To those who believed,

To those who helped,

To Monty Oum for inspiring me,

 and You, dear reader.

2: Prologue

Like any normal day, it started with a van driving down a road. A handsomely built man in the driver seat, his wife adjacent to him in the passenger seat and their twin sons in the seats behind them, both were at the young age of 4 years old.

"We're almost there, Boys," the mother said. "Are you guys ready to see our new home?" Neither of the twins responded. Instead, they simply stared out the windows not caring about what their mother said. One of the twins had red hair that was combed downward and he saw the world with his vivid red eyes. His name was Rikki. His twin brother, Daniel, who preferred the name Dan, had white hair that was relatively unkempt and his view of the new surroundings was absorbed perfectly with his silver eyes. That is one way they were made special, they were twins but they didn't look anything like each other at all. "You guys should be happy," their mother spoke up. "You're moving to a new home."

"Yeah, but why did we have to leave all my friends behind?" Dan asked, with his arm crossed.

"Danny, I-"

"Mommy, I told you, my name is 'Dan'!" he said annoyed. She sighed.

"Dan... like I said before... all of your friends can't fit in the house that Daddy and I chose. It's just not big enough."

"Hmph, it probably will be though," Dan muttered under his breath.

"Alright, we're almost there," the father said. "Defroux Street." They had turned onto a road that had houses spread out along it on both sides. The father slowed the van down to read the numbers on the mailboxes. "Honey, do you remember the address?" he asked.

"I told you, Dear, it was 3782," the mother replied. They continued to drive slowly by the houses. Rikki was still staring out the window when they drove by a house that had a wraparound deck, with someone on the front porch. It was a woman and sitting next to her was a girl who looked like she was about 4 years old, however, Rikki couldn't get a clear view of them but for some reason, when he saw the girl, it somehow felt as if they had made eye contact but he couldn't really tell.

"There it is," the father declared as they pulled up to a house farther down the road and on the other side of the street. They all looked around as the van turned down the driveway, seeing a few rusty, broken down cars in the yard as the previous owner obviously had some sort of hobby.

"What are we going to do with all of these old cars?" the mother asked.

"Well, I could fix them up and sell them," the father said in a suggestive tone. His wife gave him a dirty look. "Alright, fine. At least let me fix them up to a decent sellable state. Besides, it would be a good source of income."

"Oh... alright," she reluctantly agreed.

"Yes!" He stopped the car.

"Just don't get too ahead of yourself," she said as they all climbed out of the minivan. The father directed the moving van that was following them down the driveway. Rikki, Dan, and their mother walked up to the front porch. "Wait here, boys," she said as she walked inside to tell the movers where she wanted some of the furniture to be. Rikki and Dan looked at each other and then around at their new surroundings. After a couple of minutes, Rikki's attention was caught by movement at the end of their driveway. It was the woman and girl from down the road.

"Oh look, some guests," Dan said as he tried to make his hair look presentable, however, Rikki was overcome with shyness.

"Mommy!" he yelled as he ran inside. His mother looked at him as he hid behind her.

"What is it, little Rikki?" she asked him. Rikki whimpered as he pointed out the front door. She looked out the door and saw the woman walking up to the house, the woman carrying something. "Oh, Jared, some neighbours are here to welcome us," she called to her husband, up the stairs.

"I'll be there in a minute," he called back. Rikki's mother walked out the door with him hiding behind her.

"Hello," his mother said.

"Hello," the woman said, shaking her hand. "I see you're new to the neighbourhood."

"Yes, it's a big day for us."

"I've wanted to meet you and your nice family ever since I saw that sign read 'Sold'."

"Really?"

"Oh my, yes. So my daughter and I made you and your family a little something special."

"Thank you so much," Rikki's mom said taking the package that contained what they would later find out to be a chocolate cake. Then Rikki's father came outside and Dan followed him.

"Hello there," Jared said with a friendly smile.

"Hello," the woman said. "My name is Florence Garrison, and this is my daughter, Suzy." She was motioning toward the little girl behind her. "Come on," she said to her daughter, "meet the new neighbours." The little girl stepped out from behind her mother, showing that she was the spitting image of her mother with sea-blue eyes and short black hair. Florence, however, had long hair. Suzy looked at Rikki's parents and they smiled at her.

"H-hi," she said a little nervously but had shown a smile nonetheless.

"Hey there, little Suzy," Jared said. She waved at him.

"Aw, you are so cute," Rikki's mom said.

"Thank you," Suzy said.

"This is our son, Dan," Jared said gesturing to Dan

"Hey," Dan said with a wave.

"Hi," Suzy said with a smile. Rikki's mother looked down at Rikki.

"Come on," she said, "say hello." Rikki shoved his face into his mother's legs.

"No!" he cried, shaking his head.

"Little Rikki, you aren't going to have any friends if you don't say hello."

"Maybe I don't want any friends!" he cried back.

"Don't say that, man," Dan said to his brother. "Just say hi to her." Upon remembering that this friend was a girl Rikki blushed. "Come on," his brother went on, "Just say hello. Besides she's really nice." Rikki slowly peeked around his mother's leg. He was met with the curious expression of Suzy. She suddenly blushed and she looked to the side and had a small smile on her face. Rikki walked out from behind his mother and over to Suzy. She looked back up at him and the redness in her face disappeared as the two looked at each other. Rikki reached his arms out and he held her hands, much to the surprise of his wide-eyed parents. Their very shy son was holding another kids' hands, a girl's hands.

"You're really pretty," Rikki said. Suzy blushed and avoided his eyes, hiding her small smile.

"You're really cute too," she said. She looked back at him and leaned forward to kiss him on the cheek.

"Aw!" Florence and Rikki's mother exclaimed. She then figured out what it was that had come over her son. It was love at first sight.

3: Leaving

The school bell rang and all the students filed their way out to the awaiting buses or the parking lot to their awaiting cars. Everyone was amped up because today was the final day of school and summer vacation started. One boy, in particular, Rikki Soto, a senior, with his Ferrari-red hair and fire-red eyes, walked down to the parking lot to his impatient twin brother Daniel, also a senior, who looked nothing like him whatsoever because of his naturally white hair and silver eyes, so the only way you could tell that they were twins was if you asked them.

"Dude, where the hell have you been?" Dan asked his brother. Rikki gave him somewhat of a dirty look. "Hey, come on man, cheer up. Summer's started. What could be bothering you, especially at a time like this?" He wrapped his arm around his brother's neck, leaning over his shoulder.

"What do you think?" Rikki asked, getting away from Dan.

"Did you ask Suzy to come over?"

"Yeah, what of it?" he asked as he pulled his keys out of his pocket.

"And then what happened?"

"She said she would."

"Good. You got nothing to be bitching about. Now come on let's get home, it's getting too damn hot." Rikki and Dan walked over to Rikki's car, an old Mercedes CL 320. He put the key in the ignition and the engine turned over. He selected drive and drove out of the parking lot. As he turned left at the intersection just up the road a familiar bold, blue Honda S2000 followed them. Rikki looked in the rearview mirror and he smiled to himself as he drove out to the suburban roads. After a few blocks, he pulled into his driveway with the Honda following after. He parked the car and shut off the ignition. He and Dan climbed out of their Mercedes and the Honda parked next to it. A beautiful young woman gracefully stepped out of the convertible. She was also a senior. Her sleek, short, tom-boyish black hair waving in the breeze matched her shirt which contrasted nicely with her pink shirt. Her honest eyes the colour of the sea looked around.

"It's been a while since I've been here," she said with a fair quality voice, one of the many reasons why Rikki loved her. It was Suzy Garrison. Her real name was Susan, but 'Suzy' was the name she preferred. She and Rikki had always been best friends since the beginning. She continued to take in the surroundings, as a lot had changed since she'd been to Rikki's house so it all looked very different. There was no longer just an old Chevrolet Camaro in the yard, but so many more cars, some of which were so beaten down she didn't recognize them, but she guessed that they ranged from the early '60s to the mid-'80s. "I see your father's been busy."

"Yeah, he doesn't spend much time inside anymore," Rikki said. He carried his stuff inside the decently sized two-story ranch house the colour of the absolute definition of not-very-interesting-yet-somehow-unique, a beige-red with cobblestone accents. He set his things by the stairs and Suzy set her things next to his. Dan took his belongings downstairs to his room while Rikki decided to do what he and Suzy usually do when they get together, just walk around the large yard and talk. Back when they were kids they used to enjoy that a lot. Although that was the reason why his father had to sell nearly everything in the yard because of the possible risks to them. It was also the reason why his parents don't spend much time together because his father was always working outside and his mother was always working inside.

"It's nice out here," Suzy said as they stepped out the back door and onto the patio, holding hands.

"It is isn't it?" Rikki asked with a smile.

"Why does your father always work on cars?"

"Well, it's fun, well for me anyway. He works on restoring whatever he finds in the middle of an old man's field and sells it for any possible profit."

"Does he sell everything he restores?"

"He did keep that '69 Charger he found." He thought for a moment. "oh, and he worked on an '82 DeLorean which I wanted to have as my own but he said it was a stupid car." He sighed and stepped around a small pile of old, rusty mufflers.

"That's too bad."

"I know. I helped him a lot, especially with that one."

"Why did you want a DeLorean?"

"Because they're rare and iconic."

"Rare?"

"Yeah, there's less than 9,000 of them."

"That might also explain why you're so interested in Sam's Maserati."

"He hardly uses it and I even asked him. He doesn't like it."

"Really?"

"Yeah!" he said as they let go of each other's hands only to step around a door. "He even gave me an offer, but of course, Mom won't let me buy it from him."

"Aw. Why not?"

"Well, she says insurance, but I think it's alright."

"Oh."

"So, what's new in your life?"

"Nothing much," she said with a laugh as she walked around a box full of exhaust manifolds. "Your father should really find a way to organize all of this."

"I thought about building him a big garage but I don't have enough money, and working at Meadow Mall doesn't pay enough."

"Have you told him yet?"

"Not quite yet," he answered slowly.

"C'mon. You know, if you talk to him and he likes your idea, he might help you with the money."

"The money's not the problem though, now that you say that. It's whether or not he likes my idea."

"Well, when he gets here you should talk to him." Rikki thought for a moment.

"Alright, I'll talk to him." Their conversation stopped when they heard the sound of an engine coming up the driveway. They walked back up the wraparound deck and they made their way up to the front. The engine noise stopped as they rounded the corner and Rikki's confidence dropped when it turned out that it was actually his mother that had come home. As she stepped out of her car, an old and beaten dark-green Toyota Corolla, Rikki noticed that she looked a little tired. Her smooth brown hair looked slightly tattered and her clothes appeared to be in a similar state.

"Rikki, is your father home?" she asked her son.

"No Mom, he's not here." His mother sighed and walked up to the porch.

"Hello Suzy," she said.

"Hi Mrs S.," Suzy said with a wave. They all stepped inside to hear the sounds of video games coming from the basement.

"Dan, did you finish your homework?" his mother asked as Rikki shut the door behind them.

"Mom, it was the last day of school!" Dan said loudly, obviously very irritated.

"It was?"

"Yes!"

"Oh yes. I'm sorry."

"Shouldn't he be thinking about college?" Suzy asked.

"Don't you mean 'we'?" Rikki asked her.

"Oh," she laughed sheepishly, blushing slightly. "Yeah, I guess."

"Anyway, he plans to go to this small place up north."

"What place is that?"

"I don't know. I've never heard of it."

"What's it called?"

"I think it's called 'College of Trades' or something like that."

"I've never heard of that." Dan was coming up the stairs, having overheard their conversation.

"The reason you haven't heard of it is that you never opened your letters," he said to Rikki as he handed him three envelopes. They were blank except for Rikki's name simply written in the middle of the envelope. He opened one of them. He was surprised at such blankness of it. The letter simply read: 'Rikki, you have a Gift and have been invited to attend the College of Trades,' and at the bottom of the other side was an address. It wasn't all that far away, just a few states north. The letter was signed by Jack Trades. Rikki guessed that he was the founder and dean of the college. The other two letters were the same. Suzy took one and studied it closely.

