles on the cart. Using her claw was a pick, she opened the back door. Inside the cart were prisoners that were chained to the walls by purple chains. Harlow closed the door behind her. ''

''"Hi," Harlow said weirdly. A buff gray wolf with scars lining his face, paws, and everywhere on his body growled quietly at her.''

''There were 4 prisoners, including the wolf. There was another wolf but this one was brown and less buff. A sleek, silver saber toothed tiger glared at Harlow with eyes filled with pure hate.The friendliest animal of them all was an arctic fox with a black ice sword and black jamaaliday scarf.''

''"WOW! You really do you have wings!" exclaimed the fox. "Oh, uhhh.... yeah, erm. Do you know where this cart is heading?" Harlow asked.''

''"Oh, this cart is heading for the arena," the fox answered, walking closer to Harlow. Harlow saw that he didn't have a chain on him like the other animals. "Also, what is your name, and why are you here?" he added.''

''"Oh. My name is Harlow. What is yours?" Harlow asked. ''

''"Oh yeah, I am Mike!" he responded as he walked toward the door of the cart. Harlow moved away a bit. She didn't want to trust this animal, even if he gave her chocolates.  Harlow looked nervously at the animals chained to the wall. "Don't worry about them." Mike said, seeming to sense her thoughts. He padded closer to Harlow. She backed away.''

''"Are they going to fight in the Arena?" Harlow asked. ''

''"Only a few animals got chosen. These guys are too powerful to be enslaved. So their new job is in entertain the phantom king," Mike explained. Suddenly, a look of unease spread across his face, as if he just made the worst mistake of his life. ''

''"How do you know all this?" Harlow asked him. Why would this animal know so much? Harlow had a feeling he was keeping secrets from her.''

"I uhh, yeah, well I overheard the phantoms talking," Mike stuttered, hoping his obvious lie would slide.

''"What are you?" Harlow asked, inching closer to Mike, showing that one wrong move could get a claw up his nose. ''

''"I... I just told you." Mike smiled nervously. Harlow growled, then jumped on top of Mike, pinning him down.''

"Tell me," Harlow hissed.

"Okay, okay! But if I do, the phantoms would kill me," Mike cried.

''Harlow glared at Mike. She knew it would take up too much time to force it out of him, and with her so tired, she couldn't do something like that. But she didn't want the phantoms to kill him. "Look, I am tired and I need to rest. I will know if I can trust you IF you let me rest and I don't wake up in a cell. If I DO, I will be looking for you," Harlow warned Mike.''

''"Alright," Mike squeaked. Harlow got off him and walked to the corner and curled up in a ball. Within seconds she fell asleep.''

.

.

''Harlow was shaken awake. Harlow opened her eyes and looked up to see Mike staring down at her. "Why are you waking me up?" Harlow murmured sleepily.''

"The phantoms are going to come and take the animals to the arena. If they see you, they will... you know what will happen," Mike said.

''"Alright. Thanks for the warning." Harlow stood up and ran over to the exit. She opened it up and spread her wings.''

''Harlow jumped and caught the wind. She saw that the cart was driving toward a large, circular building. Harlow knew just by looking at it that it was an arena.''

''Harlow heard shouts coming from inside it. It seemed someone was already in the arena. Maybe Harlow could save them. After all, she did have wings.''

.

Harlow thought about what had happened. She was slowly drifting to sleep. Who was Mike, anyway? Harlow guessed that maybe he worked for the phantoms like a slave but with a bit more freedom? As Harlow drifted to sleep, she thought of Mike and what had happened.

Chapter 12: Annora
Written by Akurle

After a long night of nightmares, Annora was glad to wake up. The sun was just beginning to rise, casting eerie shadows across the flat, rocky Badlands. Green smog drifted across the horizon. Unlike the colorful sunrises of Jamaa, the sky was just a bunch of shades of gray and green. Usually sunrises made Annora feel happy, but not this one. Instead of promising another happy day, this dreary sunrise only promised a day of pain and suffering.

Annora shook Harlow awake. Harlow blinked open her eyes and slowly got up. "What's wrong?" she muttered sleepily.

"Nothing. But we should get going now, so we have the whole day to get back to Jamaa." Annora stretched and groomed her paws while Harlow woke up. Once they were both ready, they set off.

They flew across the barren wasteland for around two hours. The sun rose through the sky, turning the black sky into a shade of grayish green. A few dark gray clouds were scattered across the sky, but despite that, the badlands were incredibly hot. At one point, Annora saw the faint outline of the arena in the distance, but Harlow and Annora made sure to stay far away.

