Disclaimer: I own Casey, the horse and the dogs. Nothing more. If ya wanna use the
Warriors, ya gotta ask Firestorm! Toodles!

“Come on, Thunder!” the five-year-old version of Casey screamed at her brother. “The
storm’s coming up fast!”
Mini-Thunder stood by the railing, watching the raging storm clouds billowing across the
sea with an unnerving calm. “But,” he whined. “I wanna watch the storm...”
“We have to come in now! Mommy says it’s going to be a bad one! Thunder!” She
screamed again as he made no motion to indicate having heard her. She gritted her teeth
and huffed indignantly as she stormed over and snatched his arm.
The gale winds started and the tiny fishing boat began to buck and toss in the wind.
Casey gave a yelp of fright and clung onto her brother tightly. Finally realizing the large
danger Thunder had drug both himself and his sister in, he fought against the wind
heading towards the boat cabin.
Casey screamed as the boat was pushed up vertically. She scrambled wildly for a foot or
arm hold, but to no avail. Thunder, who had grabbed onto a nearby rigging rope,
stretched out an arm to his terrified twin. “Casey! Grab on!”
The young girl reached out, barely brushing her brother’s fingers tips before another
wave slammed into the ship’s right side. With one final echoing scream, Casey was
thrown overboard into the turbulent seas below.

The phone rang insistently for the tenth time when Thunder finally deemed it important
to answer. Jogging into the kitchen, he picked up the receiver and rested it on his
shoulder, answering, “Hello?”

A nasal voice could be heard through the phone, saying, “Thunder Copiel, I presume?”
Thunder had to resist the urge to slam down the phone, thinking it was another
telemarketer. “You put in an inquiry to the Family Finding Network a few days ago,
correct?”
Feeling a bubble of hope form in his chest, he answered, “Yes. Yes, I did.”
“Well,” The nasal voice continued. “the search was successful. We have found your
long lost twin.”
The voice continued, but Thunder didn’t hear, for the phone had dropped from his hand
and clattered on the floor. He felt like he was ready to burst. “I have a twin,” he
whispered. “I HAVE A TWIN!”
Quickly picking up the phone again, he exclaimed into it, “Sorry, I didn’t catch the last
part.”
The voice sounded annoyed. “She’ll be arriving in two days with her clothes and
animals. She has four dogs and a horse. Will they be any trouble at all?”
“No, they won’t , Sir.”
“Fine. The pictures will be arriving in the mail today. Have a nice day.”
“You too!” Thunder enthusiastically greeted back and hung up the phone, a huge smile
on his face.

He raced out to the mail box, and sure as rain, there was a package for him. He quickly
ripped it open and grabbed for the pictures. There was only four. The first was of a
brown haired girl, her blue eyes twinkling, as she waved, grinning hugely. Another of the
same girl, her face concentrated, as she jumped a painted horse over a jump. The next
was the same girl and horse, only in Western attire, trotting around a ring. The last was
of the same girl and what had to be her four dogs. There was a letter written in gel pen
on the back.
HA! I beat the stupid rules. Hey bro, I’m Casey McCarthy. I’m your age (Duh!) and
love to ride horses and go jogging with my dogs. The horse is Windrider, but I call him
Windy. And my dogs are Chaz (the chocolate lab), Katie (the tricolor collie), Pup (the
sable and white collie) and Taffy (the Lhasa). I’m looking forward to Friday! Can’t wait
to meet you in person!
Your loving Sis, Casey.
Thunder felt himself on the verge of crying when Scorpio walked out to greet his friend.
“Hey Thunder, what’s up?” he asked, concerned.
Thunder turned and looked at his friend, tears of happiness slowly trailing down his face.
“I have a sister!”