"Hey, I've gotten a few letters just like this," she said.

"Really?" Rikki asked.

"Yeah."

"Do you think we should go?"

"Maybe," Dan said. "I want to go just so this Jack Trades guy will shut up." Their mother came back over to them, having changed out of her work uniform and into something more comfortable.

"I think you should all go. It'll be a great opportunity for you," she said putting her hand on Rikki's shoulder.

"If you think so," Rikki said. "Alright, I'll look into it." Just then, there was the noise of a classic American 440 big-block V8. "Oh, Dad's home." His mother sighed and walked away. As he and Dan grew up, his parents had started to drift apart. It didn't appear as if it would end in divorce, but Rikki was always hoping for the best. He stepped outside and noticed the engine noise had a strange rattling sound. A somewhat of a burly man stepped out of the '69 Charger. It was painted a classic red with the black factory stripes wrapped around the back.

"Hey, Rikki," Jared said to him. "You hear that? There's a rattlin' and I want to fix it. You wanna help?"

"Sure, I guess." As he walked over, Jared popped the hood and Rikki pushed it up, placing the support bar and Jared came back over with a small LED flashlight. After about ten minutes of tinkering around the engine block, "Okay, start it up." Jared turned the ignition key and the engine turned over. There was no longer any rattling noise. "Try revving it." His father revved it a few times before shutting off the ignition.

"Alright," Jared proclaimed as he climbed out of the car, "we fixed it."

"Cool."

"So how'd school go?" his father asked as they stepped onto the porch and into the house.

"Today was the last day."

"I know. Are you ready to go to college?"

"A little," Rikki admitted.

"Well, you need to be ready. So you can get a good degree and get a good job." He put his large hand on his son's shoulder. "And of course, so you can start a good family."

"Alright."

"Now, what's this that I'm hearing about this place up north?" Rikki went on explaining the strange letters he and Dan have been getting. Jared told his sons that he believed that they should go to this place.

"You really think so?" Dan asked.

"If you don't want to, you don't have to," Jared said, sitting down with a beer. "I'm not making you go. But, I think that this is a great opportunity for you all and that you should go. What did your mother say?"

"She said we should go as well."

"Knowing your Mom, she would say that wouldn't she?" he said with a laugh.

A few days later, Rikki was over at Suzy's house to hear what Florence thought about her going to the same place. Suzy was an only child and was told that her father died in a car accident. Rikki noticed that Florence seemed to be in a better mood every time he came over and because he came over often, this was pretty much a second home for him. He, Suzy, and Florence were sitting at the dining room table.

"I think that you should go because if this person keeps sending you letters, he must know that you have plenty of potential," Florence told her daughter.

"Alright Mom," Suzy said.

"Rikki, are you going to the same place?"

"Yes I am," Rikki said, "Dan is too."

"Oh, how wonderful." Rikki nodded in agreement and stood up and went to the kitchen for a drink and Suzy noticed a change in her mother's expression.

"Mom, are you okay?" Suzy asked with a hint of concern.

"Oh, don't worry about me," she said with somewhat of a confident smile, "I'll be alright."

A week later, Rikki and Dan had all of their stuff packed into suitcases ready for college. Because they had many personal things to bring with them they had to pack two cars. Rikki filled his Mercedes to the brim and Dan had to fill up his car, a 1984 Volvo 245 GLT. They hugged their parents and with some final words of good luck, they parted, leaving their parents behind. They stopped at Suzy's house to help her pack and Rikki had to settle an argument with Dan for some Volvo space for a few of Suzy's things. Eventually, Dan reluctantly agreed and he crammed some of his stuff into the middle seats as Rikki helped Suzy put a few boxes in the back. After they were done Suzy ran back to her mother and hugged her.

"Bye Mom," Suzy said.

"Come back and visit," Florence said, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"I will." Rikki came over and hugged Florence as well.

"You can visit too, Rikki."

"We will," he said.

They climbed into their cars and the little convoy rolled out of the driveway with Dan leading. Rikki and Suzy followed him to the highway and they headed north. They drove all day stopping only for quick breaks unless Suzy just absolutely had to stop and look at the mountains they were driving around and through. They stopped for the night in a small town just on the other side of the mountain range that separated their current life from the wonderful memories of childhood.

4: Staying The Night

They pulled into a motel and Rikki checked them in. Surprisingly, when Rikki later went to the motel vending machine, he saw some more cars pull into the same motel, packed up similarly to his.

"They must be other kids off to college," he said to himself. There was a boy who was at least a couple of years older than he was and he checked him and the other two kids in and got room keys while the other two, a girl and boy were walking toward the vending machine. Rikki put his dollar in the machine and he pressed the button for a cola. The machine hummed as it dispensed the soda can and he pulled the can from the machine. He walked back toward his room. As he rounded the corner, he overheard one of them talk about Jack Trades. Intrigued, he moved closer to listen, but as he did, their conversation quieted.

"We're going to the same place as you," one of them said. "So you might as well stop eavesdropping." Rikki stepped back around the corner. The kid who spoke was a boy about his age.

"Sorry," he said. "How'd you know?"

"We're like you," he said with a half-smile.

"What are you talking about?"

"You...you don't know?"

"What, like the fact that I have some sort of Gift?"

"Of course!" the girl exclaimed with a smile. "The place we're going to is a special place. It's a place for people like us."

"What?" Rikki then felt some sort of presence in his mind.

Rikki, A voice in his head said. You said it yourself. You have a Gift. A Gift some people don't have. He recognized the voice as his mother's.

What? Mom? Rikki thought. How?

How else? The kid piped in. Rikki could hear his voice too. It was passed down to you from your parents. It's the same for everybody. Everybody like us, anyway.

He's right. Rikki's mother told him.

So what about dad? Rikki thought.

He's… well, what we call: 'Ungifted'.

Ok, and when did you plan on telling me?

I was going to, but I never did get to it. I'm so sorry.

And Dan?

He has a Gift too.

Which is?

Teleportation.

What can I do?

Knowing our family history, you should be able to absorb all forms of energy and then do what you please with it.

I haven't been able to do that.

You will soon. Trust me.

Okay.

Suzy's a telepath like me, but she didn't share it with you.

How'd you know, and why?

Because I'm one. How else would we be having this conversation, and you'll just have to talk to her about it.

I guess you're right.

Also, her hair changes colours depending on her mood.

Is that what that was? He remembered noticing that her hair did seem to be changing colours one day.

Yes. But you have to promise me that you'll use your power for good. There are some out there who abuse their Gift. You have to promise me you'll be a good boy.

Of course, I will.

Okay. Bye Sweetie. Rikki then felt as if someone had let go of his mind, and he nearly lost his balance. Now he knew what it felt like to have a telepathic conversation. He went back to the room he was sharing with Dan and Suzy.

"What took you so long?" Dan asked him as he shut the door behind him.

"There are some kids who are going to the same place we are," Rikki told him.

"Really?"

"Yeah." Rikki then went on to explain to them what his mother had told him. At first, they were confused, but Suzy was the first one to understand.

"So that's what Jack Trades meant," she said.

"Well, my guess is what that kid said is right. This place we're going to is a place for people like us," Rikki said. Dan was still confused at what he was told before they slept that night and was still confused the next morning.

"So the college we're going to is a place for people with special abilities?" he asked as they ate a rather poor breakfast.

"Yes," Rikki answered him. "I think they prefer the term 'Gift'."

"Oh, ok. I understand completely now."

"It took you this long to figure out?" Suzy asked him with some sarcasm. Dan gave her a dirty look.

"Yes," he exaggerated after a momentary pause.

"I think we should get a move on," Rikki said.

"Agreed," Suzy said.

"Agreed," Dan also said. They climbed back into their cars and Dan continued to lead the way. The other three kids followed. He recognized the older kid's car, a well used, dark red Ford Focus, a few cars behind. They continued to drive into the early evening until they came to the state line. They stopped in the small town on the border and Dan checked them in.

"How much farther?" Suzy asked stretching her arms. Rikki checked his phone and he looked at one of the letters he kept.

"We should be there by lunchtime tomorrow," he said. After another rest in a cheap motel, the next morning they climbed into their cars and drove out of the parking lot with the other kids following behind. They continued to drive for a few more hours until Rikki saw a sign that read: "State Line"

"We're almost there," he said to himself, taking a mental note: Three states down, the final drive. They had been driving for four days since they had left the place they called home for 18 years and now they were just a few miles from the college, the next chapter in their life. The exit off-ramp appeared around the next bend and Rikki slowed to take it. Now, they were just about 10 minutes from the college. Suzy and Dan followed Rikki down the winding road through the countryside. Rikki saw an extravagant fence gate, pulled onto the gravel driveway and stopped in front of the gate. He climbed out of his car and walked up to it, Dan behind him with Suzy following suit.

"Wow," Dan said looking at the large, wrought iron gate. "Impressive."

"Is this it?" Suzy asked.

"Yep," Rikki said. "This is it."

"Will the gate open for us?"

"Sure it will," Dan said from where he was standing by one of the large stone pillars holding the gate doors in place. Rikki and Suzy looked at what Dan was looking at. It was a metal panel built into the stonework. There was a small screen with a couple of speakers and a slot. Suddenly, the screen flashed on. A computerized male voice said through the speakers: "Invitations, please." The screen read the same thing. Rikki figured something out while Dan and Suzy exchanged mildly confused looks.

"Give me your letters," he said pulling his out from his car. They gave him their letters. Rikki put the letters in the slot beneath the screen. The screen flashed a different colour and it read: 'Authenticating'. There was a musical tone and the screen and voice said: "Welcome, Rikki. Welcome, Dan. Welcome, Susan." There was a screech as the iron gate pulled itself open, allowing them to continue. They climbed back into their cars and continued down the gravel driveway and they pulled up by a large building. It was made of what looked like sandstone. It had a lot of balconies on one side of it. Rikki guessed that was the students' rooms. It was so large that he thought it must have had at least 50 rooms in it, maybe more.

"So, this is college?" Dan asked looking about the large house. "I thought it would be bigger."

"I know, so did I," Rikki said.

"Don't jump to conclusions just yet," Suzy said with a slight smirk.

"Your friend is right," a voice said behind them. They turned around and a man was standing there. "I'm sorry if I scared you there. Hello," he said. He looked in his mid 30's. He had yellowish blond hair atop blue eyes behind a pair of glasses covered by decent dress clothing. Rikki stepped forward.

"Jack Trades," he said shaking the man's hand.

"Yes," the man said nodding. "I welcome you to your future." He noticed the look on Dan's face. "Trust me, it's bigger on the inside." He was talking about the building.

"Alright," Dan said having his question answered. Jack walked them inside. The main room was big and very nice.

"First off, this is not a very large campus, but as I said, it is a bit bigger than you first think," Jack said. "Everything you need for your future is at your disposal here. Everything you will ever need."

"Everything?" Dan asked.

"Everything. The classrooms are here on the main floor. The dining hall is in the back on the left with the garage to the right. The student dormitories are up on the second floor, boys on the right, girls on the left."

"Wait," Rikki said, "did you say 'garage'?"

"I did. Back on the right."

"Are you a car collector or something?" Jack laughed in response.

"No, I'm not a collector. The garage is for students' cars."

"Oh, okay."

"Which reminds me, make sure that your cars are not left upfront. Trust me, there will be a lot of traffic. I thought I told my son to put up a sign."

"Where are the teachers?" Suzy asked, interrupting Jack's thoughts.

"They are not all here yet. They'll be here when everyone else arrives," Jack said.

"'Everyone else'?" Dan asked.

"The other students," Suzy told him. Jack nodded.

"Some followed us," Rikki said, as he remembered them. "They must be at the gate."