Finally, they reached the factory. They started to veer toward the entrance where they could sneak in and grab a map, but Harlow made them stop when she spotted a cart heading toward the factory.

"Hold on, Annora. We need to stop," Harlow announced.

"Why?" Annora asked. But it was too late. Harlow dove down and landed behind a large rock. Annora sighed and landed beside her. Harlow peeked at the cart from the behind the rock.

"Okay, I want to beat the phantoms to a pulp as much as you do, but we can't-"

"No, no. It's not that," Harlow said quietly. "I saw someone in that cart. He was hiding something from me, but he let me escape from the phantoms. I need to find out who he is."

"Oh." Annora peered around the edge of the rock behind Harlow and saw the phantoms taking animals out of the cart and leading them into the factory by chains around their necks. After all the other animals had been taken out, a blue and gray arctic fox jumped out. The fox didn't have a chain, surprisingly. The fox told the phantoms something.

"What are they saying?" Harlow asked. Annora tilted her ears toward them. She could only make out a few words.

"...GOT AWAY?!" one of the phantoms shouted.

"I tried to... ...away. She is probably gone now. It...  ...useless to follow... " the arctic fox muttered quietly. It was almost impossible to hear everything he was saying.

"I don't care. We need... ...get angry. We can't disappoint him."

"No! I mean... "

"I know. Now be quiet!" The phantoms turned and went into the factory with the fox trailing close behind, head lowered. They left the cart behind.

"What did they say?" Harlow asked again.

"I couldn't hear everything," Annora whispered. "But I think the fox told the phantoms that you escaped, and they started arguing. The fox told them not to try to follow you, but they didn't listen. They didn't want someone to get angry at them."

"Who?"

"I don't know!" Annora yelled, louder than she had intended. "Sorry. We should check out the cart, I don't think there are any phantoms in there." Annora crawled out from behind the rock and ran toward the cart. Harlow bolted past her, being surprisingly fast for a fox. The two opened the cart and looked inside. Empty.

"There's nothing in there," Harlow observed, clearly disappointed. "I guess we are going inside to get that map."

"I'll go back to that room we were imprisoned in, I think I saw a map in there. Plus, I'm stronger than you, so I will be able to fight off the phantoms."

Harlow nodded. "I think I saw a map in the factory, so I'll go there. We'll meet up at that rock over there." Harlow pointed to the large rock they had hidden behind. Several other dark purple rocks jutted up out of the ground next to it, making it a great place to meet up unseen. Harlow jumped into the air and flew toward the factory in the very back of the large building. Annora was about to go inside when she got an idea. Closing the door to the cart so the phantoms wouldn't know that someone had been there, she lifted into the air and flew around the side of the building.

Annora flew out of seeing distance so a group of phantoms wouldn't notice her. She continued to fly until she found the carts filled with metal, tubes, and other stuff. Annora folded her wings and dove down, opening them at the last second to slow her descent. She scanning the side of the building until she found what she was looking for. A small window that had once been barred now had goop strung across it to keep animals from sneaking out. Stains along the rim of the window showed where acid had burned off the metal bars that had previously been there.

Annora pulled the goop off easily, surprised at her sudden strength. Now that she had wings, there was no way she could squeeze through the window, but she could still peek inside. There weren't any phantoms in the hallway, thankfully. The tube filled with glowing acid had been drained, and phantom goop had covered the hole Annora had made.

Luck just happened to be on her side, as there was a map of the factory stuck to the wall with phantom goop. Annora wished she had super-sight like Harlow, as the map was too far away to see any details. Annora slid her head out of the window and went to the next one, which was closer to the map. Annora peered through the metal bars and observed the map. She saw the room that she had been imprisoned in, but there were no windows in that room. There was a door leading into the room right next to it, however.

Annora memorized the map and backed up. Spreading her wings, she flew to another part of the building. She landed beside a slightly hidden, rusty metal door. Annora attempted to unlock it by sliding her claw into the keyhole, and surprisingly, it opened. Annora went inside.

She appeared to be inside a control room. There was another thick metal door leading out that was heavily locked. Three phantoms hovered in front of a control panel, who instantly charged Annora. She dodged the first attacks and pried a sharp piece of metal off one of the machines and threw it at one of the phantoms. It impaled the phantom in the eye, instantly killing it. The other two fired another round of electricity at Annora. She jumped behind a large machine at the last second. She waited until the phantoms were close enough before she climbed to the top of the machine and leaped off, right over the phantoms. She landed next to the splatters of goop that used to be the first phantom and pulled out the piece of metal.

