Ryan, Nick, and I are really getting along nicely. I'd even say that we are now best buds. Ryan was really impressed with the cottage type building I built around his farm. It was a tiny farm, I think he called it instant converter? Well, I guess it doesn't matter, I'm staying far away from that Star Dust, who knew it could explode? I don't know how the Engineers deal with it, I overheard Hadix mumbling numbers for these things called Pylon Converters.

Chris is still gone on his mission, it's been a few days now since he has been gone. I've been working on flying lessons with Thomas, and Scar has been making sure I'm not over using my wings. Meanwhile I've been training with Chloe, who is a killer fighter might I add. I was lucky that one time I got past her guard, now I'm the one with bruises. I don't mind though, it reminds me that I'm alive.

Chloe also says I'm going to get some lessons on long range fighting from Thomas and Hadix. I'm a little worried about Hadix, he seems really tough. Nick assures me that he is really nice inside, I just have to break past the layer of distrust.

Meanwhile, in my free time I have been getting to know everyone and their morphs. Like did you know that Scar is a bobcat? Pretty cool if you ask me. I'm still trying to figure out my morph, but my wings rarely hurt anymore. Must be these gloves that Hope made for me. Also, how did she know my size? Hope said she would have to resize my clothes, but they fit just as well as the gloves did.

I rarely see Hope in her morph, but she is a beautiful kite. A kite is a bird of prey, and she really knows how to ride the thermals. (Hot air).

Anyway, I need to go to my next flying lesson. Bye journal.

-Ollie

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I think you're ready for the flight course." Thomas told Ollie in the flyers clearing. "We won't do it for speed, but you are certainly agile enough to do all the exercises I have had you do."

"Really?" Ollie had focused on flight patterns he hadn't done before. When he was a kid, he didn't fly much, but when he did, he just flew in relaxed positions. Thomas had pushed him to work on flips and spins, of which he wasn't the best at, but quickly improving.

"Yes, you have the speed down, you just need to work on endurance, tricks, and balance." Thomas was currently his phoenix self, perched on a branch. "I do wonder if I'll have to retrain you once you find your morph."

Ollie turned to study his wings, giving them a flap to test them out. They reflected the sunlight, creating a rainbow pattern through the clear membrane. He hadn't seen any other wings like them, even the Dragonfly wings he presumed they were modeled after. "Well, what are we waiting for?"

"That's the spirit!" Thomas flapped off of his perch and went to the black and white checkered line. "Go in three, my mark. One. Two. Three!"

Ollie and Thomas both launched off of the ground and dove through the first hoop, before making a large loop into a hoop perched high off the ground. They did this for a sequence of the large carved rings, until they had done a full circle and landed at the starting zone.

When they landed, Ollie felt pain shoot up his spine from where his wings met his body. Temporarily doubling over, Ollie clutched at his stomach and took a few heaving breaths.

"Are you okay?" Thomas retransformed in a whoosh and rushed over to Ollie, who could not reply through his gritted teeth.

"I probably just strained my wings to much." Ollie managed to speak once the pain ebbed away to a throb.

"I don't think that's it, unless your wings are supposed to be turning black." His metor gave him a look of infinite worry and had to keep himself from biting his lip.

"What?!" Ollie twisted his head violently back, causing his spine to crack, but couldn't see anything. "I need a mirror." He said in a hushed voice. Thomas complied, flying quickly back to the house without delay. Taking no more than a minute, the phoenix came back with a handheld mirror in his talons and positioned it in a place Ollie could see his wings.

The blackness had spread from where Chris had seen it, now at least a few inches from the base. The base itself looked partially cracked and weakened.

"We need to talk to Scar and Chris, now." Thomas was shaking slightly and looked ready to combust at any second.

"But Chris is gone!" It was Ollie's turn to freak out because he had no way to contact Chris.

"I'll take care of that, get into the house." Thomas turned and flew in the direction Ollie had come from when he first arrived on the island. Unbeknownst to Ollie, Thomas was searching for Nick, one of the two people who had direct emergency communication with Chris.

He found his quarry working on his ray shield and dove like there was no tomorrow at him.

"Thomas, what is going on?!" Nick leaped back from the diving bird, narrowly avoiding a collison.

"Call Chris now!" Thomas morphed quickly back. "There's no time!"