"I'll go and get them," Jack said with a smile. "You three are the first ones here, so park your cars and you can have the first choice on rooms." Rikki, Dan, and Suzy walked back outside to drive their cars around to the garage and picked out the first three parking spaces and back inside and up the stairs to the student dormitories. Rikki and Dan turned right and Suzy took a step left, but she hesitated, as a sad feeling came over her.

"What is it?" Rikki asked sensing her sadness, and just like his mother said, Suzy's hair began to turn a sad shade of blue.

"I don't know," she said. "For some reason, I feel like… we're splitting up."

"Hey," he said putting his suitcase down and hugging her. " C'mon, we're not splitting up. We'll just be separated… temporarily."

"I know. I just…" she trailed off and sighed. He held up her chin and looked her in the eyes.

"It'll be okay. Just go put your stuff in your room and we'll go sit together in the main room."

"Okay," she said with a small smile. Her hair turned to a happy yellow-orange before returning to normal. They parked their cars in the garage and they put the rest of their stuff in their rooms, which were bigger than Rikki originally thought. They had 2 bedrooms with a bathroom and kitchenette. It was the same on the girl's side of the dormitories hall. Rikki and Dan were still contemplating whether or not they should share a room when Jack had escorted the other kids from before inside. By this time, Rikki and Dan decided that they would share the room the best they possibly could. The older boy, Bob Farley, had a gift of intelligence, but he preferred to use his intelligence as being a know-it-all in the sports section of the world. More specifically, the "blood sports" part to which he applied his knowledge. His friend Tim Martinson, however, did not have a gift of intelligence but remained with similar interests as Bob. The girl they were travelling with, was someone neither of them knew. She was a few years younger than Tim. A lot younger. Her name was Cassandra Wheeler and she was 11 years old, but despite her age and interests, she had a knack for being a fan of history and the social sciences.

"Wait," Dan said talking to her. "You're eleven?"

"That's right," she said with a perky tone as she sat herself down on one of the couches. Dan sat on the ottoman in front of her.

"You're 11, and you drove here?"

"Well…not… as such…"

"So how did you get here?" Suzy asked her.

"She had to ride with me," Tim said pointing to himself, with a hint of agitation. "Her mother was a friend of the family."

"You don't have to pick on me just because I'm a kid!" Cassandra said.

"Please don't yell, Ms Wheeler," Jack said walking through the room and back out the front.

"More must be here," Rikki said.

"That's right," a voice said. They looked and a boy about Bob's age was coming into the room. His eyes and hair were dark red and he wore a black jacket. His voice sounded slightly monotonous and robotic. "Hello. My name is Will. I am the headmaster's assistant. Please let me know if you have any questions." Cassandra raised her hand. Will gestured for her to speak.

"Yeah, are you human?" she asked. Will brought his left arm up and pressed his finger down, revealing an opening panel. Everyone gasped and Dan whistled.

"Does this help?" Will asked.

"Oh, yeah. Definitely," Cassandra said just wanting to be away from him. At that moment Jack had wandered by.

"Oh, he's human. He's also biotech. That's what makes him so special," Jack said patting Will's shoulder. "And of course, he's also my son."

"Why the biotech?" Rikki asked. Jack's face darkened, as did Will's.

"There was an accident," he said with a different tone in his voice. "A long time ago."

"I can see that you don't like to talk about it," Suzy said. Jack nodded.

"Now, don't ask questions you do not want to know the answer to." The man walked away. Suzy's hair changed to a sympathetic magenta.

"I feel bad for him," she said.

"You just had to ask that question," Dan said to Cassandra.

"Hey!" she said, obviously offended. "I just wanted to ask." She sat back on the couch, crossed her arms and sniffled, trying her best to hold back a tear.

"You're not going to start crying are you?"

"Dude, stop!" Rikki told his brother. "Come on man, she's 11."

"I'm sorry," he said with an unchanged tone. He stood up and walked up the stairs and back into his room. Cassandra was still upset so Suzy sat down next to her and hugged her.

"It's ok," she soothed. Her hair was now a shade of a comforting pink. A few more kids of varying ages, races, and genders came in and Will gave them a similar tour that Jack had given them.

"Will," Rikki called him over.

"Yes?" Will asked.

"When do we start college work?"

"Not for another 3 days. First, we must spend a couple of days getting to know each other."

"Okay, thanks." Will nodded and walked off to help someone else.

5: The Order and The Classes

After the 3 days, however, it was Saturday, which Jack did not count for, so the studies were simply held off until the following Monday. During the lunch period on Saturday, Rikki decided that it would be best that he and Dan not share a room. Dan mutually agreed and he moved his things across the hall, bunking with some older boy named Andrew. After lunch, Jack called everyone to the main room.

"The reason you people are here," he said to everyone, "is that, as some of you may have found out, you all have a Gift." He looked at Suzy. "Or Gifts. You kids are not like other kids." He paused as some of them exchanged glances. "You may have been called names. You may have been rejected by your friends," he paused again and looked at a boy who was wearing a slightly tattered shirt, "and by your family. Some of us may have had a troubled, recent past, but I can assure you, that you will all find solace here. Among your new family and new friends." The students looked at each other again, only this time, few were exchanging a face filled with more positive emotion.

"If," he went on, "you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask me. If I am, for some reason unavailable, feel free to ask my son Will, or my wife." He looked at his wristwatch. "The teachers should arrive tomorrow, so if you need to do any necessary preparations, I suggest you do them today." He looked among the crowd. "That is all. Thank you." His speech was met with applause, which for him was rather surprising. Most of the students sat in the main room talking to each other and meeting one another. Others moved into their rooms and a few went back to the cafeteria, in the hopes of finding something leftover. Rikki did have a question that was on his mind that he wanted to ask Jack about so, he followed him to his office.

"Jack," he said, knocking on the door.

"Ah, Rikki, what can I do for you?" Jack asked.

"I want to know why you really started this school." Jack paused and sat down in his chair. He then motioned for Rikki to sit on the other side.

"There is an entire system," he said.

"What?"

"There is an entire system of schools just like this one, all around the world."

"Who would run an entire school system for kids with gifts?" Jack paused again.

"There's an Order."

"A-an Order?"

"Of headmasters, yes. There are 25 of us. The Order of Gifts. It was first started back many years ago with the first person who revealed that he had a gift."

"Who was that?"

"I'd rather not say, simply because I'm sure it'll be a question in an upcoming test."

"Oh."

"But I will say this: The Order has remained nearly the same for the last 100 years. It was the original 25. It was 25, and it will always remain 25. 25 Gifted people, the greatest Gifted people, mind you, from around the entire world. I am one and Suzy's father was one."

"I thought he died in a car accident, and that was before Suzy and I even met."

"That's what he wanted you to think." Rikki's thought process stopped.

"What-? Are you-? Seriously-?" He wasn't sure what to do. "I think that Suzy should be part of this."

"Now that I think about it, I agree. She should." Rikki was already out the door and gone. He found Suzy still sitting with Cassandra and he grabbed Suzy's hand.

"Come here," he told her.

"Why?" she asked. He was already walking her back to Jack's office. They walked in and Rikki sat her down. "What's this about?"

"What do you know about your father?" Jack asked her. She sighed.

"Well… not much. The only thing I do remember…," she clenched her fist, trying to hold back tears, to no avail. Her hair changed to a very sad blue. "I… all I remember was Mom telling me that…" she sniffled, "that Mom told me that Daddy was going away for a long time and that he died in a car crash when he was coming over to visit." She sobbed quietly. Rikki held her hand and he gave it a sympathetic and heartfelt squeeze.

"Your mother lied," Jack said. Her crying stopped and anger built up inside her. "But before you explode, let me explain." Her hair was already turning into a fiery, angry red. "Your father did not die if that's what you thought."

"What?" Her hair turned to a stress-relieving turquoise.

"He did leave though, so it wasn't a total lie." Now it was Jack's turn to sigh. "He left the Order, to hunt down the greatest threat to our kind, Victor Sol." The name felt like poison and it hung in the air like toxic gas.

"Who's that?" Rikki asked.

"Only the most feared person of our kind. He's what we call a 'Gift hunter'. He hunts us for our DNA."

"In other words-" Rikki started.

"-Our Gifts," Suzy finished.

"Suzy, your father was the strongest telepath at the time. The best in the entire world. He set out to bring Victor to justice once and for all. But he… failed to return. We assumed the worst." Her hair went back to blue. "I'm sorry." She started to cry again.

"Why didn't Mom tell the truth?" she cried.

"So you wouldn't go after him."

"Don't count on it."

"What? No!" Rikki said. "You're not going after that man. I won't let you."

"No one's going after anyone!" Jack said over them. "That is final. But if history is to repeat itself, he may come here." He noticed the fear forming in Rikki's eyes and Suzy's yellow-orange hair. "But that… is highly unlikely. He'd never dare step foot within 100 miles of us. Now I suggest that the two of you prepare for your classes."

They left Jack's office and headed back to the main room and the days passed and it was soon Monday morning. Everyone got up, went to breakfast and headed off to their first class of college. The kids went to their assigned classrooms. It wasn't too hard to get mixed up because there were only six classrooms in total, making it obvious that this was a school for the special few. Everyone in Rikki's class was sitting in their seats at their desk, feeling quite confident about their first class of the day, "Power Management" with their teacher, a woman from the other side of the country.

"Hello," she said sweetly as she came into the room. She sounded like she had a bit of a Scottish accent. Her light blonde hair was long and flowed down to below her shoulders. She was relatively tall and in her mid 20's. "My name is Ms Ailsa McCracken. I've taught here for 4 years. I will say: do try not to get on my bad side. You won't find it pretty. Now, before we begin with the lessons, I'd like to know what sort of Gifts you kids have been given." She pointed to a boy a few seats away from Rikki. "You, what's your name?" The boy stood up.

"My name is Harry," he said. "I am gifted with the power to see in total darkness."

"Night-vision?"

"Yes ma'am."

"How interesting," she said with mild enthusiasm. Finding out others' Gifts was a favourite activity of hers. "You," she said pointing to a girl of Asian descent and at least a couple of years older than Rikki. She was one of those kids who had their hair coloured black but with other colours striped through it.

"My name is Aoi Hashimoto," she said with a serious tone. "I am gifted with the ability to see things before they happen." She made a quick smirk at Rikki. "You'll pick him next."

"All right then, you," she said pointing to Rikki. He stood up.

"My name is Rikki Soto. I am gifted with the ability to absorb and store energy and expel it in a controlled manner of my choice."

"Fascinating. And what about you?" McCracken pointed to a girl in the back.

"My name is Max Ryde," she said standing up. She had curly, light brown hair and she looked like a nice person but her face also showed a heavy amount of self-confidence and determination. "I am gifted with the power of flight."

"Seems fair, but how do you fly, exactly? Is it force? Telekinesis?"

"I have wings."

"Care to show us?"

"Certainly." She took her jacket off and her wings opened up. They were beautiful, white-feathered wings. Like the wings of an angel. There was collective gasping in the entire room.

"Amazing," Ms McCracken said.

"Beautiful," Rikki said.

"Cool," the boy sitting by Rikki simply said. He noticed that he had a deeper voice, so this guy was older than him. He had jet black, mullet-style hair with a goatee and wore a black leather jacket and pants.

"What makes you say that?" he asked him. The other boy stood up and adjusted his jacket. He had wings too. His were feathered and black. All attention was turned to him. Even the teachers.

"My name is Alex Leone. I am gifted with the power of flight."

"Why are your wings black?" McCracken asked.

"Because of my DNA. Hey, I can't help it."

"Well, I'll ask you to please not disrupt the class."

"My apologies, Ms McCracken," he said with a wry smile. Whoever this guy was, Rikki sure didn't like him. Next class period Rikki had a "Using Your Gifts" class. This class was outside in a marked-off area of the large campus, far away from the building.

"Alright," the teacher said with a heavy Russian accent. "My name is Coach Dmitri Loguinov. I will teach you how to use your Gifts properly. Without having someone accidentally killed." A girl raised her hand. "What?"

"Have people actually died here?" she asked with a nervous shake as he looked at her over his moustache.

