Chapter Text
One of the worst things to be is something humans don’t understand. It is even worse to be a human that other humans don’t understand. In this world, there have been many groups that the rest of the human population doesn’t understand, but one that has drawn the short end of the stick most consistently is the group that is called the Syrkta. The Syrkta didn’t always exist, or if they did, they were very good at hiding it, but nevertheless, they were discovered by the US government on one otherwise unremarkable day in March of 1970 when a ten-year-old by the name of Marcus Wilson gained the ability to control plants.
It would later be said that the following events were an example of one of the fastest responses to any domestic event in the whole history of the US federal government. One week after First Discovery, Marcus was in government custody, and three other cases had been discovered and were being verified. One month after First Discovery, there were eight children in custody between the ages of six and twelve, and the beginnings of government oversight had begun to form. By two months, there were nearly two dozen total cases discovered, all between the ages of four and sixteen, and the Enhanced Individual Containment and Rehabilitation Agency, or EICRA, had been formed.
EICRA’s job is to collect, document, and train any and all Syrkta that are discovered. Over the past fifty-five years, they have collected nearly 5300 Syrkta; however, some of the Syrkta have managed to escape being captured, approximately 2000, and have formed a community that they named the Olive Sparrow Coterie.
The Coterie gives Syrkta a safety net to be able to live their lives without government interference.
Althea and Riley were left alone at Riley’s house for two weeks whilst their parents and siblings were on a trip. The first week that the two 16-year-olds are alone is a break from school (that ends on the following Tuesday) and on Monday night of that first week, they both get an uncontrollable urge to take all the blankets and pillows in the house and create a giant nest with them on Riley’s bedroom floor. They also get the urge to stockpile a week’s worth of pre-packaged food and water bottles. Once they have done both of those actions, they feel extremely tired and pass out in the nest.
The next few days pass in a blur of hazy feelings and strange thoughts.
The next time they are coherent is Friday.
Althea blinks open her eyes and for the first time in five days, truly takes in what she is seeing. As she lays there getting her bearings, Riley stirs next to her. When she looks over at her an unfamiliar little voice chirps Flockmate!
Althea startles at this and looks around to try to figure out where the voice came from. When she looks back at Riley, the voice chirps again Flockmate! and Althea realizes that the voice is in her head.
Althea mumbles out “Flockmate?” but startles as it comes out as a chirp instead.
As soon as Riley hears the chirp, she perks up and calls out an answering “Flockmate!Here!” chirp.
This gives both pause, and they both sit up very quickly. As they sit up and look at each other, they realize that what is covering each of them is not blankets. It is wings.
The wings that Riley has are red at the top, which transitions to green, which turns to a light blue, which then finally turns to a darker blue, and look slightly fluffy.
In contrast, Althea’s wings are a little slimmer and are blue-grey on the outside, but are white with black lines on the inside.
They stare at each other’s wings for a long few seconds before -- “What the-!” “How do we have wings!?”
The sudden outburst triggers something in Althea, and a small flame bursts out of her palm and lights the blankets on fire. This causes more panic and triggers the same thing in Riley and causes a burst of water to splash onto the fire.
Once the fire is out, the two look at each other and simultaneously exclaim, “What in the world is going on?”
Over the next four days, they figure out that Althea has peregrine falcon wings and Riley has the wings of a green-winged macaw. They also figure out that Althea can create and control fire, and Riley can create and control water.
The two winged teens also research if there have been any other cases of something similar happening to anyone else.
By a stroke of luck, Althea remembers something she saw about the Olive Sparrow Coterie during a late-night internet deep dive. There is not much information out on the internet that they can find, but there is enough mention of the Syrkta that they can figure out that it is the name that references powered people. The two figure out that there are some shady government actions surrounding Syrkta individuals, and that it would probably be in their best interest to prevent people from finding out that they are Syrkta.
This brings them to their next problem: how are they going to hide their wings in school tomorrow?
This stumps them until, as they are making themselves lunch, Althea nicks herself with a knife. “Ah!”
Riley looks up, “What happen- Oh! I’ll go get the First-Aid kit.”
Once Riley grabs the First-Aid kit and bandages Althea’s cut, Althea questions, “How many reusable bandages do you have?”
Riley looks up, “Wha-? Um, I’m not sure. Why?”
Althea worries her lip between her teeth and twists her hands together, “Um, I was thinking, uh, that we could use them to, uh, bind our wings?”
“...That could work… I think,” contemplates Riley. “We’ll have to try it.”
“After finding the-”
“After finding the bandages, yes.”