"Wh-what? Why?" Nick was beyond confused, but he was already starting the process of calling. Thomas never freaked out like this.

"It's Ollie."

That was all Nick needed. Pressing a button on the strange device on the side of his head, Nick opened up the emergency line. Chris answered almost immediately, his voice garbled.

"What is it?"

"Something has happened to Ollie, Thomas came rushing over here like all hell just broke loose."

Thomas was visibly shaking, whether from impatience or worry, Nick couldn't tell.

"Okay, I'm coming." Chris ended the call with a promise that everyone knew he would keep without delay. While others might take a minute or two to get somewhere, Chris would not. The moment he the words left his lips, he would act upon them.

"Where is he?" Nick turned to Thomas, who had already turned back into the phoenix.

"In the house with Scar." Thomas flew high in the sky and vanished from sight. Nick in turn morphed and galloped full speed down the trail, his only hope at getting there in a decent time. Arriving first, Thomas rushed in the house, going to the room Ollie had been in before.

Scar was in the medical room, trying to comfort his patient. He had various medical supplies at the ready, checking Ollie for different issues. Ollie was on the cot that he had previously occupied.

"What's going to happen to me?" Ollie whimpered, clutching his knees to his chest. His soft jade eyes were widened with fear and uncertainty, the look that broke Scar's heart every time he saw them. He knew that look all too well.

"You're going to get better, Thomas just went- there he is." Scar beckoned Thomas over and whispered something in his ear, so as not to alarm Ollie. Turning back to Ollie, Scar continued, Thomas taking a seat. "I'm going to give you some medicine that will help calm you down and dull the pain. It will help us look at your wings."

Little did Ollie know that the medicine was a sedative, designed to knock a patient unconscious in the most gentle way possible. Scar had not lied, it would calm him down, and it would make the pain non-existent.

Ollie fell into a troubled sleep after taking the medicine, as he did not have the necklace Chris gave him to help with what the morphs called, Morphsickness. Scar and Thomas wordlessly rolled their unconscious quarry over and examined the wings.

They looked worse for wear under the hospital grade lights, highlighting with more detail the faint cracks. There was no doubt that his wings were beautiful, but at the base they looked cursed.

"Do you think it's spread into his skin?" Thomas half whispered to Scar.

"I don't know." Scar replied grimly, taking to the task without another word.

To their great dismay, Thomas was right. Faint black lines traced their way up from the base of the wings, snaking their way in a pattern much like blood vessels. The ones at the very base were the thickest, thinning their way out like roots.

"Roots..." Thomas muttered, before a light of horrible realization flashed in his eyes. "Whatever this is, it's trying to suck the life out of Ollie. Look here." Thomas traced one of the biggest roots, then traced its trajectory. "It's heading for his heart."

Scar took a step back and heaved a huge gulp of air. "I don't have to be a doctor to realize that's probably going to be deadly." He had to keep himself calm, as to be the most help to his patients.

"How do we cure it?" Thomas glanced back at the offending line of black. It looked horrible, as it was jagged yet curved underneath the pale skin.

"We can't at the moment." Scar said in a hushed voice. "I know nothing about anything like this. I can't cure something if I don't know what it is. Chris might know something about it, he seems to know stuff about morphs that I don't."

The door to the medical room opened quickly but quietly as Nick rushed in, mouth falling open when he saw Ollie. "Is he dead?" He couldn't help but ask, his eyes deceiving him.

"No, Nick. He's just sedated." Scar tried to calm Nick down. "We can't do anything until Chris gets here anyway."

"Well you're in luck."

Everyone spun around to see Chris standing in the doorway, albeit very weak, a look of concern barely visible underneath his visored helmet. Quickly taking off his helmet, Chris rushed over to the bed to study his patient.

"How did he get here so fast?" Nick muttered to himself, not really expecting a reply.

"Somethings are best unknown, Nick." Chris replied while he took a pair of magnifying glasses from one of the tables and studied the cracks in the wings. After a few minutes of painfully slow observation, Chris looked up. "This blackness probably started from him flying while being in this state. He very well could be stuck in between morphs, like I was at one point. It's a way of coping for the split body. Normally I will fix itself, as I've seen in other situations, but it looks like something went wrong. It has to be due to the fact of his wings suddenly appearing again after ten years. If we don't get him into one morph, he will die." Chris pointed to the black. "At first it only spread when he was flying, but he must have really pushed himself for it to spread even when not in flight."