Instead of attacking the two remaining phantoms, Annora sliced one of the tubes attaching to a machine in half. She dove behind a large crate as electricity sparked out of the broken tube and blasted the phantoms to dust. Breathing heavily, Annora waited for the electricity to stop blasting everywhere. After it died down, Annora tried breaking the locks with the sharp piece of metal. After a few tries, the first one broke. It took several minutes to break the next one, and even longer to break the third and final lock. Throwing the broken locks on the floor, Annora peeked out. She instantly backed away once she saw three or four phantoms in the hallway. Annora gritted her teeth in anger and quietly closed the door.

She observed the buttons on the control panel on the largest machine. There was a large screen showing footage from security cameras on several rooms. One of them was the room Annora and Harlow had been trapped in. One of the buttons had a microphone on it. Annora smiled evilly and pressed the button.

A microphone popped out of the machine. Annora yelled into the microphone, "ALL PHANTOMS ON GUARD, PLEASE REPORT TO THE LAB FOR AN EMERGENCY MEETING. I REPEAT, PLEASE REPORT TO THE LAB FOR AN EMERGENCY MEETING." She deepened her voice so it didn't sound like her, then let go of the button and the mic disappeared.

Looking at the footage of the imprisonment room, Annora watched as the phantoms looked at each other uncertainly. One of them said something and the others left the room instantly, leaving only one behind. Annora waited a minute or so, but he didn't move. Sighing, Annora left the control room and entered the room she had previously been imprisoned in.

The single phantom stared at Annora in horror for several seconds. Suddenly, it bolted for a button on the wall labeled 'pREs OnLEe INN emURgencEES'. Annora yowled and grabbed a random beaker filled with orange liquid off a table and threw it at the phantom. The phantom made a gurgling scream as the orange liquid spilled over its tentacles. Slowly, it melted into black goop.

Annora scanned the room for a map. She looked at the five large cages that her and Harlow had previously been trapped in, and suddenly heard banging coming from one of them. "Hey, are you here to save me?" a quiet voice asked. Annora approached the large cage and stood on her hind legs so she could see inside the small barred window at the top. Inside was the leopard Annora had seen earlier. Now that he was awake, she could see that he had pale blue eyes.

"Are you here to rescue me?" he repeated.

"I... Um, yes," Annora stammered. She lowered herself and started to turn the large wheel that opened the cell. "You were thrown in here because you tried to escape, right?" she asked.

"Yes. And if I'm going to be honest... I think it is working," the leopard whispered. "There is a creature in the cell next to me... it's horrifying. If I ever get close to the small window, it lashes out and tries to attack me. It's constantly banging on the doors, the walls, anything. The phantoms eventually put in some sort of gas that made it fall asleep because it was driving them crazy with all the banging. By the way, my name is Fern."

"My name is Annora." She gave the large crank a final pull and the door swung open. Fern started to walk out, then gasped when he saw Annora's wings. "Are... are those real?"

"Yes. Now come on, we need to get out-"

"Of course. That explains everything," Fern said to himself. His expression was filled with concern.

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Annora asked as she scanned the room for a map.

"Nevermind. And if you're looking for a map, you're not going to find it. They put it in the factory, as far away from me as they could." Suddenly Annora heard stirring in the cell next to Fern's. A moment later, there was a loud, unnatural hiss, and multiple loud bangs came from inside.

"Oh Zios, that thing's awake again! We need to get out of here, the noise is gonna draw every phantom into this room within seconds," Fern hissed.

"You can go. I want to see what that thing is," Annora said, approaching the cell. She peered through the small window and gasped. Inside was a thin, slimy, horrifying creature. It had a long and agile body shape, with long legs and three long tails with red and orange blades on the end. It had oily skin, which was dark purple that faded to dark blue on the legs and tail. It had a long, narrow face with huge jaws filled with teeth, and orange insect-like jaws on the side to help clutch its prey. It had orange spikes down its side, and two toes on each foot. It also had four tentacle-like horns on its head, and narrow white eyes.

The creature turned its head towards her and she saw a glimpse of its shimmering white eyes glimmering with malice. Then it lunged at her, screeching horribly. She jumped back just as its long jaws snapped shut around the bars, right where her head used to be. It closed its jaw until the bars snapped, its mandibles on the side of its mouth twitching with anticipation for a fresh meal. Annora did not want that meal to be her.