The duo manages to find quite a few rolls of reusable bandages. They bring all of the bandages to their nest to try to figure out how to bind their wings without damaging them.
It takes some trial and error, but eventually, they figure out how to bind their wings in a way that keeps them fairly flat to their backs but isn’t painfully tight. They take the bandages off and go to sleep.
The next day, they wake up and get ready for school, making sure to properly bind their wings. As they get on their bus and go sit in the back, where they usually sit, just how hard the school day is going to be, hits them; they have new, sensitive wings, their senses have greatly increased in strength, they have powers they don’t quite know how to control yet, and, on top of it all, they have new instincts that are really strong and still feel weird. Riley sighs, “We have our work cut out for us.”
“Yup. Good luck us,” laughs Althea.
As the bus gets closer and closer to the school, Althea and Riley feel a sinking pit in their stomachs grow larger and larger. They glance at each other and grab each other’s hand tightly. The bus pulls into the bus loop and through the window the friends can see that there is a new security guard at the doors… and the doorframe looks weird. They exchange a look and collectively decide that there is nothing they can do about it and that they will just hope for the best.
If only that ever worked, but it never does.
What they didn’t know is that there is a recently discovered chemical that when a Syrkta is exposed to it, if they have animal traits, their instincts are greatly increased, and if they have a power, it will flare up in small bursts. And that chemical is contained in the strange doorframe and is exposing all of the students to it.
As Althea and Riley pass through the doorway, they both feel a wave of instincts crash over them. Their instincts are saying variations of NotSafe!GoBackToNest!Bad!BadPeople!KeepFlockmateSafe!
They are so overcome by their instincts that they don’t notice how they nearly stopped dead in their tracks, how they are being guided in the direction of the nurse’s office, or (most importantly) how their powers have started to flare up.
Once they are in the nurse’s office, they are seated on one of the beds, and whilst they huddle together on the bed, the bell for first-period rings and the EICRA agent (who was the ‘new security guard’) goes to the office to try to figure out their names.
After the twenty minutes it took for the EICRA agent to figure out who they are has passed, Riley and Althea have almost completely come out of their instincts and have gotten their powers back under control. When the EICRA agent comes back into the room, they say, “Hello, I am Agent Samantha Wilson, and you are Althea Jones and Riley Schwartz, correct?”
“Yes”
“Yeah, that’s us.”
At that, Agent Wilson nods and inquires, “Do you two have any ideas of why I might be here?”
The two Syrkta glance at each other and look back at the agent, staying quiet. “Really,” Agent Wilson deadpans. She sighs, “I am here because you two have manifested enhancements, haven’t you?”
The teens stay silent as Agent Wilson continues, “From what I’ve seen, it appears that you both have powers as well as animal traits.”
‘Bird traits,’ Althea thinks, ‘not just animals, birds.’
Agent Wilson cocks their head as if listening to something “Bird traits then. I assume you both have wings as well.”
Riley and Althea frantically lock eyes and simultaneously think ‘How did she know?!’ and, quieter, ‘Yes, we both have wings,’ and their instincts pop up with Yes!StayAwayFromFlockmate!
“So you do both have wings, and as for how I knew,” Agent Wilson smiles sadly, “your thoughts aren’t exactly subtle.”
This causes the winged two to pause, and Riley hesitantly asks, “Can you…”
“Read minds? Yes, yes I can,” she contemplates for a moment, “Well, it’s more like I can hear people’s thoughts, but in all practicality, yes I can read minds.”
They let the teens chew that over until Althea breaks the silence with a soft “Wha-What happens now?”
“Well,” Agent Wilson states “now I bring you to the compound and you two will get trained.”
“Will we be separated?” Riley asks frantically, though she wasn’t quite sure where the deathly fear was coming from.
Agent Wilson contemplates them for a few seconds. Then, “No, no, I don’t think you will.”
After a few more seconds of silence, Althea asks, “Could you, maybe, tell us about the training?”
With a soft smile, Agent Wilson says, “You will learn how to control your powers and instincts. You will also train your powers to strengthen them. You won’t have to figure this out by yourself, though. You will each be assigned to an older Syrkta who will be your mentor. As long as you do your best and follow the rules (your mentor will explain them to you), you will be fine.”
A soft buzz sounds from the watch-like device on their wrist just as Agent Wilson finishes up their explanation. She glances down, and once they see what popped up on the screen, she motions for the girls to follow her with an “Our ride is here, come on.”
The girls stand and follow them out the door, and to the car that had been sent for them.