"Da," he said with a darkened face, which then lit up. "But let's try to keep that number low this year, eh?"

"Oh joy," Rikki said to himself, "gym class." A couple of hours later, it seemed like Rikki barely made it through that class. After he barely pulled himself back to the cafeteria for lunch. He sat at a table by the window. He looked out across the land. It looked like an endless plain but far off, about a mile out was the tree line. His trance-like state was broken by a voice.

"Hi," a girl said.

"Hi," Rikki said to her.

"Mind if I sit here?"

"No," he said. She sat by him. She wore an outfit that looked like someone would wear if they were always outside. She had a light shade of jade green hair and was about his age.

"My name's Kilo. Kilo Laukkanen."

"Rikki Soto."

"What class do you have next?"

"History of Gifts class. You?"

"Using your Gifts."

"I just came from that."

"Really? What's it like?" she asked intrigued.

"It's sort of like a gym class," he explained.

"Why do you say it like that?"

"What?"

"You say it like it's a bad thing to have a gym class." Now he was intrigued.

"Why would you ask? Do you like working out?"

"Well…" she hesitated. "It sort of hard to explain."

"What do you mean?"

"See my Gift is unnaturally high stamina. I never get tired when doing physical workouts. So doing gym stuff is… well easy."

"Maybe for you."

"Yeah. I was my school's greatest cross country athlete. I was adored by everyone, maybe even my entire school district probably. I was famous. Until my doctor discovered that my body never showed any signs of fatigue. She told my parents and then I find out that's my Gift. I received a letter from Professor Trades and I ended up here."

"Interesting."

"Yep, that's pretty much my entire life's story."

"So far," he said with a light laugh.

"Oh, yeah," she said laughing. "That's funny." Another girl came over and sat down. She looked similar to Kilo only she had hair in a darker green colour. "Oh, hi Chyanne."

"Who's your boyfriend?" Chyanne asked.

"Rikki Soto," Kilo said. "And he's not my boyfriend."

"What, can't he speak for himself?"

"Actually he can speak for himself, thank you very much," Rikki said turning toward her.

"Hey, I was only teasing." She stood up and walked off. "Jeez."

"That was-"

"-My sister," Kilo said.

"She's... interesting."

"Yeah, sorry about that." Luckily, the rest of lunch went on without any other negative incidents. Rikki then headed off to History of Gifts. The teacher walked into the room. She looked of Latin American descent and she was in at least her late 20's.

"Good afternoon, class. I am Araceli América Adelina Felicidad Martínez," the woman said with a Latin American accent. "I will be your teacher. We are going to learn about the history of Gifts and the history of some of the greatest historical figures who were both knowingly and unknowingly Gifted. First, does anyone know any important historical figure who was Gifted?" A boy in front of Rikki raised his hand. "Yes, Mr…"

"Bennett. Reynold Bennett," he said.

"Reynold, then."

"Just Rey please."

"Oh, alright Rey. Who do you know?"

"JFK."

"Yes," she said, writing his name on the board. "John F. Kennedy had a Gift that the U.S. government did not want the country to know about… supposedly." The girl sitting next to Rikki raised her hand. "Yes, Ms…"

"Kora Mas," she said with the slightest hint of a German accent. "So, did he not have a Gift?"

"Oh, he did. That's the reason why a lot of conspiracy theorists say the government did what they did back on that day."

"Oh, please," a familiar voice said. "The conspiracies say things like these just so the believers get attention."

"Please don't interrupt my class Ms Laukkanen."

"I never told you my name."

"Your sister was in my first class."

"Of course she was."

"I do not want to have any disciplinary referrals on the first day, so I'll let you off with a warning." The teacher's eyes seemed to glow with fire. "And judging by your expressions, I see I may have shown you all my Gift. This brings up another thing: only use your Gift in this class if necessary. Otherwise no using it." There was a collective groan among the students. "That's just my rules." Rikki however, enjoyed this class. Not only was Ms Martínez a nice teacher, but she was a fun teacher as well. Every time someone tried to be a 'class comedian' as she called it, she would make a joke back at them, causing the whole class to laugh. The next and final class Rikki had was another gym class that almost everyone wanted to take. "How to use your Gift in Combat" class with Professor Drogo Hawking, who was a bit of a hippie with his long, mahogany hair tied back in a ponytail. His blue eyes sparkling from behind his glasses.

"I teach you, kids, how to use your Gifts for necessary defence. Some of the techniques I will teach you, I hope you will never have to use," he told the class. His gift was being able to aid in the growth of plants and he drove an electric car. When he told the class his story, that part made a specific group of kids laugh. The kids who were car-heads. But his car was a BMW i3, so it did have some class, despite the fact it was the all-electric version. "Each defence style is unique. It depends on the Gift one has, whether it's telepathy, metal-moving, or energy beam shooting." That was the final class of the day. After the final bell rang, the students relaxed in the main room or out front, weather permitting of course. It was still a nice day so a lot of the kids were outside. Dinner would be served in a couple of hours. Rikki met up with Suzy, sitting on a bench in the front gardens.

"How'd your day go?" she asked him.

"It was great," he said. "I liked History class."

"Me too. We have it together."

"We do? I didn't see you."

"Well, I saw you. I sit behind you a few chairs over and back."

"Oh, I'll look next time." They walked outside and sat down together beneath a tree that was close to the building.

"Rikki, can I ask you an important question?" Suzy asked resting her head on his shoulder.

"Is it the question that I'm thinking about, and besides, aren't I supposed to ask you this question?" She laughed, knowing what he was talking about.

"It's not that question."

"Well damn, what is it then?"

"Are we… in love?" she asked feeling unsure about herself and having a similar unsure expression on her face as she was nervously stroking her hair.

"What is love?"

"Love is an emotion?" she sort of asked.

"No," Rikki said laughing. "Love is not just an emotion, it's how I feel about you."

"Aw, that is so sweet," she said. Under the tree far from home, they kissed. Of course, they've kissed before, but this one felt different. It felt... real.

6: The Average College Night

Later that evening, after the pizza dinner, the rules stated that all students must be indoors. If weather permitting, they may be outside on the front steps. Rikki and Suzy still sat together on one of the couches in the main room. He could tell that the others were starting to know that they were in a relationship. He thought that Dan must have been starting rumours about them, or something. They sat together and talked until 7:30 when Jack wanted the students to start heading to their dormitories. Rikki and Suzy had to part ways until the morning. At least they were in the same building. He headed to the room he shared with a boy his age who was one of the last to arrive on the first day and no one wanted to stay with Rikki so they had to share. He was a lot like Rikki in a lot of ways. They had similar interests. They both liked video games and they were both car enthusiasts. They also had similar faces, so similar that they could be brothers, even though he had brown hair and blue eyes. His name was Luuk Van Der Vennen and he was invited to enrol from his home in Denmark. Rikki was already in and was standing on the balcony that every room had. Luuk came in so quietly that when he spoke, it startled him.

"Hey," Luuk said. Rikki turned and looked at him and smiled.

"Oh Hey," Rikki said. "You scared me, man."

"Sorry. Thinking about home?" he asked. He had his native Danish accent.

"Yeah. You know, you can't see it, but if you look off that way," he pointed down the direction of the driveway. Luuk looked out in that direction. "About 700 miles that way, is my home. I lived there all my life."

"Well, you can't miss home already, it's only the first day, and besides, my home is on the other side of the world, 6,000 miles away."

"I guess you're right," he said with an agreeing smile.

"Here," he said walking inside, "I know what will take your mind off that for a while."

"What is it?" Rikki asked following him inside, shutting the screen door behind him. Luuk went to the bed where he would sleep and he pulled a box from underneath it. "Whatchya got there?"

"My X-Box One," he said pulling out some cords.

"Seriously?" Rikki asked.

"Yeah," Luuk said pulling the console out of the box.

"Shit! I forgot we don't have a TV," Rikki said with a frown.

"Well then, I guess we'll have to wait for the weekend."

"I guess we will." Luuk and Rikki laughed. "So what kind of games do you play?"

"I like racing games mostly, but I do play others."

"Oh, so you just play whatever you want?"

"Yeah, I'm just a gamer I guess."

"What do you play most of the time?"

"I play Forza Horizon 3 most of the time."

"That's cool. I just grew up a PlayStation kid."

"Oh, you're from the other side, huh?" he jokingly asked.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Well then, you have much to learn my student," Luuk said pulling all of his games out of his boxes. He had Forza 5, 6, Horizon, Horizon 2 and Horizon 3. Among them were also Need For Speed, the 2015 edition, the newest Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto Five, and The Crew: Wild Run. He also had Minecraft and many other games.

"Wow, you play a lot of games," Rikki commented, looking through them.

"I guess."

"Ever thought of starting a let's play YouTube channel?"

"I did actually, back when I was in upper secondary school."

"What?"

"Well, I was 13 to 15 at the time."

"Oh so middle school?"

"Is that was you call it here?"

"Yeah."

"Well then, I had a channel back when I was in middle school, but I only had like 5 subscribers. Four friends and my grandmother," he laughed. Rikki laughed too.

7: Relationships that Fail, Yet Succeed

Rikki was awoken by the alarm clock that Luuk had set. They got dressed and went down to the cafeteria for the pancake breakfast. Students who had Gifts that helped with and went alongside excellent culinary skills, were in the kitchen preparing the meals. It was during breakfast when Rikki found out that there were only about 150 students in total. He sat down at the table by the window.

"Rikki!" someone said. He turned around and smiled. It was Suzy. She ran up to him and hugged him.

"Hey," he said hugging her back.

"I missed you."

"I missed you too." They sat down at the table.

"I wish we could be together."

"What are you saying? We're closer than ever before. We're staying in the same building rather than across an entire town."

"I know, but…" she sighed, not being able to find the words she was looking for. "Oh, I just can't find the words I'm looking for." A girl walked over.

"Mind if I sit here?" she asked with a smooth, flowing British accent.

"Not at all," Rikki said. The girl sat down. She had white hair styled strangely, but it matched well with the white and black outfit that made her look like some sort of superhero fan.

"My name is Lotus Elise, what's yours?"

"Rikki," he said.

"Suzy," she said.

"I've never heard of that name before," Lotus said with an intrigued expression.

"It's short for Susan."

"Hm. I hope I get to take classes with you."

"Same here," Rikki said.

"What about you?" she asked Suzy.

"Yeah, yeah. Same here," she said a little quickly. Someone else sat down. It was Cassandra. "Hey Cass," she said with a smile.

"Hi," Cassandra said. She looked at Lotus. "Oh, hi." They exchanged a small handshake.

"Hello," Lotus said. "Can I ask what your Gift is?"

"I can create sound waves from my hands."

"What kind of sound waves?"

"The ones that shatter glass." Lotus gave her a look. "Hey, I know there's a word for them, I just don't remember what it is." Lotus smiled and softly laughed.

A few more students sat down. It was Kilo, Chyanne, Luuk, and Aoi. Lotus looked at them.

"I see you have friends," she said to Rikki.

"We are not friends," Chyanne said. Luuk perked up and he used his cool voice to talk to Lotus.

"Ooh, a Brit," he said, sliding next to her and putting his arm over her shoulder. Lotus blushed and looked at him with disbelief. "Tell me, what's a fine cat like you doing out here?"

"I would ask you the same thing," she said, moving away from him.

"What's he saying?" Cassandra whispered to Suzy. "What does that even mean?"

"You'll understand maybe when you're a bit older," she whispered back.

"Oh," she dragged, understanding what she meant. Luuk had moved toward Lotus again and she moved away from him.

"And anyway, I'm here for the same reason you are," Lotus continued. "Because we are Gifted."

"Yeah, and my gift is charming the ladies." Lotus blushed.

"I'd appreciate it if you moved back where you were," she said with anger building in her voice.

"Come on, give some credit eh? I tried." Lotus' anger then snapped.

"And you failed!" she yelled, hitting the table with a fist. "Now if you excuse me," she stood up and walked to a table on the other side of the cafeteria and she sat down alone, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Someone should go talk to her," Suzy said. Everyone looked at her. "What?"