Thomas felt guilt burning up inside of him. Was he the reason Ollie was dying? "I think it's my fault. I thought he was ready for the flight course, so we raced around it."

"It's not your fault, Thomas." Chris gave him a look of sympathy. "How were you supposed to know? You did what any good mentor would do."

Thomas simply hung his head and remained silent. Despite what Chris said, Thomas would always blame himself. It was ingrained into him. Nick put one hand on his shoulder to comfort him.

"You can wake him up now Scar." Chris sighed. "We cannot do anything for him. Only he can fix this. We need to get him into one of his morphs."

Scar obeyed soundlessly, injecting a clear liquid into Ollie's arm. Slowly but surely, Ollie's eyelids fluttered open, followed by a groan of disconcertment.

"W-what happened?" Ollie rubbed his eyes, trying to get his bearings. He noticed that his shirt was gone but chose to say nothing about it. Things involving medical procedures always ended oddly for him.

"We had to sedate you." Scar gave him a glass of water to drink. "It was the only way we could observe what had happened to you."

Ollie's vision was hazy and very blurred, still adjusting from the abnormal sleep it had been put in. His brain was also in a fog, not really registering what was going on. "Is that, Chris?" Ollie squinted at the faint blur that he assumed to be X. His vision was not working properly, as he could only see things very close to his body. Would he all of the sudden need glasses on top of this?

"Yes." Chris replied, the normal softness of his voice calming him down. Ollie didn't know how to describe it, sounds were so hard to define, but there was something different about X's voice. It had a composed calm sound to it at all times, but you could also hear underlying leadership in it. It was kind, but it also held a little bit of pain. And wisdom. If it was possible, Ollie could have sworn he heard wisdom and experience in the somewhat tired voice. It probably had to do with the accent they shared. Ollie was certain that Chris was also from the UK, as all the others he heard had varying American accents, as well as Canadian accents for some of them.

Ollie sighed and rolled onto his side, his body wanting him to sleep again. Slowly, his mind cleared away the fog, and soon panic gripped his no longer sleepy body. Shooting up in the bed, he asked the question the others were dreading to answer. "What's happening to me?"

Everyone looked at Chris, after all, he knew the most about it. He sighed, lowering his gaze before looking Ollie directly in the eyes. "Your body is trying to compensate for being stuck in morphs.... Flying has caused your wings to start to shatter. We need you to get into one of your morphs. Your human one will be easiest since you know that one."

Ollie felt his chest start to take quickened breaths, and he had to tell himself to calm down to slow his racing heart. It didn't help that everyone was still slightly out of focus. "How do I do that?"

The group looked at each other before turning back to him. "Everyone does it differently. Some envision their morph in their head, while others just do it. It can't really be explained."

That was not the answer that Ollie was hoping for. Instead he waited for Chris to speak, knowing he would. Chris did indeed speak, giving yet another answer Ollie knew he would get, yet hoped he wouldn't.

"You won't be able to fly in the meantime. The black is spreading faster when you fly, but at this point it's spreading regardless. You can still do other things, but flying will only reduce your time in which you can figure out how to morph."

Sighing, Ollie rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. It didn't hurt his wings, they kind of folded in on themselves. He knew the others were waiting on an answer, but Chris was simply waiting for Ollie to decide.

"How did you guys figure out how you could morph?" Ollie decided on the question that would give him the best answer. Judging by the smile on Chris's face, he had chosen the question well.

"This we do know." Chris looked at the others giving them a nod. "We could morph when we had an event in our lives that really affected us. For me, it was winning my first running race. I was so happy that I just transformed into an eagle. Shocked everyone out of their seats, that was for sure."

Ollie laughed despite his predicament. "So it has to be a happy experience?"

"Not happy, joy, a feeling of accomplishment. The feeling you get in your chest when you know you have completed something that you have spent hours working on. A time where you know you can have a little pride in yourself because you earned it. You worked towards that goal, and you made it."

This brought many questions to Ollie's head. Had he always had the wings, or did they come when he won that math competition? He was very young at the time, young enough not to know if he had the wings before hand. But since then, he hadn't really felt that feeling Chris described. He had always hidden himself away, staying secluded in his shell, despite always being around people. How did he explain when his wings disappeared? Was that still him?

