The Phoenix Ghost

Two Birds, Six Dogs

And this is how I imagine Raven....

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Very little was known about Sang's origins except that her father had allegedly gotten his 15 year old cousin pregnant and to hide the family's 'shame', there'd been no documentation of Sang's birth. Both Sang's father and step mother had gone to extreme lengths to keep Sang off grid. In fact she'd been home schooled until she was 15 then for some reason her parents had been forced to allow her to attend public high school, Ashley Waters. It was during this time Sang had met the Blackbourne team, assisted with their assignment before being inducted into the Academy. Her step mother had abused her mentally as well as physically since Sang was very young. Her half sister instigated further abuse against Sang, while her father turned a blind eye to his daughter's trauma and suffering, focusing on his career -and extramarital indulgences to selfishly ease his own conscience and neglect his family in general. The Academy had thoroughly checked and Sang's existence was not documented anywhere before she showed up at Ashley Waters. This made her perfect for the Academy's purposes. That and the fact that Sang was a child prodigy with strong natural and taught skills due to her own quest for learning and knowledge. Only her physical person needed to be honed as she had undergone years of physical abuse that equated to torture at times and serious malnutrition. Just before Sang officially joined the Academy, her step mother died under murky circumstances and the Academy relocated Sang's father and half sister to sever the toxic ties they'd had to Sang. Now it appeared that Phil and the Academy directors had not been thorough enough in their debriefing with Mr. Sorensen. That would need to be revisited, Phil determined grimly,

'Little bird, not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but how is this even possible?'

Sang and Iris shared a silent conversation, two pairs of light green eyes communicating furiously, their identical heads of chameleon coloured dark blonde. hair - dozens of shades of blondes with red and brunette strands mixed throughout - leaned toward the other, before Sang spoke aloud to her sister,

'That isn't how it works at the Academy sis, without honesty there can be no trust and you can't be a team if you don't trust one another,' Iris stiffened before she finally sighed heavily and shrugged,

'I've worked alone for a long time, sissy. That will be a hard habit to break, but you do what you think best. I trust you.' Iris' face showed her contentment at being with her sister after a lifetime apart.

'Ok. This is what we know,' Sang turned back to Phil, 'Iris has been trying to locate me for nearly five years. Since her adopted mother's death. She was raised as the daughter of the President of the Valhalla MC, Bjorne Makinen's daughter,' Phil recoiled in shock and the Tomas gasped for the second time. The Valhalla MC was well known despite being located across the country in California. They were highly skilled in all forms of combat, many of the members formerly Navy Seals and black ops military. They were lethal but honourable and morally ethical in all their dealings even if they were bound by their own rules which, to their mind, superseded the laws of the land.

'You all know that Makinen's wife, Alena was murdered five years ago. What you won't be aware of is she was murdered by someone who calls themselves Volto,' Phil's eyes snapped to Sang then travelled to Iris. In Iris' eyes he saw a deep sadness but also an incontrovertible determination to seek and destroy. His gaze passed back to Sang, her eyes conveyed resolution and purpose.

'You want us to consider inducting Iris into the Academy and eventually into the Ghost team,' Phil stated flatly.

'Yes, I do.... as an additional contingency to those we discussed earlier for my inclusion on the Ghost team,'

'What other contingencies did you request?' Corey looked at Sang is askance. She smiled sweetly back at him,

'Only one, that your team be given full disclosure about my impending change of circumstance and that all of you agree to my inclusion.' She turned her gaze to Axel and shrugged shyly, 'It wouldn't be fair or conducive to a good team dynamic otherwise.'

The Toma boys' smiled and looked toward one another showing their relief and pleasure. They really liked the little bird. Her intelligence, openness and honesty were a welcome change from their ex bird. Plus, she was a Academy trained bird at the top of her class. This could really work.

'Sister ghost bird, were you trained like your MC family?' Raven asked, his eyes drinking in Iris' biker leathers and jeans speculatively and a touch appreciatively.

'My father does not discriminate, Crow,' Iris laughed sardonically, 'If anything I was trained twice as hard as the rest of our family because I was female and a target that could be mistaken for a weakness - either my dad's weakness or my own - in the MC world. So, yea, I was trained to be able to defend myself. I was taught hand to hand combat from the age of seven. I'm proficient in knives, all classifications of gun - everything from hand guns to shot guns, both semi and fully automatic weapons - as well as hand grenades, drones and rocket launchers. I could take apart and reassemble all those weapons before the age of thirteen. I am further able to drive and actively mechanic cars, trucks, jeeps and tanks.' She smiled at the impressed and slightly turned on Russian before sliding her gaze slyly toward Corey and Phil,

'I'm also a hacker so skilled that I managed to hack into both your system, Corey and the Academy's systems on the drive from Sang's exs' house,

'Bullshit!' Corey stated confidently. Phil nodded,

'What he said.' Phil backed up Corey's certainty that Iris could not have done as she claimed. Sang's twin gave them both a smug little smirk before tapping a few times on her stainless steel unusual looking smart watch. Corey heard his red line signal chime from his mobile. A picture of a dew kissed iris flower appeared in a black background before his phone crashed and died, fading to a blank completely black screen.

'FUCK!' Corey snarled in disbelief at his useless device,

'Don't worry,' Iris chortled, 'I'll switch you back on after we finish this... discussion,' her deviously amused eyes swung to Phil, 'Would you like me to whisper the location of the new Ghost complex the board bought on Monday in your ear or just say where it is to the class, Dr. Roberts?' She asked innocently, both of the female twins giggled at his face.

'That will be quite enough, ladies,' Phil intoned severely annoyed that it clearly was possible to penetrate their seemingly impenetrable system at the Academy, 'I need to get Kevin on speaker phone and confirm you all agree to this team,' He eyeballed Iris as his fingers flew over his mobile to connect with the missing would be team member,

'Iris, you will have to go through induction boot camp in the eight months prior to the Ghost team boot camp...' Iris nodded her acceptance of the requirement without concern, 'and before you leave today you WILL walk Corey through how you hacked our systems and close that back door along with any others you can identify,' Phil finished firmly.

'Yeah,' Corey grumbled before flashing his best panty dropping smile at Iris, 'What he said...'

Iris and Sang hugged each other, squealing quietly at each other at their success while the five Toma dogs shared wicked grins of intent between themselves. They would do their damnedest to make at least one if not both of the twin sisters theirs. Screw the Blackbourne dogs, friends or not, when you threw away a bird as perfect as Sang, you get what you deserve when someone else is smart enough to recognise her value and snap her up!

Axel huffed out a laugh at his team's discussion. Life was about to get interesting!

Phil silenced both the verbal and non verbal conversations as Kevin's voice came over the line and in rapid time, he established the eight person Ghost team which was even better than he'd first envisioned! After the seven present team members left to shift Iris and Sang into their accommodation in Sargent Jasper, Phil sank into his chair and allowed his thoughts to go through the facts and outstanding information he needed to progress the new Ghost team. As his thoughts coalesced, he outlined three clear follow ups were needed. First, to get the full details of how Iris has tracked Volto to the Academy; secondly to confirm how and when she'd realised she had a twin; and finally... arranging a meet with Bjorne Makinen for both intel and a possible alliance....

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Well most of the back story is in place now, folks! What do you think? 🤔

Comment, comment, comment, please!

What are you most interested in? Sang and Iris' new sisterly relationship development? Romance? With one or both twins and the Toma boys? Sang's pregnancy?

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