Hidden Files

A collection of short stories within the same universe of the Fallen Phoenix Series.

## Hidden File #741 (The Gym)

“ ‘Ello, Welcome to The Rising Flame!”
A peppy, blond haired receptionist greeted Phoenix and Anastasia as they entered through the sliding glass doors of the local gym located in downtown Absitinvidia. “Can I interest the Lord and Lady in a gym membership today?”
Phoenix waited while Anastasia stepped up to the counter.
“I don’t think we’ll be visiting that often…”
She looked at Phoenix with her best puppy dog eyes, her bottom lip protruding just a bit, she even added a bit of a quiver to it. On the inside she knew she was doomed. Phoenix smiled lightly while turning to look down laughing softly.
“Yes, we’d just like to take a look around and try some of the equipment out if that’s alright.”
“That’s not a problem. Hey Frankie-poo, can you get a complimentary gym bag and towel for our Lord and Lady?”
Frank cringed at the pet name the receptionist had for him. However, he could not react as he wanted to, otherwise his work release from the asylum may be revoked and Phoenix would send him back into the padded cell.
“Yes, Cindy. Right away.”
Frank went into the back for a few moments, returning with two light blue duffle bags with a fist holding a barbell logo with “The Rising Flame” in text above it embroidered on the side. Anastasia grinned evilly at Frank and took the bags from him, saying mischievously.
“We’re ever so grateful to you…. Frankie-poo.”
A hidden anger burned behind Franks eyes as Anastasia sauntered back over to Phoenix hooking her arm around his.
As Phoenix and Anastasia walked out on to the main floor. Pausing momentarily he glanced down as her eyes met his.
“Which one would you like to try first my love?”
Phoenix’s tone a light playfulness to it.
“Hmmm… I’m not sure. Maybe we should jog first to warm up, and check it all out as we run by.”
She began to stretch a bit, not wanting to tear any of her muscles. Phoenix smiled as he watched the curves of her body, he set the gym bag down at their feet. Stretching his arms above his head, his wings popped out of his back in full spread in the least elegant way possible, knocking a passing by jogger down to the ground, as well as a few dumbbells to the floor. Anastasia stood up facing him, wagging her finger.
“RUDE AND DISRESPECTFUL! No wings sweetheart.”
She skipped out of the way to avoid the dumbbells rolling across the floor.
“We don’t want to kill anyone…. yet. We haven’t even started to work out.”
Phoenix blushed lightly with embarrassment. Folding his wings back into his back he turned to help the poor guy struck down by his wing.
“I am terrible sorry about that.”
“That’s quite alright my Lord.”
The patron returned back to his workout still somewhat flustered from the ordeal. Attempting to stretch again, Phoenix popped nearly every joint in his body, loosening them up while getting distracted once more from Anastasia’s curves as she continued to stretch. Anastasia grinned coyly, turning her back to her Phoenix before bending down to touch her toes, bending and straightening each leg in turn so her butt rocked side to side slowly. Phoenix visibly bit his lip before shaking out his limbs loosening them up. Stepping up beside Anastasia he waited calmly for her to finish, while secretly not wanting her to. Letting out a deep sigh, red and black flames swirled up around his body changing his clothes from outside attire to workout wear.
“Oh please, calm your flames. The last thing you want is for me to snap a muscle. I will stretch till I’m good and ready.”
Anastasia ever so slowly rose up, her back arching as she made eye contact with her Lord. She winked and took off jogging, her own flames wrapping around her body giving her a black and red sports bra and yoga pants. Kneeling down slightly, getting a better grip of the track floor, Phoenix went to push off after Anastasia only to realize his foot not only dug into the carpet of the track, but the floor under it as well.
“... Oops, gonna have to dial down the strength.”
He mumbled to himself while bending down and placing his hand over the damaged floor; flames repaired it. Taking his starting stance once more, he took off into a progressively quicker jog, catching up to Anastasia, slowing to match her pace once he caught up.
“Not to bring up city business on our day off, but, what do you think about expanding the library funds citywide?”
Anastasia visibly perked up, she loved to read, she believed it was the closest thing that humans had to magic. Reading a wonderful book could transport the reader to far off lands and distant times without the reader moving an inch. She thought that it was a very beautiful thing and she wanted her city to be well versed in many things, she had even written her own poems and submitted them to the library.
“I do believe that is an excellent idea. I think we should also spread out the education funding to not just our libraries and schools, but into our neighboring cities as well. After all we haven’t had any conflict and giving them more money for education can’t hurt.”