"Go talk to her," Aoi said.

"Wait, why?"

"It was your idea."

"Fine," she said. She walked over and sat down by her. Rikki couldn't hear what they were saying and his focus was broken by the sound of his brother.

"Good try," Dan said to Luuk.

"It was my first," Luuk said with a downhearted tone.

"Well, seeing how you just met, what you said means that that was the first time you asked a girl out, right?" Luuk nodded. "Who taught you to do it that way?"

"My brother Bernt," Luuk said.

"Well he was a good teacher, but he left out a few lessons which I, shall now fill in, as I will be your new professor in 'How to ask a girl out' class."

"You will?" His eyes shone with admiration.

"Sure," he said with a look of self-confidence. "For a price."

"Damn!" Luuk swore.

"Language," Ms McCracken said as she was walking by to go to her classroom.

"Sorry!" Luuk said after her. "How much?" he asked Dan.

"How much you got?" Dan asked as Luuk pulled out his wallet, made of black leather and was very, very thick.

"Will this cover the tuition?" He handed Dan a stack of Danish money. Dan stared at the stack, tossed it between his hands, feeling the weight and then he glowered at Luuk.

"What the hell is this?"

"That, Professor, is 2,365 Danish kroner. Worth about 375 U.S. dollars." Dan thought for a minute, tossing the stack between his hands.

"Well, so long as it's money. Come here," he took Luuk by the shoulder and walked off. "Now the first lesson is that you have to watch out for is when they say 'No' because they mean 'Hell yes'..." His voice died down as they walked out of earshot.

"So that's your brother?" Aoi asked Rikki.

"Yeah," he said feeling slightly awkward. "That's my bro Dan."

"I feel so sorry for you."

8: Gifted Emotions

Back to the classes. Power Management.

"Today we are going to learn how to keep your Gift in a stable state," McCracken said. "But for now, does anyone here already know how to keep control of their Gift?" A few students raised their hands, with Aoi being one of them. McCracken pointed to her. "Yes, Ms Hashimoto?" Aoi stood up and softly cleared her throat.

"Because my Gift is being able to see things before they happen, I can't really… well actually, I don't have anything to say about that, now do I?" she said with a half-smile. A confused look crossed McCracken's face, but she shrugged it off.

"I guess you really can't do anything about it. Hmm. What about you… uh," she pointed to that one kid.

"Rey," he said.

"Thank you. Night vision, if I'm not correct?"

"Yeah. I can control it by like an uh, like a mental switch. If I want to see in the dark, then I think to myself, like uh, 'Hey, I want to see in the dark or something like that. That's the best I can explain it anyway."

"I see," she said writing down 'mental switch' on the whiteboard.

A girl, which turned out to be Lotus, raised her hand. "Yes?"

"Can I ask how you control yours?" she asked.

"Well, I suppose that I can show you." She set the marker down and stepped away from it. The marker began floating in the air. The cap came off the marker and the marker went over to the board and it wrote out: 'This is my gift. Helpful?'

"Oh yeah," a boy on the other side of the room said.

"So you're telekinetic?" Lotus asked.

"Yes," Ms McCracken said, before continuing her lecture. "Another way we control our Gifts is by…" Rikki started to doze off, but he threw himself awake.

"Careful, there," the boy sitting next to him whispered.

"Sorry," he whispered back.

"The main source of control, in the majority of most of us, however," McCracken went on, "is our emotions. When we are angry, we want to lash out and kill or destroy anything that stands in our way, or whatever it is you do." There were a few laughs. "Yes, ha-ha. But students, I have seen what can happen when a Gifted person loses control due to emotions. Now, does anyone here have control over their gift by having a steady temper?" No one raised their hands. "No one? Well, does anyone have a Gift that is directly tied to their emotions?" Rikki figured that she was talking about Suzy, but she wasn't in this class. "Still no one? Hmm," she thought to herself for a moment. "Alright," she said after a minute, "does anyone here think that they don't have a gift?" One boy raised his hand slowly. "It's okay. I'm not mad. Anyone else?" A couple more students raised their hands. "Is that it? Come on, it's okay. We don't discriminate." One more raised their hand. It was Lotus. Rikki looked over at her. That's why she never mentioned her Gift. She hadn't figured out what it is yet.

"Most likely for you select few, you may not have discovered it," McCracken said to those students, "but that's okay. The majority of the time, the average Gifted person, they don't discover their Gift until they are about 18 years old. So, it may be a simple matter of age. Besides, if Headmaster Trades knew that you didn't have a Gift then he wouldn't have invited you here, now would he? Other factors fall into this category but, for the majority of us, it's our age." The students exchanged glances. "If you are having any sort of problem, do feel free to stop by here and talk to me. I'll be glad to help in any way I can." Her eyes moved toward the clock. "We seem to have a couple of minutes left, so are there any questions?" No hands raised. "If not, then talk quietly amongst yourselves." Rikki decided that he would just wait until class ended.

9: Leaked Media

"Hey," the boy sitting next to him said.

"What?" he asked.

"I saw you looking at that girl," he said making a gesture toward Lotus. "Is she your girlfriend or something?"

"No. I have a girlfriend, but she's in a different class."

"Ah." There was a bit of awkward silence between them. "Hi," he spoke again, "I'm Alkiviadis Colonomos," he said reaching his hand out. "I come from a big Greek family." Rikki shook his hand.

"Rikki Soto," he said.

"Oh, you're him? That's awesome!" he said with a smile.

"You know me?"

"Yeah, mate. Everyone knows you."

"How?"

"You and Suzy Garrison are in a relationship, right?"

"Yeah, how'd you know that?"

"Because I told him," Aoi said with a friendly punch to him from behind. Rikki stared at her.

"You told him we're in a relationship?"

"Not just him, a lot of people."

"Thanks for that. Now don't tell anyone else, please." He sighed angrily.

"I'm sorry, but you underestimate the power of social media," she said like a mock warning.

"You posted it online?"

"Yep. You mad bro?"

"A little, yes."

"Have faith," another voice chimed in. It was Max Ryde. "If anything, it just makes you famous."

"Social media does not make individuals famous," McCracken said, showing a hint of a wry smirk, not looking up from her laptop. "No matter how much they try." There was the chiming that marked the end of class. "See you all tomorrow," she announced cheerfully over the noise of the students standing up and leaving. Rikki went stepped out into the hallway to go to his next class. The gym is like one with Coach Loguinov. Max walked with him.

"Oh, come on," she told him with a voice of confidence. "It wasn't that bad. It can't hurt you that much. They're just bytes."

"Bytes hurt... and sometimes leave marks." Max laughed out loud, causing some students to look over while they walked.

"You are so funny."

"I try not to be."

"No wonder she likes you." They stepped outside and walked to the area where the Coach was.

"Come on, come on," the coach said. "Gather round, gather round." All the kids came over to him. "Is everyone fully aware of what their Gift does?" A lot of students said yes. "You, wing girl," he said pointing to Max. "You know how to fly?"

"Da," Max said in a not-too-bad Russian accent.

"Show me, then." Max stepped forward and she kicked off the ground, her wings flapping raising her higher. She was high in the air, cruising the thermals. The coach waved her down. She brought her wings in and she steered toward the ground. Just above the ground, she opened her wings which slowed her and she touched the ground with her feet and skidded along the grass to a safe and even stop. Some of the students started to applaud.

"Yes!" the Coach exclaimed. He walked over to her. "What is your name?"

"Max Ryde," she said with her confident look.

"Max here is a role model. In this class, you will learn to control your Gifts so that you can utilize them the way she does. She has mastered flight. This is what I expect from you all. Mastery like this." Max raised her arm and formed a conquering pose. "Alright, alright, enough showing off," he said to her.

"I think he should go," Max said pointing to Rikki.

"Alright then. You." Rikki stepped forward. "What's your Gift?"

"Energy absorption, sir," Rikki said slightly nervous.

"And how exactly does that work?" Coach asked almost sounding genuinely confused. He had never heard of this kind of Gift before.

"It works like this," Max piped in and she punched Rikki in the face but her hand didn't seem to do anything to him. Some of the kids gasped as she did that.

"Thank you," Rikki said sarcastically.

"Now he has energy," Max said.

"And what can you do with this energy?" Coach asked him.

"Whatever I want really," Rikki shrugged.

"How does it work? Show us."

"It works like this." He touched Max in the side of her head and he transferred the energy from the punch onto her causing her to cry out and her head to reel back as if he had punched her. There were more gasps and a few laughs. He smirked at her.

"Thank you," she said sarcastically rubbing her cheek and giving him an angered look.

"Wonderful," Coach said. "That's very unique. Now I want you all to carefully show us what you can do. If you have already, well, you're going to go it again. Let's go, one at a time." All the students started to spread out on the field. Coach held Rikki back.

"What, sir?" he asked.

"What you did young man, surprised me."

"How so, sir?"

"You seem like a nice guy and you have a girlfriend, yet you punch this girl?"

"Hey, she punched me first-wait, how do you know about my…" Coach gave him a wry look. "Oh." Coach laughed.

"Okay, now get back out there syn."

History class. Rikki waved to Suzy when he came in and she waved back.

"Now it was back in 1430 when Jeanne d'Arc was captured by the English and then later burned at the stake at the age of only 19," Ms Martinez lectured. "People believe that the reason she went to war was because of visions, but it has been confirmed that she had a Gift. Up until the 1800s a reason why some women were believed to be witches, is because they had Gifts." There was the end of the class tone. "Alright, we'll continue tomorrow." Everyone made their way out of the room. "Rikki wait," she called after him.

"Yes, ma'am?" he asked even though he had a feeling he knew what she was going to say. Suzy nodded to him and waited outside the door.

"Oh nothing, the look on your face today made me think that you wanted to ask me something."

"Oh, I thought you were going to ask about my relationship." He then regretted saying that.

"You're in a relationship? That's great! Who with?"

"Suzy Garrison." You idiot, he told himself.

"I thought so."

"Wait, you knew?"

"I saw the way you looked at her when you two came in."

"Oh."

"Better get to your next class." Rikki hurried out the door, holding Suzy's hand not having to be told twice. But they had to leave when Rikki had to back outside for his final class, the Combat class.

"Alright, so today, I will have one of you learn how to form a defensive stance so you can protect yourself from another's attack," Hawking said. Since Dan was in this class he taught another student how to look out for Dan's teleportations and how to find his weak spots. At the end of class, he talked to Rikki.

"Make sure you do your best to keep your girl happy," he told Rikki.

"Don't worry, I will." This was getting really annoying.

10: Gone

Later that evening in the cafeteria.

"Why did you post our relationship online?" Suzy asked Aoi.

"Because I felt like it," Aoi responded, not looking up from her cell phone.

"You could have at least asked," Rikki told her.

"You didn't give me a chance. I-" she stopped as she had foreseen something.

"What is it?" he asked, noticing her sudden expression change from sly to serious.

"We have got to find a way to get everyone to…" she trailed off and stood up, hurrying quickly to Jack's office.

"What's with her?" Luuk asked sitting down.

"I don't know," Rikki said, "but I have a bad feeling about something." He wrapped his arm around Suzy's shoulder and she hugged him tightly.

Over in Jack's office.

The door bursts open startling Jack. He looked away from his computer.

"Ms Hashimoto, what are you-?"

"No time to explain, listen, I saw something," she said to him quickly.

"What?"

"Someone's here. Here to-to..."

"To what?" He started to sound concerned.

"Here to kidnap somebody." Jack stared at her in disbelief.

"Ms Hashimoto if you think this is funny it's-" he was interrupted by the power outage. "-not."

"Told you," she said barely above a whisper. In the cafeteria, all went quiet and dark. One boy toward the middle of the room began to glow with a soft, white light. There were a few laughs from the guys next to him. Rey had switched on his night vision. Jack was carrying a flashlight and was walking into the cafeteria, where the other teachers were with flashlights.