The creature spat out the metal bars and started slamming its head against the cell door. Fern grabbed her by the shoulder and started to pull her away, but she shrugged his paw off and bolted out of the room. Startled, he followed behind her. The moment they entered the hallway, an alarm sounded. Annora headed toward the control room, but Fern stopped her.

"Don't go in there! There are phantom sprouters in there that emerge in an emergency. Come on, the storage room is our best chance." Fern started running ahead, so Annora followed him. She felt uneasy, trusting him with her life, but he obviously knew the place better than her. They came to a crossroad, which Fern immediately turned right. He skidded to a stop in front of a door, which he attempted to open. It was locked and wouldn't budge. He pushed against it, and Annora helped.

The alarms were really starting to hurt Annora's ears. With her new hearing, the alarms were twice as loud, probably more, and even though she was tuning them out, it still hurt. She flattened her ears against her head, but not before she heard a strange, squelching noise. She recognized it the sound of phantoms pumping their tentacles. Annora tiled her ears to see where the sound was coming from. It was coming from all directions.

"I can hear phantoms on the other side. In fact, I hear phantoms in all directions," Annora noted as she pushed against the door.

Fern stopped. "How close?"

"What does it matter?! We need to break through this door as fast as we can."

"No. Stop and listen. Are the phantoms on the other side coming toward us or away from us?"

Annora hated doing what others told her to, especially if they were random leopards she had met in a prison two minutes ago that were telling her to stop trying to escape. But she did what he asked. She wasn't exactly sure why, but she stopped and listened to the approaching noise of phantoms.

"Closer," she answered after a few moments. "But so are the other phantoms."

"Then we wait. They could open the door and we can bust out of here," Fern responded.

"No! The other phantoms will reach us first. Why would they even open the door?!"

Fern gave her a stern look. She couldn't help noting the scars that lined his striking face. He was a warrior inside, that was true. And he knew the prison better than probably any other animal in here. He had tried to escape once, and almost succeeded. The phantoms knew he was dangerous, but they didn't want to waste him. So they tried to scare him into doing what they wanted. But he didn't let it affect him. And now he was running off with another animal, one he had never met, one that was supposed to be one of the phantoms monsters, without any fear or hesitation. Annora couldn't help but admire him for that.

"Can you fight?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Then that's what we do. Get ready, but don't touch the door until it opens." He grabbed a loose screw out of the wall, then used it to break the glass on an alarm right above them. He grabbed two large shards of glass and gave one to Annora. She already had her claws and teeth, but any physical contact would shock them. So they needed to do as much damage with each attack as possible. And glass, despite being fragile, could do good damage.

Her ears flattened against her head as the phantoms filled the hallway. Fern bared his teeth, holding the shard of glass in one paw, with his claws unsheathed on his other paw. Annora also unsheathed her claws and prepared to attack. The phantoms didn't wait, they threw as many lightning bolts at the animals as possible. Fern dodged as he ran forward, jumped and grabbed onto one phantom with his claws. As the phantom recharged to shock him again, he stabbed it with the glass right above its eye. The phantom exploded into dust. Annora followed his example and charged at the first phantom, using her wings to propel herself forward. She stabbed it above the eye and it disintegrated, but gave Annora a small shock.

"Hit them right after they use their electricity!" Fern commanded as he dodged another round of lightning bolts and killed another phantom. Annora copied his example and instructions, and killed a phantom without a single shock. The next round of lightning came, but Fern wasn't fast enough and got electrocuted. After the first, several other bolts hit him. He collapsed on the ground, his teeth gritted from the pain. Annora yowled and rushed to protect him. She spread her wings and covered herself and Fern as the wave of electric bolts came. Annora yowled in pain, but didn't let herself follow instinct and save herself. If she died, she was going to die selflessly and loyal, not like a coward.

She steeled herself against the next wave of attacks as they pelted her wings and sent shockwaves through her body. She stood there, shaking, waiting for the next attack. But then she decided, she wasn't going to die tonight. She wasn't going to let all this go to waste. She lat the rage build up inside of her, and she transformed. Her fear melted away, and only rage remained. But past that, there was also the urge to protect Fern at all costs. She roared, swinging her bladed tail.

"Bring in the mutations," one of the phantoms ordered into a walkie-talkie. Then Annora charged at them.