“That’s a wonderful idea, sweetheart. I’ll need to make a mental note to have Mai allocate funds as well as setup proper procedures so that the funds go to where they need to go. Even though they are our neighboring cities, they still have government funding. I am glad I gave Mai access to every law book so he could write up proposals without loopholes.”
Making their third round of the track, Phoenix jogged ahead of Anastasia crossing over into her lane of the track and turning to face her.
“Have you thought about which piece of equipment you would like to try?”“I think I want to attempt to use the bikes, they look easy enough.”
She jogged lightly over to the row of exercise bikes, eyeing them before she hopped on and started pressing random buttons trying to set up her regime. Phoenix followed close behind, mounting the bike next to her. There was a slight smile on his face as he watched her set-up the bike for a 5k ride uphill.
“You sure you want to have that hard of a ride sweetheart?”
“What do you mean, I’m only going biking for 20 minutes… right?”
She looked at the screen and eeped loudly as the text scrolled by ‘5k uphill - Start Pedaling’. She nearly catapulted off the bike, almost taking down Phoenix in her need to get off the demon, spawn of the devil bike. Anastasia threw her hands in the air shouting.
“I HATE BIKES!!! I’m going to the treadmill!”
She stalked away angrily, red sparks shooting off her as she walked. Dismounting his bike, Phoenix followed close behind Anastasia knowing better than to cross her path while in a fit. Leaning on the display/control panel of the treadmill, he smiled playfully while watching her have better luck in setting up the routine of the treadmill. His finger playfully hoving over the speed control of the treadmill.
“I’m not sure why you wish to do workouts that are the equivalent to everyday tasks. Why not be a bit more adventurous and toss some barbells back and forth with me?”
Anastasia slapped his hand sharply, a single red spark emitting from the slap. The spark increased the speed of the treadmill, it was now flying at 30 mph, she tripped and was shot backwards off the treadmill, skidding across the floor falling into the track lanes. The jogger that Phoenix had struck before was the first to go down, causing a large pile up of runners as they tripped over Anastasia and fell around her. Phoenix darted over to her quicker than a thought. Kneeling down next to her out of habit, he looked her over for injury only realizing after finding none, it would have taken more than that to even cause a scratch to appear on her. Still he placed his arm around her as a few of the joggers helped get her back to her feet.
“Are you ok, sweetheart? Do you want to go home?”
“I think my pride is bruised more than I am… let’s go play with the dumb-bells.”
She walked to the lower level of the gym to where the weight equipment was, she found a barbell and started loading on the disks. When she was done she had 500 pounds on each end. She got her stance ready and started to do the reps. Onlookers gawked as they watched Anastasia's delicate arms lift the weights as if she were picking up a small soda can. Phoenix hopped down the stairs, almost colliding into Anastasia as he plucked the weight from her hand; a sly, playful look in his eyes.
“Wouldn’t it be more fun if we played catch with these, or…”
he paused momentarily.
“Would that be too showy?”
He continued. Anastasia rolled her eyes, snatching the weights back, she started doing the reps again, only faster now. She wasn’t even out of breathe as she replied.
“Yes I do believe it would too showy, we don’t want any accidents to happen because people are watching us and not paying attention to their surroundings.”
Even as she said this the jogger that Phoenix had hit before was coming around the corner and started to gawk at Anastasia. Unfortunately for him he didn’t stop moving, so he ended up jogging directly into a stone pillar. Falling to the floor, shouting out in pain as his hands cupped his nose. One of the physical trainers on the floor rushed over to see if he needed help. Anastasia peered over Phoenix’s shoulder at the commotion behind him.
“Case and point.”
Phoenix turned to look behind him as a trained first-aid staff member bandaging up the downed jogger. Phoenix looked back to Anastasia, a look of confusion on his face.
“But I wasn’t even over there.”
“You didn’t need to be over there, lover. He was gawking at me then he ran into a pole. I think we should head home.”
She set the barbell down, taking Phoenix’s hand in her own. Smiling he wrapped a wing around her shoulder, picking back up their complimentary gym bags as they made their way back to the lobby.
“Did you two have fun with the equipment?”
Cindy’s voice still just as chipper, oblivious to the incidents out on the floor.
“Yes, fun, that’s what it was. Unfortunately, as my sweetheart stated earlier, I don’t think we’ll be getting a membership after all.”
“Awe, that’s too bad. Well, we here at The Rising Flame were happy our Lord and Lady paid us a visit today. Have an awesome evening.”
The sliding glass doors opened and closed once again as Phoenix and Anastasia left the gym.