"Let's try to get to our dorms," he announced to everyone. The other teachers drew their flashlights and some students turned on their flashlight apps on their phones.

"Can anyone else help with the lights?" Hawking said to a group of students. A girl stood up and held her hand out. A small flame formed over her palm. She gave it some juice to help it glow brighter.

"You," Jack said pointing to the girl, "what's your name?"

"Danielle Blaze, sir," she responded.

"Ms Blaze, take all of the girls to the dorm hall. You," he said, turning toward the glowing boy, "Take the boys to theirs."

"Got it," he said to Jack. "Alright then guys you heard the man, follow me," he said. Rikki found Suzy's hand in the dark.

"Stay safe," he told her.

"I will," she said. They gave each other one quick kiss before they separated. He followed the boys to the boy's hall and Suzy followed the girls to their hall. Rikki had managed to get back to his room where Luuk was already waiting for him.

"Hey, you alright?" Luuk asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Rikki said. Their door opened and Professor Hawking peered inside, waving his flashlight around.

"You both here safe?" he asked.

"Yes, sir," Luuk said.

"Yeah," Rikki agreed.

"Alright," Hawking said. "Stay in here until we finish the headcount, even if the power does come back on."

"Yes, sir." Hawking shut the door and continued. "I hope she's alright."

Meanwhile, somewhere in the hall.

Suzy was trailing back a bit from the girl's line as she noticed something a bit weird. How had the power gone out? She just happened to glance into a mechanical room and she thought she saw something move. Was someone hiding back here? She stepped into the room.

"Hello?" she whispered. As she stepped farther into the room, the door shut behind her, causing her to jump and her hair stood on end. Then the door locked. Someone was in here. She moved her head around, trying to see something, anything. Suddenly, an arm wrapped around her and a hand pressed a cloth over her mouth. There was a heavy chemical smell on the cloth causing her to pass out.

Back out in the hallway.

"Let go, come on, come on," Danielle was saying to the line of them as she was ushering them into the hall with her other hand. "Head for your rooms quickly." The last girl walked by. "Is that everyone?"

"Yeah, I think so," she said to her.

"Do we have a headcount?" McCracken asked as she came up with multiple flashlights hovering around her.

"58."

"Then we're missing one," she ran as fast as she could to Jack.

"Who's missing?" Danielle asked. Just then, Cassandra came running up.

"I can't find Suzy," she said with a worried expression.

"Who, your roommate?"

"Yeah."

"What happened?" Ms Martinez asked as she walked over.

"We're missing one," Danielle said.

"Who?"

"Suzy!" Cassandra answered. Martinez checked all of the other rooms.

"She's not up here."

"She's not over there either," McCracken said coming over with Jack.

"No," Aoi said with a mildly calm voice. "She's was taken."

Somewhere.

Suzy's face twitched and she groaned softly as she came to. She was lying on the ground. Her eyes opened to reveal a person standing next to her. Far off, she could make out the silhouette of a large building in the gloom of night. It was the college. She tried to move only to find that her wrists and ankles were bound.

My second day of college and I'm kidnapped?! she thought. Great. But, what comes after this? She had a horrifying thought of what usually happens to girls when they are kidnapped and her hair turned to a scared yellow. She hoped it didn't have to come to that. She could only hope.

"Dammit!" the person swore. "Where is our ride?" It was a man's voice.

"I don't know, so shut up!" an unseen female voice said. Suzy did her best to try to be small. "Is she the one he's looking for?" The man walked over to her and picked her up by the shirt collar. He studied her face in the meagre moonlight.

"Yep. She's the one." He dropped her back onto the grass. She landed with a groan and winced in pain. Then, there was the sound of an approaching engine.

Over at the college.

Rikki was standing by the screen door looking out over the large field. I hope she's alright. Then he noticed something.

"What's that?" he asked, hearing a noise off in the distance. He opened the screen door.

"No!" Luuk whispered harshly. "We're supposed to stay inside."

"Get Jack! There's someone out there!" Luuk ran out and into the hallway and right into Jack.

"Mr Vennen, you were told to"

"Outside!" Luuk said. "There's someone out there!"

"Where outside?"

"Near the trees out front," Rikki said coming out.

"Ailsa!" Jack said.

"Jack, what is it?"

"Hurry outside, there's someone there. By the gate."

"I'm on it!" she said as she sprinted out the front door and used her Gift to hover and fly. She flew out toward the front gate.

Back at the gate.

The man picked Suzy up by the collar again. She couldn't see his face from the shroud of night. There was a look of terrified horror on her face, her hair a scared-witless yellow-white and the colour was draining from her face.

A van came up to the gate. She was shoved into the back with the doors slammed behind her.

"Let's go!" the man said and the van sped off. McCracken saw the van between the trees. She followed the best she could, flying after it as it entered the highway. She smirked as she read the license plate number, knowing she could easily remember it. The passenger, the woman, climbed halfway out the window of the van and pulled out a gun. McCracken gasped and the woman fired a shot. The bullet left the muzzle of the gun and it went straight at her. Ailsa couldn't dodge it in time.

"Aaugh!" she screamed as the bullet buried itself in her shoulder. She lost her focus and fell onto the ground and rolled from the momentum. After getting beat up from rolling along the ground she groaned and put her hand over the wound, with blood seeping between her fingers. She strained as she tried to stand up. She was finally able to push herself up into a standing position. "Dammit," she hissed between her teeth as she gave a beaten, angered look in the van's direction. She sighed painfully and she limped back toward the school.

11: Tracking

Rikki slammed his fists on the desk with an angry yell.

"Damn it! Why!?" he asked. "What the hell do they want!?"

"Mr Soto, please," Jack said. "We're doing everything we can."

"And it wasn't good enough," a weakened voice said. It was McCracken. She was scraped and scratched and it looked like she had a broken leg. She stepped in and collapsed onto her hands and knees, blood and sweat dripping onto the floor. She was breathing heavily, and Jack was already looking for the first aid kit. Jack realized that he couldn't help much with the basic first aid, but he also knew that if he called an ambulance it would raise the need for questions. He had Coach Dmitri drive her to the hospital and he said he'd be there shortly afterwards since there wasn't much in the infirmary. 

"Carlyta will take care of things here," Hawking told Jack before he left. Hawking and Martinez made sure everyone was in their dorm rooms.

The next morning.

Rikki was sitting by himself, still angry with the kidnappers, whoever the hell they were, but obviously, they were working for Victor. Cassandra came and sat down by him. She said nothing until Aoi sat down across from him.

"Hey," Rikki muttered with indifference.

"I'm sorry," Aoi said.

"There was nothing you could've done."

"You're wrong," she said almost guiltily. "I should've acted quicker. I could've saved her." Her eyes became wet with tears. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Rikki."

"Why so down?" Chyanne asked as she sat down with her breakfast. "Where's your girlfriend?" There was still just the faintest hint of rudeness in her voice.

"She was taken," Rikki said.

"Oh shit," Aoi said. "We should probably move" she whispered to Cassandra who disdainfully nodded and followed her away.

"By who, some other guy?"

"No. She was taken... taken. Last night...during the power outage."

"She was kidnapped?" there was a tone of surprise in her voice now.

"Yes." Anger was building inside him. "And unless you know how to get her back, you might as well leave me alone." His fists became clenched. "Please." There was a look of genuine worry in her eyes as she moved a table over. Lotus then sat down next to him.

"I'm sorry she was taken," she said, in her flowing British voice.

"Let me guess... did Aoi post it?"

"Yeah. I didn't want her to though. I also think she didn't want to either."

"I want to go save her... but I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because they say she was taken by Victor." Lotus gave him a blank look. "He's this evil person who kills people for their Gifts." Rikki went on and told her the story behind Victor that Jack had told him.

"He sounds bloody awful."

"But what's he want Suzy for?" There was a group of guys who came over and gave Rikki their condolences. "If only there was some way to track them," he said after they left.

"Actually," Lotus said with a small smile, "I think I can help with that." They walked down to the gate. Lotus's eyes were laser-focused on the ground until she bent down on one knee and sniffed the air. "Does she have a perfume?"

"Yeah, she does. It's nice, why?" She sniffed the air a couple more times.

"She was here on the ground," she said noticing the fine marks in the grass. "She... she was tied up," Rikki's heart surged with fear. "Then she was picked up and," Lotus moved along the grass like a ranger. "And dropped here." She moved toward the gravel driveway. "She was picked up again and, placed into a vehicle," she said noticing the tire marks. "They went that way." She pointed in the direction that McCracken flew and gave him a grave look. "She didn't put up a fight." Rikki became angry again, his fists clenched.

"We go after them, no matter what the teachers say."

"I agree, but how will this plan work?"

"It may be my mission, but..." he trailed off and she came over to him.

"You can't do this alone. You can save her, but not without help."

"If everyone knows just how much we're in love, then maybe I can talk them into joining with us."

"If you can persuade the students," she said to him taking his hand and patting it, "I think you can persuade the teachers." Rikki blushed.

"I...uh, I don't know," he said looking away. She leaned on his shoulder to pull him back around.

"I know you can do it," she said, looking at him affirmatively. "I believe in you."

12: The Message

Rikki went up to Lotus the next day.

"We're you able to get anyone?"

"A few. Only our friends. Everyone else finds me... weird." She gave a small downhearted sigh.

"Well, there's nothing wrong with weird. Where are they?" Their friends came to the table, as if on cue.

"Right here," Aoi said sitting down. "We got your back."

"Of course man," Luuk said sitting by him. "We're here for you."

"All the way," Kilo chimed in.

"Yay, go team," Chyanne said sarcastically. Rikki looked down at her.

"Could you not?" he asked her.

"I still never said we were friends," she shrugged as an answer.

"Quit bitching," Aoi said. "Anyway, how are we going to do this?"

"I don't know," Rikki said. "Is my brother part of this?"

"Yes," Dan said coming to the table. "I don't agree with you, but you're my brother, so I guess I have to come with you." He gave a rueful smile. "Besides we both know how pissed Mom would be if she found out you were killed."

"Thanks. I knew I could count on you."

"So, how are we playing this game?" he asked sitting down.

"First, we need to see if we can get anyone else to join."

"How do we do that?" They all thought for a moment, exchanging glances for a moment.

"I got nothin'," Luuk said.

"Drawing a blank," Kilo stated with a heavy sigh.

"Haven't a clue," Lotus said. "But I think we can do this with who we have."

"Look at this," Aoi announced to the group placing her phone on the table. It was a news article. "Girl Kidnapped From Local Institution," she read. They skimmed through it. Below was a picture of Suzy that Rikki recognized. It was the first day of her senior year at West Coast High School.

"How'd it get online?" Dan asked. "And on Fox News?!" he asked reading farther. Aoi smirked her answer.

"She didn't post it," Jack said walking over and putting his hand on Rikki's shoulder. "News people did it. When I went to the hospital with Ailsa, they asked how she received the gunshot so I told them the truth." He sat down next to Rikki. "Don't worry. I've alerted The Order. They have search parties out right now as we speak."

"What about Florence? Suzy's mom." Rikki asked him.

"I had already taken care of that."

A few states away and a couple of hours ago.

Suzy's mother, Florence Garrison, was sitting on the couch watching the news when the doorbell rang. She stood up and walked over to answer it. She then saw who it was before she got there. It was police officer Rafferty Delaney, a good friend of hers. He was about her age and had blond hair in a style she always liked. She opened the door.

"Rafferty, hello," she said through the screen door, above the sound of the falling rain.

"Hello Florence," he said. "May I come in?"

"Sure." She opened the door and the door and the man stepped inside. "Is there something I can help you with?" The man hesitated and sighed.

"I… don't know how to tell you this but… I received a call from the college Suzy attends."

"Yeah?" she said slowly, as she was scared to hear what he might say next.

"There was… there was a…" he struggled to find the words. "I'm sorry but…" he groaned. "Dammit... Suzy," he paused, "she's been kidnapped." At first, she didn't understand, but she read his mind with her telepathy.

