It was once thought that the state of the Earth was at peace. Humans working together to meet each others needs and to just blatantly keep peace and harmony throughout the world. It was only until a new "race" began to rise up among the humans, in which they would later be named as the "Bephians". The Bephians were very similar to humans in fact, however they were a bit.. Different. By different, I mean that the Bephians were somewhat similar to animals, as they would show various traits of animals. These "traits" could range from having the wings, talons and eyesight of various birds, or even having the claws, scent of smell and agility of a wolf. Days after this new race was found. In a short time span, did tension rise. After this time of of tensions, these two races began to work together in harmony and peace to survive for thousands and thousands of years. However, a new present-day group began to arise among the humans and began to influence them greatly. The humans began to develop technology and.. abilities to begin to outcast the Bephians in which they enslaved and took out 1/4 of the population of the Bephians. This would now create a huge war between the Humans and the Bephians, even putting the state of the Earth into utmost chaos. Half of the remaining population of the Bephians would now go into hiding or even create settlements to just live and survive with each other like they did thousands of years before.  Some of these settlements even grew into large cities, beginning to be filled with both humans and Bephians, these being known as more neutral places to live. Now we get to the other half. After a while of hiding, one large faction of Bephians grew and began to fight back against the humans as some sort of "Revolution" this day in age would later be known as the "Rise of the Bephians". After months of fighting, rumors began to fill the world that again, another small faction was beginning to fight against both the Bephians and humans to once again, make the state of the Earth, peaceful once more.

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It was a semi warm Fall evening, the sun was slowly drifting into the clouds as night was beginning to slowly take over the skies of Earth. A boy was flying through the air from what it seemed to be, Falcon-like wings which reached a wingspan 3.4 ft were coming out of the boy's back, which obviously enabled him to fly. The boy looked like as if he was about 17 and had the height of about 5'11". The boy also seemed to be fairly fit for his age, but nothing too out of the ordinary. The boy also had long, messy light brown hair which was chin-length at most, he even had light green eyes. He was wearing a black tank top, blue jeans and a light shade of black, boots. He even wore black wrists bands too, he looked like an average teenager really, just with.. Falcon-like wings. This boy was named Artemus, a Bephian like many others, however he lived in an area of what was New York City, which turned into a neutral ground for both Bephians and Humans alike.  

"WOOOOHOOO!!" Yelled Artemus, his wings flapping gracefully as he did a flip in the air. Artemus was flying around the Empire State building, others seemed to be watching him on the ground, and others carrying on with their day. Artemus flew next to the tip of the top part of the Empire State building, only hanging off with one hand grabbing onto the tip and his feet laying on the side of where he was hanging off of. Artemus grinned at the sight of New York City, he enjoyed seeing the sight of the Bephians and Humans living among each other like they had thousands of years ago. The last bit of the sun shined onto Artemus's eyes which blocked out his eyesight, in which he accidentally tripped and fell. Smirking as he yelled once more, "YAHHOOOO!!" Artemus than flapped his wings once more, as he did a flip in the air and landed gracefully onto the ground below him. He landed in front of a small shop, which he knew the owners and got along with them quite well, they even granted him discounts and free food most of the time. 

"Artemus is here!" Artemus yelled as he tried to walk into the front door of the shop. A man wearing a casual outfit with an apron came out of the back room. The man had short dark brown hair and a dark brown beard. He was quite muscular too, someone you didn't exactly want to really mess with in a hand to hand fight. "Artemus!" He says with a happy tone to his voice, "How are ya?" He says to the Artemus that is currently trying to get through the door of the shop with his wings and all. "Not bad!" He replies, finally get through the door. "What about you, Oliver?" He asks with a big smile, "Eh, I'm fine." He says in a monotone voice while he cleans a glass cup, "The usual eh?" Oliver says, looking up to Artemus. "Yeeeep!" He says a bit jittery. "Oi, Susan!" Oliver yells to his wife whom his in the back room, "I need a turkey and ham sandwich with extra mayo and lettuce, the usual!" He yells over, "Coming Hun!" his wife yells back. 

While he waits, Artemus looks around the store, admiring all the stuff the couple has gathered throughout the years. These items ranged from just simple glassware all the way to ancient weaponry that was placed up on the walls. While Artemus was looking around, he noticed an odd man in a corner by the front door of the store. This man was clad in black, having a black overcoat that had fur around the collar and the ends of his sleeves which were also black. Underneath the overcoat, was a black and white stripped shirt, something you see on some criminal in old movies and what not. The man also wore black pants and boots. His hair reached down to his chin which also happened to be black. His skin was pretty pale, pale to the point that people would stare at him a quite bit. The man's eyes were also a dark crimson red, odd.. He even wielded an ancient Japanese sword from what it looked like, a nodachi. 