***

It had been two days since Thunder’s announcement and even one was happy for him.
Unfortunately, Only Snow and Ice’s parents let them skip school to meet her with
Thunder. So now, the three young men were sitting by the airport terminal, waiting for
her arrival.
The girl from the picture walked out and scanned the crowd. Feeling his chest constrict,
Thunder called out, “Casey! Over here!”
Casey looked in his direction and smiled, taking off her sunglasses to reveal vibrant blue
eyes. Trotting over, the guys grinned as they saw a little white dog running after her, a
backpack secured to it. She arrived and grinned, pointing to Thunder. “I take it you’re
Thunder?”
Thunder just nodded, too choked up to talk. He threw his arms around the smaller girl’s
form, surprising her slightly. Smiling gently she did the same. “I’ve always wanted real
family,” he whispered through his sobs.
“Well, now you got one!” she exclaimed pulling away and adjusting her cowboy hat.
“Let’s go pick up the others!”
Ice looked confused. “What others?”
She smiled, “My other dogs and Windy, of course.” The girl walked towards the baggage
claim without a glance back.

***

The others waited a bit impatiently at home. School had let out fifteen minutes ago and
were waiting the arrival of Thunder’s twin. Flash was scratching Blaze’s ears when she
said, “Think she’ll be like Thunder?”
“Shy you mean?” asked Scorpio.
Flash nodded, “Yeah. That would be pretty bad, seeing as how Shy people get on my
nerves sometimes.”
“Well, we’ll just have to see.” T-boz stated wisely.

***

Kento stretched and yawned, scratching his backside. Cye wrinkled his nose and
scolded, “Must you do that in public?”
Kento gave him a look of tired indignation. “I’ve been riding that metal bird for 16
fricken hours on a seat probably made out of the same metal and you say I can’t fricken
scratch? Well, you ain’t my mom, so screw that.” Cye just shook his head at his friends
vulgar behavior.
“Nice animal,” Rowen’s quiet voice came from the right. The had been dropped off at
the unloading bay, due to computer error. The animal Rowen was talking about was a
painted horse being walked off the ramp. His black mane blowing softly in the wind, he
stood, head raised and ears poised, to over see his new domain.

***

“Windy!”
The stallion turned his head a whinnied happily, pulling the lead from the handler’s hand.
He galloped over to Casey, nickering as she scratched his nose. “This is Windrider,
Windy for short.”
“He’s beautiful...,” Snow’s voice sounded a bit awed.
Casey smile, glad for the compliment. “Thank you,” she nudged Windrider lightly.
“What do you say, boy?” Windrider nickered once, the bowed to Snow, neighing his
approval. Casey laughed at their expressions and walked Windrider in the trailer,
promising to visit him tomorrow. She jogged back and picked up her bag and then left,
one arm around her brother.

***

In the car, Snow was having a hard time reading, seeing as how the little Lhasa named
Taffy had decided to take a nap on his lap. He wiggled once and woke the little dog up.
Gulping, Snow looked at her, afraid she might bite him. Instead, the little dog only
whined, seeming to ask him to let her stay. Snow’s stubbornness fell and he let the little
dog stay.
Thunder grinned and turned to ask Casey about the little dog, when he saw she had fallen
asleep with her head on the window. Feeling a surge of protectiveness, he pulled her
over so she was sleeping on his shoulder. She mumbled something and curled up,
snuggled against him. She didn’t wake as they arrived home.

***

I’ll admit it, we were all a bit apprehensive of Casey’s arrival. The same questions were
filtering through my head that were fly through everyone else’s but Thunder. He was
kind of walking on air till she came. He still is, come to think of it...
I remember worrying that this girl would take Thunder from us, one of our important
eight member team. No, the prophecy didn’t say seven, now did it? I had this thought
while over Master Chinook’s preparing our training dummies. I turned to him, “Master,”
I said. “What if Thunder’s sister learns of his destiny and tries to pull him away from us
and his duty to this world?”
Master Chinook seem to ponder this for awhile, sitting in a meditative pose with his eyes
closed. When he finally opened them, this was what he said.
“I believe will, not if, but will learn of his destiny despite any attempts by yourselves or
himself to hide it from her. When this time comes, I believe she will embrace Thunder’s
destiny willingly and help him and the other Warriors on your quest. I am sure she shall
be a strong ally in spirit, if not in power.”
I sat quiet for many moments, the nagging sense of unsureness still in me. Oh well,
we’ll see, I thought. Whenever she comes...