It's true. He thought, allowing her to hear. He was ungifted, but she had trusted him. She slowly brought her hands to her face and she started to cry. He hugged her. I'm sorry. We're doing everything we can. He led her to the couch and he sat her down gently. She continued to cry for what seemed like forever.

"Hey, look at me," Rafferty said to her in the nicest way possible, holding her chin up. She stopped crying a moment. "We will do everything in our available power to find her and we will not stop until we bring her home safe and sound. Understand?" She nodded. "We'll also do anything to help you." She nodded wiping tears from her cheeks.

"You're so nice," she said to him, her voice still broken from crying.

"It's my job," he said with a small smile. She placed her head on his shoulder.

"At least, when you're here, I feel better." She stopped crying.

"Okay," he said unsurely and she sighed happily. After a moment, Rafferty stood up to leave.

"W-Where are you going?"

"Well, I can't stay, Florence, I have a job to do. If you need me, just call." He started to walk away. She stood up and went after him, running out into the rain.

"Wait! But I need you now," she said to him stopping him by grabbing his arm.

"Florence, whatever this is, I'm sorry. Not now. Please." He left her grip and he walked back to his police cruiser. He started the ignition and left the driveway. She continued to stare out in the direction he headed off to, her sniffling coming back. She sadly stepped back inside and she shut the door. She went over and sat back down on the couch. She sighed sadly and she lay down not caring that she was soaked. She wanted to cry some more, but she was all out of tears. Instead, she lay there before dozing off into a dreamless sleep.

13: The Hunt Begins

Rikki looked around at the group of kids they were able to drum up. It was him, Dan, Lotus, Kilo, Chyanne, Luuk, Max, and Aoi.

"We need more," Rikki decided.

"How are we going to get more?" Aoi asked.

"By going out there," Jack said, surprising them. "Yes, I'm well aware of what you're doing. Or rather, planning on doing."

"I'm sorry sir, but I can't sit here and do nothing while Suzy's out there, somewhere," Rikki said. "Probably getting killed. I can't just do nothing. I'm going to go get her." There was a look of determination on his face.

"But, how'd you know?" Kilo asked. Cassandra stepped out from behind Jack.

"I'm sorry. I had to tell him," she confessed.

"You?!" Dan asked. "You little-" he charged at her. Rikki held his brother back.

"Dan doesn't," he said to him. Dan looked at him.

"Traitor," he spat.

"I'm sorry!" Cassandra cried.

"No one's a traitor," Jack said sternly. "Now. I need you all to come with me." He led the group to his office. They all somehow managed to fit into the decent-sized room. "Rikki," he said putting his hand on the boy's shoulder. "I have decided. You need to go on this mission. You have to go and save her."

"I know," he said rearing to go.

"I let you and your friends go. On one condition."

"Being?"

"Try to bring back as many Gifted kids as you can."

"O… kay?" he asked unsurely. 

"You know what, just- never mind. I was kidding. Just be safe. All of you. I expect a return from each of you," Jack stated. Rikki thought to himself for a moment and sighed.

"I'm sorry sir, but I can't guarantee that."

"You can't?"

"No, sir."

"Pity. Then I'm coming with you."

"Sir?"

"I'm coming with you. I'll have my wife watch over things here."

"I guess we don't have a choice, sir."

"How else are you going to get around?"

"Well, we do have cars."

"I don't," Cassandra piped in quietly.

"Cass, you're staying here," Aoi said.

"B-But I wanna go!"

"No Cass-"

"I wanna go dammit!" the eleven-year-old cried out.

"Hey!" Aoi said to her with a stern tap on the cheek. "Watch the language."

"But I wanna go with you!"

"Cass, look," Rikki said getting down on one knee, "someone has to stay here, in case Suzy comes back. Got it?" She nodded a few times. "Good." He gave her a small smile and ruffled her hair.

"Now, let's go," Dan said.

"Wait," Jack said. He ran to the other part of his office and he came back wearing adventure styled clothing, much to everyone's bemusement. "Now, let's go." He grabbed his keys and left the note on his desk. And so the hunt began.

14: Road to Almost Nowhere

They all walked to the garage and climbed into the car Jack had waiting for them. A Ford camper van. Jack climbed into the driver seat with Rikki riding shotgun. The others sat around the table. Jack started the engine and drove out of the garage and up the driveway to the gate. The gate opened up, allowing them to drive through and it closed after and they drove toward the highway onramp.

"Which way did they go?" Rikki asked.

"Ailsa said they went north," Jack said, turning right onto the onramp and merging into traffic. There was a period of prolonged silence, the only noise was the road noise from the tires and the airflow over the camper with the noise of an occasional passing vehicle.

"Professor, what was it you said your Gift was?" Rikki asked, trying to break the silence.

"I didn't," Jack said, staying focused on driving, "but I guess I can tell you since you're suddenly desperate for a conversation. It's superintelligence."

"Superintelligence?"

"Yes. It's been in the Trades family for the past 7 generations."

"How does superintelligence count as a Gift?" Dan asked.

"My intelligence quotient was measured at 986." Dan's eyes widened in disbelief. "Oh, yes. The other members of The Order thought that too. Now they've introduced a system to determine superintelligence."

"Oh really?" Chyanne asked with mock interest. "Smart asses," she mumbled. Max glared at her.

"Yes. Very few people are qualified to have superintelligence."

"Do you know exactly how many?" Dan asked.

"From the official records, so far they've counted 13."

"Interesting," Dan said sarcastically.

"Quite," Jack agreed, not noticing the sarcasm.

"That was sarcastic sir." Jack frowned and more silence followed. After a while, Rikki decided to say his thoughts.

"This isn't going to work," he announced.

"But you wanted to undertake this mission," Jack told him.

"Yeah, but I mean they could've taken her anywhere."

"He has a point," Lotus said not looking up from the book she had brought.

"Thank you," Rikki said from the front.

"You're welcome," she said looking up. She then noticed that Luuk was staring at her with an 'I'm in love with you' smile on his face. She frowned slightly and continued to read. Jack pulled over at the next stop. Every one climbed out and stretched.

"So, where do we begin to look?" Jack asked.

"They obviously couldn't have gone too far, you don't want to go through multiple states with a hostage," Aoi said. "Not with all of the different jurisdictions. You'd only be making it worse for yourself."

"Yeah," Rikki said trying to think of an idea on what to do. He slowly paced back and forth contemplating his thoughts. Dan and Kilo had gone into the gas station there for some food while the rest of them stayed by the camper. After a few more minutes went by, still no ideas.

"Any ideas?" Dan asked as he and Kilo walked back to them, carrying a bag of chips.

"No," Rikki said sighing.

"Excuse me, Jack?" Aoi asked.

"What?" Jack asked.

"How did Ms McCracken describe the vehicle?" she asked looking toward the rest area entrance from the opposite direction lanes.

"A rusty, white Astro," he said looking in the same place she was. Just then an old, white Chevy van pulled off the highway and into a parking space nearby.

"Wow," Dan scoffed, hardly surprised. Max laughed.

"Did you say 'dusty white asshole'?" Chyanne asked. Jack and Kilo scowled at her as a man and a woman climbed out of the van and walked into the shop. Rikki wasn't sure if they were the ones who kidnapped Suzy.

"I want to question them," he told Jack.

"No, it's too risky," Jack warned.

"Well, sometimes you have to take risks to get the job done."

"Fine," Jack said after a moment, "but we need to plan this out." Rikki was already making his.

"I'll inspect the van," he said. "Someone should go inside and distract them for a few extra moments."

"I'm not doing it," Dan declared.

"How is one person going to distract the both of them?" Luuk asked.

"You aren't," Rikki told him. "Lotus will go with you."

"What?" Luuk and Lotus asked simultaneously.

"You heard him," Max said.

"Wait, who said we're doing the distraction?" Luuk asked.

"I said," Rikki stated, nudging him and Lotus toward the shop. "Now go make with the distraction."

"Fine," Luuk said angrily while Lotus spitefully muttered something in a foreign language as they walked into the shop.

"This will be good," Aoi said with a wry smile. The others looked at her wondering what would happen this time. The two people in question were toward the back looking through the refrigerators for drinks.

"How will we do this?" Lotus whispered to Luuk.

"We keep them from purchasing," Luuk said grabbing the nearest item on the shelf, a package of gum, and they walked up to the counter before the other two did.

"This is your distraction?!" she whispered harshly.

"No," he whispered back putting the gum on the counter. "This is." He grabbed her shoulders and kissed her right in front of the suspects and the store clerk. The others watched from outside wide-eyed. Aoi was recording the whole thing on her phone. They continued to kiss for another few moments.

"We would like to purchase this, sometime today," the man said. They stopped kissing and looked at each other, surprised at first.

"You're better than I thought," Lotus said to him, her face a vivid red.

"So are you," Luuk said. He put his money on the counter and grabbed the gum. "Keep the change," he said to the clerk. They walked back outside to the others who were staring at them while Rikki came back to the group, nodding.

"It's them," Jack said. "I remember from Ailsa's description."

"The number plate matched," Rikki said. They had found their suspects.

"Seeing as to how you're still alone, I'm guessing she wasn't in there?" Dan asked.

"No, they must have her somewhere else."

"Any indication where?"

"I have no idea." The suspects were walking out to their van carrying some boxes of drinks.

"But you will. Let's follow them." The suspects climbed into the van and drove away. They climbed into the camper and Jack followed, Dan had taken the front seat. Rikki noticed that night was falling.

"Can we get close?" Dan asked Jack.

"Not without breaking the speed limit," Jack said.

"Wait for a clear spot and pull up next to them." Jack pressed the accelerator carefully and got up next to the van. Dan looked into the van, focusing on what was inside and he then teleported out of the seat with an ever-so-soft poof. 

"He can teleport?" Max asked.

"Yep," Aoi answered. Inside the van, the two were talking.

"I'm tellin' ya, I don' think that guy gave us enough cash for the girl," the woman said. "That was the hardest thing I've ever had to do."

"At least we got cash," the man said. They never heard the soft poof sound behind them.

"Hi," Dan said from the back, in the creepiest voice he could manage. The two suspects jumped in their seats and threw their heads around, looking back, screaming. From the camper, things didn't look well at all. The van started to swerve violently and Jack instinctively slowed down. The van shot back over to the right one final time and into the ditch. It slammed into the ground and rolled many times before coming to a stop. Jack pulled to a stop on the hard shoulder, turning on the flashing hazard lights. They jumped out of the camper and ran to the wrecked van. Dan teleported from the wreckage and fell over onto the ground, obviously dizzy from the motion.

"That was awesome!" he laughed, trying to stand up.

"Yeah, congratulations. You now know what it feels like to be drunk," Chyanne said.

"Chyanne stop it," Kilo said.

"Nah."

"No," Dan said pulling himself up. "It's cool, it's cool."

"You alright?" Rikki asked him.

"Never better," he said with a still dizzy smile. Other than being shaken up with a few bruises and scrapes, he was okay.

"Sit down," Jack told him. Dan dropped to the ground. Rikki walked over to the wrecked van.

"Better talk to them quickly," Aoi told him. He walked over to the door and knelt until he was face-to-face with the occupants.

"Where is she?" he asked them.

"Who?" the man spat.

"The girl you took. Where is she?"

"We don't have her," the woman said climbing out of the van. "We already dropped her off with the people who underpaid us for her."

"What, you can't get me out?" the man asked trying to pry himself from the twisted metal. That's when they all noticed it. The burning smell of gasoline.

"Get back!" Aoi said as she ran up to Rikki and she grabbed his arm and she pulled him away from the van just as it exploded sending fire and soot everywhere. The woman was knocked down from the explosion. They all backed as far from the van they could.

"You saw that coming?" Rikki asked her as she helped him up.

"Nope. I could smell the gas."

"Thanks."

"No problem," she said with a smile.

"What did she mean?" Rikki asked no one in particular. "What was that she meant?"

"Where'd she go?" Kilo asked.