## Hidden File #263 (Baalat Before the Fall)

The sound of dripping water from an old broken pipe echoed down the abandoned hallway. A young huntress quietly stalks down the corridor towards an opening in the wall that overlooks the floor below. Nervously, she firmly holds the runed dagger in her left hand as her right hand trails along a decrepit wall. Chips of paint crack off and fell to the floor as her fingers ran over them. Maniacal laughter echoed throughout the forsaken factory as her footsteps brought her closer to her target, she could also hear the tortured screams of someone . She had already been on a handful of solo hunts, but still, the thought of what she needed to do turned her stomach.
«You know...»
the quiet, deep voice in her mind said.
«This would be so much simpler if you had her come to you.»
the voice finished off.
The voice that was in her head didn’t rear its opinion that often, but, she did hear it from time to time, usually brushing what it said off as noise. But, this time, it did have a rather good point. She thought to herself.
«Just look at all this stress you’re putting us through when it would be so much easier for the mouse to come to the baited trap.»
“Shut up.”
She whispered to herself.
She didn’t want this voice in her head to distract her from the task at hand. The huntress flipped the dagger end over end in her hand, concentrating on trying to find the voice, the target. The target that she would have to eradicate.
«You know if you did things my way, that poor soul might live to the end of this night.»
“I don’t need any noise from the peanut gallery. I can do this on my own. I know I can.”
However, time was ticking away and she still heard the pitiful, lamenting wails from somewhere but she didn’t know where.
“Ok, fine… how am I to do this again?”
She cringed inwardly as the voice purred out.
«Excellent, I knew you’d see things my way. Now here’s what you do. Delve into our mind and gather your power up, spread it into a net like pattern, no no… wait… spread it like a web… that’s it, a spider's web, draw the prey in. Slowly so that the strands don’t snap. Now breathe in.»
The huntress took a deep breath and entered into her mind, doing as she was instructed, with her power now within her grasp she could sense the energy of the target, the fallen phoenix. The huntress smiled to herself as she cast her powerweb out trapping the target, she kept a good, strong hold of it; to ensure it didn’t get away.
“Gotcha.”
She whispered as she felt the webbing of her power twined it’s way around the fallen phoenix.

The maniacal laughing was cut short and for a short period the only sound was that of the whimpering victim.
“What is this!?”
The cruel harsh voice of the fallen phoenix echoed throughout the structure.
 “You’ve foolishly given yourself away whomever you are!”
For a moment the huntress nearly lost her focus on her webbing.
“You may think you’ve bound me!, but…”
The huntress was suddenly jerked forward towards the wall where on the opposite side stood her target.
Stopping just before slamming into the wall, she regained a stronger footing and kept her focus locked pulling back hard on her power web. The sick laughter picked back up again.
“Fool! I have you now!”
The tautness of the power web vanished as the wall exploded around her, the fallen phoenix flying through it at her.
«NOW!»
On impulse the huntress lifted the runed dagger blade up level with her attacked striking the falling phoenix dead center of her chest.