Casey had woken up early, still not used to San Francisco’s time. Creeping downstairs,
she had been surprised to find her Grandmother up. The two had hugged and cried
happily, then sat down and caught up on 15 years of lost time.
Munching on some early breakfast, Casey asked her grandmother, “Hey Grams, isn’t
Thunder usually up by now?”
Grandma Copiel blinked and looked at her watch. She let out a surprised gasp, “My
word, how time flies. Thunder is usually up an hour before this!”
Grinning evilly, Casey said, “Don’t worry, Grams. I’ll get him up!” Racing upstairs,
Casey made a pit stop and her room to grab her weapon and then snuck into Thunder’s
room.
He was sleeping so peacefully, she almost didn’t want to wake him, but when Casey took
a job, she finished it. With a yell of “BONZAI!” she leapt on the bed and slammed the
pillow down on Thunder’s sleeping form.

***

Tutock turned when he heard someone enter his throne room. “What have you to report,
Savage?”
The guardian bowed then explained about Casey and the strange energy he had found
while spying on her. Tutock smiled evilly, “This is good.”

***

Scorpio woke up, scratching his stomach slightly and walked to the head of the stairs,
ready to descend into the world of the living, when he heard a scream. Whipping around,
he barely had time to widen his eyes as something very solid slammed into him. Then
the world turned upside down as he rolled down the stairs.
~I’m paralyzed,~ he thought. ~That’s why I can’t move!~ The weight pressing down on
him groaned and Scorpio blinked in surprise. ~Wait a second! Paralyzations can’t
groan!~ He looked up to see a young girl sprawled on top if him. Gasping in surprise, he
sat up.
“Can somebody stop the room? I’d like to get off...” She put a hand to her head, then
hissed and yanked it away. Scorpio noticed she had a slight cut on her forehead.
“Casey?” Thunder’s concerned voice drifted down to them.
“She’s down here, Thunder!” Scorpio called to his friend. Thunder came barreling
down the stairs. He looked at Casey with concern.
“You’re hurt..”
Casey seemed to come to her sense as he touched her forehead. “It’s only a scratch!”
Glancing at Scorpio, she jerked a thumb in his direction. “Who’s dat?”
Thunder smiled, “That’s my friend Scorpio. He lives here with us.”
Casey grinned at Scorpio. “Well, nice to meetcha, even under the circumstances.” He
smiled and helped her up. She gave a whistle and all three hit the floor this time. “Okay,
okay! I love you too Pup, you as well Taffy! Now get off!” The dogs obeyed and Casey
stood, only to start convulsing in giggles. Chaz had pounced on Scorpio and Katie on
Thunder.

“Chaz, *giggle* Katie here!” The dogs obeyed once more and Casey pointed for them to
go outside. “Sorry about that,” she said sheepishly.
Scorpio stood and smiled at her. “It’s okay, right Thunder?” He nodded and the three
headed into the kitchen.

***

“Are you sure about this, Flash?” Chilie asked, a bit concerned. “I mean, I would think
Thunder would want to spend some quality time with his sister before she met us all.”
Flash gave her friend a look. “Scorpio’s over there. And ol’ Thunder won’t mind!” She
bounded up the stairs and rang the doorbell, moving from one foot to the other slightly.
Grandma Copiel opened the door.
“Oh, hello everyone!” she greeted cheerfully.
Flash smiled sweetly at the old woman. “Good morning, Mrs. Copiel. Is Thunder in?”
The old woman smiled at the assembled group of teenagers. “He’s just eating breakfast,
come in. Come in!” They followed her as she lead the through the house, chattering
excitedly about the new edition to the house. As they entered all their mouths dropped at
the sight of utter chaos.
Casey was in the middle of smashing eggs into Scorpios hair, eggs litter all over her own.
Her white pajama shirt was stained with orange juice, some dripping of the ends of her
hair. Pieces sausage were stuck to her arms with what appeared to be maple syrup and a
piece of pancake was stuck to her nose as she blinked at the new comers.
Scorpio had been throwing an uncooked egg in Thunder’s direction as they entered. His
shirt was stained with eggs and sausage, pieces of pancake stuck in his hair. Thunder
was in much of the same condition.
After a few seconds of shocked silence, the three assailants pointed to each other and
exclaimed simultaneously, “They started it!”
Grandma Copiel looked at them sternly. “One may have started it, but you’re all going to
clean it up!” They groaned and complied.

