Small Fist of Justice (2)

To say that Phoebe was in trouble after her little adventure would be a large understatement. As soon as she had returned home Kiki had her run extra laps around the track with clunky weighted bracelets. No amount of a sad pitiful face could change her fate in fact for every sad puppy dog face Kiki added an extra lap. A thoroughly whipped, sweaty, and exhausted hobbled back into the kitchen unfortunately for her she was still going to be punished. As soon as she sat into the chair Min-Min started an obscenely long lecture. 

"Young miss I understand that you are much stronger than your peer but you must be careful. You can't just go against an adult on your own!" Min-Min lectured. 

"But I couldn't let that bad guy hurt that baby! And you're wrong I am strong enough to fight a grown-up." Phoebe rebuked. 

Phoebe was lightly tapped on the forehead as Min-Min continued his lecture. "You may be strong but you have barely started self-defense training. There are many ways you can be overwhelmed like how this human threatened you with a knife. You only have a few Divine Abilities currently at your disposal and one of them has a very harsh penalty.

And even if you had more useful Divine Abilities at your disposal, activating them now before the Dismantlement could lead to you being outcasted or being experimented on if your strangeness is discovered. We do not want you to face this type of persecution so you must behave and leave this action to the adults!" 

"I can! Why don't you trust me!" Phoebe whined indignantly. 

"Young mis—"

"I don't want to hear it!" Phoebe complained running to her bedroom and shutting the door with a loud bang. 

The foxes looked at each other in mild frustration. They exchanged no words but they easily spoke an entire conversation, Aurelius had a bad feeling as he watched their exchange. That bad gut feeling was correct when Kiki turned to face him. 

"My lord it is up to you to talk some sense into the young lady. She needs to understand how dangerous her actions were today, we can't have her repeating this." Kiki said. 

Usually, these spirits wouldn't dare to comment on a constellation or dare to order a constellation around but when it came to Phoebe, Aurelius became much more lenient. He nodded in resignation turning around and floating through the walls and stopping in Phoebe's room. Phoebe was flopped on the bed angrily playing with her stuffed animals in a mock battle of sorts. Aurelius shifted awkwardly in the air, he wasn't sure what he wanted to say, in that moment of hesitation Phoebe spoke up. 

"Are you here to punish me too Dad?! I didn't do anything wrong!" Phoebe huffed. 

Ding!

[The Constellation, Ethereal Avian of Fiery Skies, is not here to punish you but you need to know how dangerous your actions were.]

"But no one else was going to help that baby! I could do something so I did!" 

Ding!

[The Constellation, Ethereal Avian of Fiery Skies, commends you for your bravery and justice.]

Phoebe smiled happily at the message before her slightly lifting herself off the bed but then her face morphed back into anger. 

Ding!

[The Constellation, Ethereal Avian of Fiery Skies, will be delaying making a Champion Bond until you mature some more.]

"Get out!" Phoebe yelled.

Aurelius' spectral form shuddered slightly at Phoebe's anger. He tried to float closer to her but her fierce glare stopped him from moving forward. 

"Get out! I hate you! Leave me alone! Go away, Dad! If you keep following me I'll hate you even more! Leave!" She yelled throwing her stuffed animals at Aurelius' spectral form which ineffectively passed through him and fell onto the floor. 

The shock of Phoebe's statement sent Aurelius into a fugue state he didn't realize that he had left Phoebe's room. His mind swirled anxiously, his lovely little daughter said that she hated him. His body threatened to melt and separate as his deep sadness ate away at his heart. At the moment he resembled something like an amorphous blob of shifting stars and lights, as the constellation wallowed in self-pity with deep inky tears streaming down what was left of his face. Kiki and Min-Min found him not so long and after a little bit of explaining they cruelly left him to cry as they returned to the kitchen to go make dinner for Phoebe. 

There was silence in the house for some time as the foxes made dinner. Once they were finished cooking dinner they stepped over the Aurelius puddle and knocked gently on Phoebe's door. 

"Young miss dinner is ready. Please open the door so you can come and eat." Min-Min gently probed. 

There was no response from the room, Phoebe was likely still ignoring them in her anger. They tried a couple more times but they received no response. After several more failed attempts the fox servants resigned themselves returning to the kitchen to pack up the majority of her food but keeping a small plate out so she could eat later when her mood improved. 

Time slowly passed and Phoebe had still not exited her room, the house was quiet a little too quiet. Aurelius felt a strong sense of panic and fear, these were not his emotions they were someone else's. Aurelius picked himself off the floor and reconstituted his body he floated hesitantly before Phoebe's door. He knew that if he was wrong Phoebe would be incredibly angry at him and likely hate him more but if he was right then there was something very wrong going on. 

Aurelius passed through the walls and instead of seeing a slightly grumpy Phoebe lying down on her bed Aurelius discovered that the room was empty, there was no presence of human life. The window in her room was cracked open and if you exited out the window it was very obvious how the lock on the gate, that surrounded this part of the house, was broken off due to extreme amounts of force. Phoebe during some time in her self confinement had escaped the house and was somewhere on the streets. 

Fear and panic consumed Aurelius, Phoebe could be in danger, and from what he gathered from the emotional connection between the two, she wasn't safe wherever she was. Without hesitation, Aurelius used their connection to get a vague sense of where the girl could be. What he got from the vague sense was that she was in a large abandoned building approximately 5 miles away. There was only one building that fit this description it was an old abandoned factory that the city planned to get rid of in a few years. Most people especially children tended to stay away from that area so he didn't know why Phoebe was there but the only thing that mattered was saving her. 

Aurelius transformed into human form and condensed some of his powers to allow him to fly upon the wind so that he could quickly get to Phoebe. In no time flat he was standing right in front of the building. 

Don't worry Dad is here to rescue you, Phoebe.