A/N: I do not own Skin Deep or it's characters, They are owned by Kory Bingaman, while The Story, Structure style, and Premise is from Acgoldis, who are great creators who make great stories.

If you haven't heard of Skin Deep and wish to find out about it, recommend that you google, Skin Deep Comic to visit their website!

I hope you enjoy!

Skin Deep: Broken Facade

ARC 1: Discovery

...

The Gasconade River,



South-western Missouri

United States

January 1st, 2005



Michelle Jocasta layed on her back, looking up at the night sky, with the sounds of fireworks in the distance, she observed the thousands of stars, bright specks of light in the sea of black, while her fur and feathers were gently blown on by the calm breeze.

It would have been a bizarre thought of her if she thought that this is where she would end up after 6 months of college, but here she was, and it was all thanks to that special medallion from her father.

Michelle was a normal student at MSU, she didn't know who or what she wanted to be, but she was determined to be a perfect student at the university, top grades, respect from the teachers, everything that made a perfect student, Her confidence was only boosted by the fact that she made three new friends within a month alone, Merial, Jim, and Greg. All was well until she found it, a golden coin-like object dropped by a stranger on the street, she had picked it up and brought it back to the college.

It didn't seem to do anything at first, besides giving her a weird feeling or two, but when she examined it closer in her dorm room, it had engulfed her in a blue flame, next thing she knew, she was in the woods with some new strange things about herself, most notably the lion's body, and eagle wings.

She, of course, was freaked out about this, but after she did some exploring the forest a bit, she found her friends were also there as well, they were just as freaky as her, Greg had Brown horns, Merial had blue gills, Jim had Orange fur, she wasn't alone. After comforting her panicked state, they explained to her what the hell was going on.

Apparently, all those things from folklore and legend from things long gone were all real, and were hiding in the shadows from a oblivious mankind, and that she was one of them. After they explained all this to her bewildered mind, a Momo - a normally peaceful and local cryptid who apparently likes peanut butter - attacked their cabin, where she was forced to help her friends to fight the beast, managing to make it drift down the river.

She didn't want to embrace this new reality, unsurprisingly, wishing boring normal human life would swoop down and take her out of this dream, but her friends managed to tell her it was ok to be herself, and that fear and dissonance shouldn't drive her life, and that she was still Michelle deep inside, and no matter what, nothing was going to change that, not even the dragon and demons(yep, they exist) who tried to kidnap her.

The friend that helped her the most, however, was Greg, the shy Ozarkian was sweet and selfless, embarrassing and deprecating himself in the name of others, she had always felt bad for him, and tried to get him to talk or attend the one party or two but he wouldn't budge. Even after he revealed himself to be a satyr to her in the forest, he was still the 'awkward' one, But when she was complaing and going on and on about her new cicumstances, bhe snapped slightly and told her to stop being a moaner, revealing that he had broken his medallion - the thing that helped him stay human - had been broken, causing it to not hide his ears, causing his awkward and anti-social self, Where he stormed off, leaving to her thoughts, where she felt guilty for her rude and un-thoughtful behaviour.

Eventually, Michelle got used to the fact that she was a Sphinx - a creature from Egyptian folklore -, Merial and Jim, while annoying at times, provided her with many laughs and help, and Greg helped her confront and deal with the most weirdest of situations, and was always concerned for her safety, even when she was forced to do something that she felt like was going to be the end of her, such as when she was forced to come out to her mother last Novemeber of her Revelation.

She was so entranced by the stars in-fact that she almost didn't notice her boyfriend sitting down next to her and placing his paw on hers.

"Hey." Greg greeted the Sphinx as he sat on the sand, Resting next to her.

"Hey." Michelle replied.

For a few seconds, they sat silently without saying a single word.

"How are you feeling?" He asked the girl sitting next to him.

"Fine" She answered as she continued to stare at the sky., not breaking her gaze "How about you?".

The Satyr thought up something romantic before giving a heart-warming face at Michelle, To which she noticed.

"Well...It's Nighttime, I'm sitting next to the most caring, honest, loving girl of my life while listening to the running river in a vast and mysterious wilderness" explained to the girl lying down next to him who only stopped staring at the night sky to look at her friend with happiness on her face "Promise me Michelle, I'm a very happy Satyr" Greg told to his friend, slightly laughing afterwards.

The Satyr was suddenly and playfully tackled to the ground by his girlfriend, They exchanged looks into each other's eyes with love and happiness in interest.

"I love you" Michelle whispered as she started to hug him tightly, resting her head on his chest.

"I love you too" Greg whispered back as he hugged her tightly back.

It was all peaceful for a few seconds until a shriek by a certain annoying nixie ruined their little alone moment together.

"My Magazine!" Merial screamed in the distance, with the sound of rustling paper being heard coming closer. With the sight of a bright and flashy comic about something around fashion floating in the air, higher and higher away.

Eventually, The sight of their blue-skinned and green-fingered friend came into view from the corner of the River, She was an energetic friend to Michelle and Greg, she was loud, crazy and funny at best, and nosy, annoying, and rude at worst.