***

Casey had been introduced to the rest of Thunder’s friends and they liked her
immediately. Today was now Monday, and Thunder was waiting at the bottom of the
stairs for Casey to get down. Scorpio’s catcall alerted his attention.
Her jerked his head up and a gurgle sounding something like, “Urk!” sounded in the back
of his throat. “Casey! It’s too low!”
Casey looked at him with a ‘huh?’ look when she glanced down at her shirt and turned
bright red. Quickly tugging it up, she jumped the last few steps. “Sorry bro!” she said as
she landed, giving him a smile.
Scorpio looked a bit disappointed and Thunder fixed him the smaller boy with a glare,
proclaiming, “Just don’t let it happen again.”
Smiling brightly, she replied, “’Kay!” and bounded into the passenger side of Thunder’s
car, while Scorpio climbed in the back.

***

“Now Casey, watch your back around here, okay? I won’t be in all your classes...”
Casey rolled her eyes. “I think I can handle it, brother mine.” She ran off, waving
behind her. Arriving at her first class, she walked shyly in and handed the teacher her a
note.
“Hmmmmmm, we seem to be getting plenty of new students today, aren’t we? You can
sit behind mister Hashiba.”
Casey quietly walked to her seat. Rowen waited until the teacher’s back was turned
before turning around to talk with her.
“Wow, and I thought my friends and I were the only new students here,” he whispered,
grinning. “It was getting lonely in this class. Rowen Hashiba," he held out a hand to
shake with her.
Smiling, she shook it. “Casey Mc-, I mean Copiel.”
Rowen raised and eyebrow and turned back around as class started.

***

Thunder shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he felt the girl’s gazes on him. ~Why won’t
they leave me alone? And where’s Casey?~
Casey had promised Thunder she’d be there and she was ten minutes late. To make
matters worse none of his friends were there to keep the threat away. Thunder gulped as
one of the bolder ones walked his way, winking at him. Just as she got to the table,
Casey plopped down next to Thunder, grinning. “Sorry I’m late!” she greeted cheerfully.
Thunder nearly sighed in relief, but kept it in to be polite. However, with the girl’s next
statement, he wished he didn’t. “Excuse me, bitch. But that was my seat.” The tables
near them got quiet at that statement and whispers started.
“Look, it’s Mai!”
“Mai just insulted the new girl.”
“Well the new girl should’ve known that Thunder’s Mai’s!”
“Wonder what the new girl will do...?”
Casey just calmly took out her sandwich and asked Thunder, “Do you hear something?”
Mai’s face twist in anger and she jerked Casey up by her shirt. “Listen bitch, that was my
seat you just took. Now take a hike before I make your face more ugly than it already
is!” she demanded, red lips twisting into a snarl.
Casey slowly pulled her hands off and stared unblinkingly at Mai. “I don’t appreciate
people insulting me for no reason. Now run off to your little cheerleader friends and do
little cheerleader things. My brother and I have an intelligent conversation to begin.”
she turned and sat down, grinning to herself as Mai stalked off. “Problem solved!”
She giggled at his incredulous expression and soon Thunder started laughing himself.
~Feels good to be able to laugh again,~ he thought happily.

***

“Man, I thought the cheerleader girl was gonna slug the other girl a good one,” Ryo commented, staring at his cafeteria food in disgust.
“Her name is Casey,” Rowen stated, taking a bite of his PB&J.
“Who, the cheerleader?” Kento asked.
“Nope, the other girl,” he replied. The others were surprised but continued eating in
silence.

***

Thunder glanced up when he felt a clap on his shoulders, expecting to see Scorpio.
Instead, Snow’s visage greeted him. “Hey man, where’s the garbage disposal known as
your brother?”
Snow sat down across from Casey and shrugged, “I don’t keep tabs on my family
members.” He took a bite of his sandwich. “I saw Mai, and boy was she in a huff,
talking about some new girl. I’m guessing this was Casey?”
Thunder grinned and nodded, “Yep.”

~*~*~*~