"Hey Oliver.." Artemus said as he and the man exchanged stares. "Hm..?" Oliver said, looking up to Artemus. He turns to face Oliver and gets close up to him, whispering over, "Whats up with that guy..?" Artemus asks. Oliver looks over to the man clad in black, accidentally mistaking him for a demon for a few seconds. "Oh.. Him?" Oliver replies, "Apparently he's just a tourist from Japan, odd guy, I dunno'." Oliver says. "Oh.. I see." Artemus says, curious about the man, but when he turned back to get another look at him, he seemed to have.. vanished, again odd. There was a moment of silence after Artemus went back to looking around the small shop. But, suddenly there was a loud sound that everyone in the city could hear. It sounded like sirens, something you'd hear for a tornado but defiantly more louder. "What the heck.." Artemus says before rushing outside. He scanned there area as in the distance, military jets and helicopters began to cover the sky. It was the Human Army.. Iridium.  "Crap.. I gotta get outta here.." Artemus says. Iridium was the faction that was "protecting" humanity by eradicating the Bephian race and partially enslaving them. While Artemus fled the scene, Oliver and his Wife stayed at their cafe, going to defend it with their lives. 

Artemus that began sprinting forward and then let his wings begin to do the work. He was going the maximum speed he could, also he was about 36 ft off the ground. Iridium was quick and efficient, from what it looked like, they already took 1/4 of the city with the size and numbers and technology they have obtained over the years. As Artemus was flying, he felt 4 burning sensations in his wings and before he knew it, he plummeted to the ground. He hit the grand pretty hard, even though his wings helped break his fall, Artemus's wrist, a few of his ribs, his other arm and a few other things were broken. Artemus's blacked out for a few moments, before waking up to see 4 of Iridium's soldiers approaching him slowly. The soldiers had black and white armor, with some purple around their visors and upper torsos and lower legs. One of the soldiers looked bulkier than the others and he had a rotating laser gun, aka a laser gatling gun. Two of the others looked like typical soldiers, having standard Iridium laser rifles. The other solider wore the standard armor, but had a black sash and what seemed to be a smaller version of a black cape that cover his right arm and solider. This soldier had a laser sniper rifles, one of Iridium's state of the art recon troopers, while the others were two typical troopers and a heavy. 

"Should we kill him or take him as a POW?" One of the typical troopers said, "Orders were to kill each and every Bephian we came across." The recon trooper said in a cold manner. "They really need to fix our communicators, one of the troopers said. The communicators was just a small microphone in their helmets, a bit below their visors. "Whatever.." The Heavy said, annoyed at the fact that they haven't proceeded more into their mission and desired to kill Artemus. A standard trooper aimed straight at Artemus's head, "Its a shame, that you'll die at such a young age.." The trooper said, "Say hello to the others for me." He said, mocking the deaths of the other Bephians as he had his finger at the trigger of his rifle. But, suddenly there was a flash, as if a demon now separated the Artemus and the soldiers. "I'm afraid.." The thing said, as he slowly drew his sword, which was the same nodachi from earlier.. Was it the exact same guy Artemus saw in Oliver's shop..?! "He's coming with me.." The man said as the soldiers immediately recognized the man, "I-It's.. Jean Lockheart of the Saviors!" One of the soldiers said in fear, "What of it..?" Jean asked with a bored tone to his voice, while he rested his nodachi onto his shoulder.  

The recon solider lifted his hand slowly up to the side of his helmet and pressed a small button which activated the mic inside of his helmet. The soldier hesitated, "W-We need backup, ASAP!" he said into his mic, "Roger that, coming in on your six." Said a voice from a commander whom was at a small outpost miles away from the city.  Jean yawned, as a few vertibirds came into sight. Ropes dropped from the vertibirds, in which Iridium soldiers slid down the ropes, which comprised of normal troops and a small amount of heavy troopers. A few recon troopers also landed on some roofs to, all of them aimed at Jean. "Yin.. Yang." Jean said, while he slowly unsheathed his nodachi, which the rays of the sun shined on it's blade. Artemus stumbled up to hear two emotionless voices come in from behind, "Got it." The voices said. Two very pale guys who were about 5'10" in height walked up beside Jean. One of the guys wore complete black and had long black hair, while the other guy had all on white and long snow-white long hair. 

The solider in the front, the heavy, gulped. "T-The.. Yin and Yang brothers and Jean Lockheart.." Said one of the soldiers, but suddenly the brothers vanished. Yin, the one in all black was suddenly standing in pure sunlight, a long shadow was standing behind Yin. 1/4 began to focus on Yin, firing lasers straight at Yin's torso. But suddenly, Yin's shadow took on a physical form. It took the shape as a shield and shielded Yin from the lasers. The soldier's guns began to overheat after a couple of minutes of firing non-stop. "That all you got..?" Said Yin, as suddenly his shadow broke apart and separated in 8 separate parts that had arrow-like shapes at the end of it. "Rest.." Said Yin, with no emotion to his voice at all. Then in a blink of the eye, the shadows shot forward and impaled each and every soldier in front of him. 

Yang, on the other hand, was in the opposite area of where Yin was. Yang was standing on the rooftops, holding what seemed to be a golden bow, made out of light itself. 1/4 of the Iridium troops had focused on Yang as the last 1/2 of the troops focused on Jean. "To secure a better tomorrow.." Yang said as soldiers opened fired at him. But suddenly, in an instant, Yang vanished. "I will end all of you.." Yang said as he unleashed his arrow which split into 8 arrows from the one Yang previously fired, the arrows raining on top of the soldiers. The arrows penetrated their armor, like a warm knife slicing through butter, and like that, the soldiers were dead.