"Ugh! Merial! Why did you even bring that stupid comic here I the first place? Couldn't of you waited until we got back to the dorms?" Greg groaned, not wanting anything to do with Merial's situation.

"Can you at least help? Jim is back at college partying New Years!" She asked.

"No…" Greg answered with a groan, annoyed by his friend's begging.

Michelle sighed, while the nixie was a nuisance to her and Greg at the moment, she was still her best friend, so she didn't want to be rude.

"...I'll go and get it" Michelle sighed as she stood up.

"What?" Greg said, in a confused tone

"I'm going to get Merial's thing back..." The Sphinx replied.

"Hold on Merial!" Michelle shouted to her Nixie friend as she approached the river.

Michelle ran over to the river, she used her magic, golden medallion to transform from her midform to her full-form, She then took off into the air, Her eyes were focused on the magazine flying high above the river, reaching above the trees! It was getting near the forest, where it might land on mud, which would make it dirty and unreadable.

The Female Sphinx acted quickly and flew faster at the comic, she clamped down on the pages, catching it with her mouth, Relieved she could give this stupid comic back to her friend, she flew back to the two, before she turned around however, she could of sworn she heard something, but just ignored it, her landing was next to Merial.

"Here's your magazine." Said a stuffed-mouth Michelle as she walked over to her friend.

The Nixie ran towards her friend and hugged her while taking the magazine out of her maw.

"Thanks Michelle!" Merial shouted in a quick tone as she rushed into the water, using her magic to keep the water from wetting her fashion magazine.

"You're Welcome!" She replied in a happy tone, smiling at her friend. She then walked back on all fours to her boyfriend, With the smile still plastered on her face.

"So where were we?" She asked in a jokingly flirtatious voice.

"We were hugging. Remember?" He replied in the same tone as he wrapped his arms around his girlfriend.

The two once again exchanged looks as they for a second time they began to rest in each other's arms.

While Michelle and Greg embraced the love of each other, She had no idea, however, was that her single, simple act of kindness to her friend Merial had set off a chain reaction, if she hadn't saved Merial's Stupid Fashion Magazine, The World would be a very very different place.

Very. Different.

Matthew walked up the steep mountain trail, Sony Handycam recording in hand, mud mashing against his boots, hoping to reach the top to get a beautiful view of the Ozarks Landscape that so many people told him of, He had heard that his older brother had been planning to go to England to tell his stories of living in America with his Family to his British Friends. Matthew got the bright idea to capture some footage of the Ozark Forests at Night so his Bro could show it to his friends.

Matthew was the second son of the Collins, a small family originating from Britain and Ireland, but mostly residing in America, he was a big fan of the outdoors, the insects flying around, the sunny sky going doing to replace it with a bright night sky, the water flowing down the river, and the thing he loved the most, the views, the sight that you get from the tallest of places, whenever it be a tree or mountain, he loved views, and he was going to get a view of the Ozarks if it was the last thing he did.

"And here we have the beautiful Gasconade River, it begins at the South-west Ozarks and ends at the Missouri River, which follows straight through Mark Twain Park!" Matthew narrated in a friendly tone as he walked up the steep path leading up the tallest mountain in the area.

While Matthew was walking up the trial, he heard something flapping it wings far away, that confused Matthew, The sound of the flapping was quite loud for a bird, especially one that was about one to two miles away, Matthew then realised something else, The Flapping had originated from the Gasconade River to his left.

"What the hell?" The young student whispered.

He turned to his left with his Handycam, At first, he couldn't tell what he was looking at, it looked like a big creature, too big for a bird, It looked like a lion! Collins didn't know what to think of it, He couldn't get a good look at it, But when he looked through the Camera Screen (otherwise known as a Viewfinder), he realised it was of higher quality, he looked it the screen, zoomed in and focused and swore he nearly had a heart attack as he froze in absolute fear.

What he was seeing appeared to be a lion, but for two major exceptions; One was the large white feathered wings sticking out of its back, Two was instead of that of a Lion's head, it was a Human Head, The head in question was female, had brownish skin (Something similar to someone of Egyptian Descent), Brown flowing hair and brown eyes.

"What The Fuck!" Matthew cursed slightly loud as he suddenly was rushed with absolute fear.

Matthew fell on his bottom as he unfroze, He tried to get the camera on the creature that he had just witnessed, but it had descended as quickly as it ascended, seemingly not of noticed his presence, He decided that it was time to leave, he then picked himself back up and ran as fast as he could back down the mountain trail, stopping the recording on the way.

"Screw getting to the top of the mountain!" Collins thought as he sprinted down the trail "I just saw a bloody monster!".

The 19-year old reached the start of the trial and sprinted through the forest, he reached the parking lot where he saw his bike, got on it and did the bike equivalent of stepping on the gas, speeding away from the Forests as fast as he could.

As Matthew sped away, he didn't know that he was one of the few Humans who , thanks to being 'eagled-eyed', knew the existence of Mythical Creatures, but unlike the other Humans, he had known without any Mythical Creature's Notice or any understanding of how they actually live their lives, and hence he would become one of the few people that would change the world, forever.

His 30-second clip of his now failed-documentary would be later become known as "The New Years Sighting".