"So I guess I need to go accomplish something that I have worked hard on. Maybe one of my builds?"

"Worth a shot." Nick replied, smiling now that he knew Ollie had hope. In fact, everyone was smiling. Hope was infectious, just like laughter. "I heard Ryan is in need of an expert architech to house one of his contraptions."

"Where is he?" Ollie got up and searched for his shirt. There was no way he was going to go outside without it. While it was socially accepted for him to be able to do it, there was a reason why not every man went shirtless. His pale skin already was a shocking contrast to the environment. Paired with his absurd skinniness, it wasn't really feasible. It was also starting to get cold outside as well.

"On the stone mountain." Nick replied, giving Ollie his shirt back. Slipping the shirt back on, Ollie noticed how it slid easily across the gloves. Those gloves had become apart of him now, he barely noticed they existed. They also were waterproof, which was very handy.

Ollie left the room, taking slower steps than usual. He didn't have all his bearings down yet, the moment he got up his world spun. His vision righted itself right as he almost ran into a wall. Resisting the urge to fly once he got outside, Ollie started walking unsteadily down one of the trails, now well versed in where everything was.

Stone mountain was a decent trek up a hill, then up a rope ladder constructed recently. Luckily, Ollie was wearing a pair of hiking boots, as they serviced as work boots as well. By the time he had reached the base of the trail he had gained his balance once again and felt comfortable making the climb.

The climb was more exhausting than it normally was, and by the time Ollie reached the ladder, he was out of breath. Not one to give up, Ollie quickly caught his breath and started ascending the ladder. He stopped midway, thinking that one of the flyers was watching him. Turning around, he saw nothing but a black eagle. Shrugging, putting no extra thought into it, Ollie continued the laborious climb up the ladder.

He popped out on top, and saw Ryan meticulously working on one of his contraptions. So absorbed was he on the machinery, that he didn't even notice the crunching of Ollie's boots crushing bits of gravel into the stone.

Ollie waved his hand a little bit, still too out of breath for any words. Ryan still didn't notice him, and flicked a switch, producing a lot of sound. And by a lot of sound, I mean a lot of sound. The roar of pistons firing and the hiss of steam escaping pipes deafened Ollie. At this point he knew it was futile to grab Ryan's attention by speaking.

Instead he would have to do the thing that would surely give the mustached man a heart attack. An unintentional jump scare. Ollie tried to do it in a way that wouldn't make Ryan jump up and hit his head, as the machinery curved around Ryan, but he was slightly unsuccessful at it.

Ollie put one hand on Ryan's shoulder, making Ryan jump up and fall over. Somehow he fell on the switch that he had flicked, turning the loud machine off.

"OH MY WORD!!" Ryan shouted out, extremely startled. "Don't sneak up on me like that dude!" Turning, his expression softened. "Ollie, it's good to see you bud. Is there a reason why you're trying to scare me half to death?"

"Sorry," Ollie replied meekly. "Didn't think there was any other way to get your attention. You were concentrating so much, that you didn't even see me when I first arrived."

"Did you fly?" Ryan asked wiping his hand on his jeans and pulling himself out of the wires and gears.

"No, I took the ladder." Ollie sighed a little. "I can't fly until I get this fixed." Turning, he showed Ryan the damaged wings.

"Oh my..." Ryan gasped. "How long has that been happening?"

"Who knows?" Ollie shrugged, turning back. "But I think I've found the solution to it."

"That's great! Although I'm not sure how I play into this." Ryan pocketed a wrench that was sitting on one of the ledges. "Do you need my assistance in anything?"

"Actually, yes." Ollie rolled his sleeves up. "I hear you are in need of an architect?"

Ryan glanced at a pile of wooden planks and steel frames. Lots of building supplies lay off to the side of the monstrosity he was in the middle of fixing. "Yes, this thing is almost done, I'll need a structure to protect it from the elements. Rain is coming, you feel it in the wind. After that, its going to be snowing like there's no tomorrow. How does this help your wings? Shouldn't you be getting treatment for it?"

Ollie pulled at the back of his neck, trying to figure out a way to explain something he didn't quite understand. "It's a long story, how about I tell you while we work?"

Ryan looked very confused, however, he got past it a little and handed Ollie a hammer. "Supplies are over in that pile. This is going to be an interesting tale."