2 Years Later

Six years quickly pass,

"Where are youuu?" a questioning voice echos through an abandoned warehouse.

A child with bright blue hair and green eyes walks by. He slowly closes his eyes, a second later he runs out and points at a tree, "Found youuu!" the child exclaims.

A voice follows his from the tree,

"Mantaaa no fair.....you used mantra."

Another child comes down from the tree pouting. This child unlike the other doesn't have antennae or wings. His hair is a striking black and his eyes a cool crystal blue.

Manta puts a hand in his hair and says, "Aren't abilities meant to be used Stryke? I found you with the help of my mantra which is MY skill, where is the wrong in that."

Stryke looked up with a sudden face of glee, "Race you to homeeee...." and he took off running, his voice trailing into the distance. Manta runs after his screaming "Hey, no fairrr ..".

In front of the house, a girl with blond hair and deep black eyes stands waiting. Seeing a trail of dust coming towards her, she walks into the house and closes the door in front of the dust cloud.

WHAM

"Owie…..Ouch, Ouch, Ouch ..... wahhhhhhh fatheeeeeeeeer Conis is being mean to meeee."

Strik wailed. Tears jumped out from his eyes like waterfalls and a big bump formed on his head.

Laughter echoed from the neighboring house, the sight of Manta rolling on the floor in laughter made Stryke cry even more.

"Shhhhh …. don't cry my boy... its alright..."

Pagaya lumbers out, now looking older. He reaches out and pulls Stryke into his embrace and holds him tightly.

After consoling him and telling him to go take a nice bath, he goes to Conis and holds her by the arms in a gentle way and says,

"Conis, your brother may be different from you but that does not give you the rights to push him away... "

"But he has no wings.... My friends make fun of me saying my brother is a frea-"

"NO your brother is different, but that does not make him a freak.. Our God Gan Fall is different from us and so is his bird Pierre but aren't they the strongest and most reliable? Now go apologize to your brother and make him smile."

"but-"

"No buts, just do it."

Conis hurries to her brother to apologize.

Pagaya's happy and relaxed looking face goes into a frown,

"Our island...…. is slowly entering madness, the Birkans are infighting, Shandians are invading and our God can't stop them, even his own family is not safe."

Stryke's laughter echoes from another room and Pagaya's frowns are replaced with a smile.

A sigh leaves his throat.

.......

The next day, Strik knocks on Manta's door. It opens and a female beams a smile at Stryke.

"Come in Strik.... Do me a favour and wake Manta up"

"Okay, mother Luciae."

"Do you want to stay for breakfast?"

Luciae asks.

"Yes..mmm" Stryke feircely nods his head, then rushes to wake Manta up.

He enters Manta's room and sees him awake reading a book.

"Wha's that?"

"Book."

"Wha's it about?"

"Wierd fruits."

"Show me!"

Stryke jumps onto Manta's bed and peeks into the book.

His eyes are pulled toward a certain blue fruit with yellow swirls on them.

"This?" He asks.

"Mysterious fruit seen hanging from a Birkan wallow tree. Other details unknown."

Manta reads.

"Wallow tree? Don't they have tasty walo fruits?" Stryke says.

Manta looks at the book confused.

"Come get your food boys." Luciae calls.

""Coming!!"" The awkward atmosphere lifts and the boys quickly arrive at the table and gobble up the delicacies.

Luciae gets up and says "I am going out to get some things for dinner, Stryke, bring Connie and come over."

"Okay!"

After finishing the food the boys go to their regular play area, past Lovely street, past Angel island and into the Upper yard's forest around a giant towering beanstalk called the Giant Jack.

They play around and climb the tall trees competing with each other.

Sitting underneath a tree, the two start talking,

"Manta.... Why are you my friend?"

Strik asks.

"Why shouldn't I be? You are fun to be with, I am super lonely and other than me you have no friends."

Manta replies honestly.

Stryke then looks up and smiles.

"If I climb this tree faster than you, I get to eat your share of food."

He gets up and starts to climb.

Suddenly, they hear footsteps coming from inside the forest.

" Hide!!"

Manta whispers and pulls Stryke under the cover of the bushes.

Plenty of footsteps continuously thud across the expanse of land and clouds,

A tall and pale-skinned young man seemingly in his early twenties with a well-toned yet somewhat wiry build leads a mysterious bunch of men in cloaks.

The leader's hair is covered with a bandana and his earlobes extend down to his chest. The young man is topless and is wearing baggy pants held by a belt decorated with shells. The most striking feature are the drums on his back.

"He doesn't have wings.." Stryke mutters.

"Huh.... there are children in that bush...."

The man calls out.

"RUN" Manta screams and they both run into the woods from the other side of the forest and climb the tallest tree in the area.

"The huu.....man has huuu... mantra" Stryke pants out from a branch.

Manta, on another branch, puts a finger to his mouth, indicating him to stop.

"We lost them."

"No, they gave up..... we are not their targe-"

Manta's eyes widen, he tries to move aside and-

ZAP BZZT ZAP

Snakes of electricity hit Manta and knock him down from the tree. He hits the ground with a sickening thud and is still...…..

The leader of the mysterious crew walks out, with one hand on one of the drums hanging from his back.

He stoops down and examines the body.

"Hmmmm…. blue hair and green eyes, this is Gan Fall's child alright! Now its only his wife left. Then I will take my place as God of Skypiea and you my followers, will be my priests."

His followers call out to him in happiness, "Yes my, lord"

The man...no monster.... Stryke decides, looks at his followers and orders,

"Look for the other one, he must be around here somewhere....."

He leaves a few of his followers behind and exits the forest with the rest of them.