"Over there," Chyanne said pointing. Rikki ran over to her. She was badly burnt on her back.

"Hey, what'd you mean?" he asked her, only to not get a response. "Hey! Wake up, dammit!" He felt her burnt neck for any sign of life, only to find none. "She's dead," he declared to the others.

"Great."

"We should get out of here," Rikki said wiping some soot from his face and picking something from the dead woman's pocket.

"Agreed," Jack said.

"Wait," Lotus said with a slight weakness. They looked over. She had her hand over a piece of metal about six inches long, buried in her torso, just above her hip. Aoi gasped.

"Oh, f-" Dan said but was interrupted as Lotus looked at the shrapnel. She grabbed it and she slowly pulled it out. He groaned in disgust, but the hole in her skin then healed back over.

"Healing," she said. "My Gift is healing." Aoi sighed with relief and she hugged her. They then all climbed back in the camper and Jack drove off. They all sat in mild contentment as Jack drove. Aoi had a wet paper towel and she was wiping the soot from Lotus' face.

"Your gift is so awesome," she said to her.

"You should've known," Lotus said wryly.

"No. I didn't."

"You didn't foresee it?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because of my control. I didn't want to know. But I'm glad I do."

"Me too."

"By the way, what language was that, back at the gas station?" she asked as she wrung out the towel over the sink.

"Ancient Celtic."

"Cool."

"It still sucks that we couldn't get any information," Dan said closing his eyes crossing his arms and leaning back in his seat.

"I found this," Rikki said holding up a beaten cell phone. "It's that woman's phone."

"You took her cell phone?"

"She was dead anyway."

"I'll hold onto it," Jack said. "I'll send it to Will and have him examine it."

"But it's worthless," Kilo said.

"But my son is half-computer, remember?"

"What?"

"Biological technology," Rikki said. "You weren't there when he told us."

"Oh. That's cool though."

"And how is the broken phone going to be any help?" Dan asked.

"It's a phone," Rikki answered. "People tell it many secrets."

"I'm sure it will contain some helpful information," Jack said. "Don't worry."

"Whoever said I was worrying?" Rikki loved Suzy so much because she was kidnapped it seemed like there was a part of him missing. A part of his life that she filled. He sighed and stared straight out into the blackness of night as they continued on the road.

15: The Recorded Conversation

The next day, after staying the night in a small motel because the RV couldn't fit all of them, they had found a shipping place and they sent the phone back to the college. It arrived at the college later that day. Will opened the package, seeing it contained a nearly destroyed phone with a note which read: "Was taken from one of the suspects. See if you can retrieve any files from it." Will took the phone to his room, adjacent to Jack's office. He took out a specially made cord and he plugged it into a jack point in his arm and he plugged the other end in the phone's charger port. His eyes glazed over and turned white as he sent his consciousness into the phone. He pulled out all of the files he could carry with him, byte by byte. He stored them in his temporary storage space and he then came back to his body. The colour came back to his eyes and he plugged another cord from his arm to his PC. He put the files on the desktop and went back to the phone. He carried over some more files when he came across a mark in the call history. It listed an "unknown number" he listened in to the recorded conversation.

"We have the girl," a female voice said. In the background, he heard what sounded like muffled screaming. "Quiet!" the woman said. It was followed by the sound of a blow landing and a muffled grunt.

"You have her?" a disguised voice asked.

"Yes."

"You know where to bring her."

"Yes."

"Good." The call had then been cut. He took the recording and put it on his computer. He then came back to himself and unplugged the phone from his arm. He sighed tiredly. Doing this kind of stuff had always required a large amount of energy. He sorted the files on the computer and then called Jack.

Back in the RV, they were sitting around when Jack's cell phone rang. He plugged it into the dashboard and pressed a button which brought a face onto the large GPS screen on the dashboard.

"Dad, I have retrieved all of the files from the cell phone," Will said with a small smile.

"Good. Find anything important?"

"A recorded conversation."

"Send it here."

"Done," Will said a second later. Jack looked at his phone.

"Yep, we have it." Rikki took the phone and listened to the recording.

"I have analyzed the vocal patterns. I can confirm Suzy Garrison was there." He listened to it again, his anger building up when he heard the sound of the blow landing.

"If… they hurt her… in any way…" he hissed angrily to himself with clenched fists.

"Rikki," Dan said holding his brother's shoulder "calm down dude, come on man." Rikki sighed.

"Sorry."

"It's okay." Rikki sighed again.

"Do you know where that call was placed?" Lotus asked walking over.

"Uh, in their van," Chyanne said.

"No, can you trace the phone's GPS location when the call was placed?" Will looked at her from the screen dumbfounded.

"Yes actually, I can," he said after a couple of moments.

"Then do it!" Rikki said to the kid on the screen. Will plugged back in and he check deep in the phone circuits, coming back after a few tense minutes. "I've sent you the information now." Jack's phone went off with a beep as the file was received. Rikki checked it, looking at a set of coordinates. "Where is that?" he asked, looking at them.

"This isn't that far," Kilo said, looking at the screen. "We have to go north about 50 miles then it should be a few miles east." Jack entered them into the GPS. It leads to North City, a city with millions of people.

"Great," Rikki said sarcastically. "North City, city of dreams."

"It's going to be hard to find her in North City," Chyanne said.

"But you forget, we have specific coordinates," Kilo said.

"We just have to find where they lead," Lotus said. After another few hours, they had entered the ring roads crossing through the city and then the traffic started.

"We're going to have to find something a bit smaller," Dan said looking out the windows.

"What's going to fit all 8 of us?" Jack asked a little worried. Rikki looked out the window. A moment later, they drove by a car dealership.

"Ford Transit," Rikki said pointing at the dealership.

"Buy one? I didn't bring that much money," Jack said, "and I can't imagine what Carlyta would say." Rikki then thought for a moment.

"Parking garage," Max said. "We went by one that would fit the RV. We'll have to walk from there."

"Excellent idea," Jack said pulling off the ring road. He was able to squeeze his way through city traffic to the parking garage. He parked the camper and they climbed out. Aoi was on her phone.

"Could you please stop posting stuff online for a moment please?" Rikki asked her.

"I'm not," she said defending herself with a mild tone. "I've got the coordinates on my phone." She showed them the screen. "We have to go that way." She pointed back south. They started walking down the road.

Somewhere.

Suzy's eyes slowly opened. She was lying on the ground in the middle of a small room lit up by one meagre light bulb. She groaned and sat up slowly. Her head hurt, her arms hurt, everything hurt. She looked around trying to remember how she got here before suddenly she felt the presence of someone else in the room with her.

"I see you're up," a male voice said. She gasped and looked behind her to see the form of a man sitting in the shadows in the corner of the room.

In North City.

The group was still walking downtown following the GPS. They walked by a pet store and Rikki happened to glance into the window. He saw a small white puppy asleep in a cage. It looked like the dog Suzy used to have, until that day all those years ago when it was run over. He then started to remember those days when they were young.

"Rikki!" Aoi's voice broke into his thought. He snapped back and noticed that he had stopped and the others were looking at him. "Are you alright? Come on, it's just a dog." She seemed to shiver ever so slightly at the word as she slipped her hand into his, pulling him back into the group. The group then continued. "What happened to you back there?" she asked him.

"That dog looked like one that Suzy used to have. He was her 8th birthday gift. We played with him every day until he got out and ran over by some drunk driver."

"Aw," she said sympathetically. "I'm sorry."

"I've always wanted to get her a new dog."

"Let's get Suzy first."

"Alright," he sighed. With her other hand, she sent a message to Cassandra. They continued down the sidewalk.

"We go left here," Aoi said looking at the GPS. She continued to walk but Rikki held her arm and she looked up, seeing that they were at the entrance of a sewer drainage tunnel. It was covered over and blocked off with construction signs.

"We can't go down there," Lotus said.

"Screw the damn the rules," Chyanne said.

"Yeah," Kilo agreed, surprising herself by the fact that she agreed with her sister about something.

"Besides, where's the fun in following the rules?" Max asked.

"Let's just be careful," Jack said. "This is a hard-hat zone after all." They all walked around the signs and into the tunnel.

"At least they drained the water," Lotus said.

"But it still smells like shit," Kilo said into the darkness, the only light being the light from Aoi's phone.

"Anyone got a light?" Dan asked feeling around in front of his face. There was the sound of metal-on-metal and then some light as Chyanne pulled out a lighter.

"Where'd you get that?" Jack asked her.

"It's mine," she answered. Jack sighed exasperatedly as they continued walking through the darkness. After a decent number of meters, the ground suddenly started to shake and some dust fell from the ceiling. As quickly as it started it ended.

"What was that?" Luuk asked.

"Subway," Chyanne answered.

"How much farther?" Rikki asked Aoi. She looked back at her phone.

"Almost there," she said. "It's just a little further." The then continued until Aoi stopped.

"What is it now?" Rikki asked.

"It's right here," she said looking at the phone screen seeing matching numbers.

"Let me use that," he said to Chyanne as he grabbed her lighter. He held it by the wall and inspected the wall in many places and he looked on the opposite wall. He found nothing. He sighed.

"At least we tried," Dan said.

"Wait," Lotus said looking at the ground. "Give me some light." Rikki bent down next to her and he held the lighter close to the ground. She ran her finger along the floor and she looked at the tip.

"What is it?"

"Tire tracks."

"Are you sure?"

"Quite." She moved along the ground. "I noticed them outside and they end here," she said returning to where Rikki was standing.

"So they came down here and then left?" Dan asked.

"Yes," she answered.

"But why here?" Jack asked.

"I'm not sure."

"Where does this tunnel even lead?"

"To the other side of the city," Chyanne said.

"How do you know so much about this place?" Luuk asked her.

"I grew up here."

"We grew up here," Kilo said, correcting her.

"Yeah." Luuk was looking at the wall. He then brushed his hand along the wall, focusing on the feeling of the concrete, the texture, the minerals, and his arm suddenly turned into the same concrete the tunnel wall was made of, much to everyone's surprise.

"Cool," he said, knowing he had discovered his gift. He knocked on the wall. It gave a solid sound. He walked to the other side of the tunnel and he did the same thing, hearing a slight echo.

"That sounded different," Dan spoke up.

"Yeah," Luuk said. "It sounded hollow. Stand back." He brought his new, concrete arm back and he punched the wall with all his strength. The wall crumbled away in a cloud of debris and dust. The dust settled and some light shone into the tunnel. Rikki stepped through carefully and he looked around. They were in a dimly lit room. He then saw some stairs that led up into an old building. It looked like an old storage warehouse. The light was coming through windows covered with an old translucent layer of weathering.

"We're at the docks," Chyanne said.

"How do you know?" Kilo asked. There was then the sound of a not-so-distant ship horn and the faint sound of the waves in the harbour. "Oh." Luuk's arm then changed back to normal.

"Interesting," he said to himself.

"What does this have to do with Suzy?" Rikki asked. "Why would she be brought here?"

"She must be here," Dan said.

"Maybe," Lotus said. "We'll just have to look around."

"She's a few buildings over," Aoi said.

"Which one?" Rikki asked.

"Follow me," she said. They followed her and she paused. "Just be careful," she said with a look of warning.

Somewhere.

Suzy was leaning against the wall far from the man in the shadows.

"Please don't be scared," the man said. She could see him holding his hands up. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Well, I'm not going to trust you," Suzy looked at him angrily.

"Please," he said moving into the light. He was only a couple of years older than she was. He had blond hair that she was sure she had seen before only his was ragged and he looked as if he had been through hard times. He looked in a similar state then she only he looked more tired than she did. "I've been here so long. They took me too." He slowly laid down to the ground. He winced as he stretched his arms. He looked her in the eyes. They seemed familiar somehow, she just couldn't figure out why. She moved forward and she sat in front of him. He gave her a small smile and she smiled back. It was then the recognition set in.

"Um... what's your name?" she asked him.

"That's your opening line?" he asked with a laugh. "Not very original."

"Well, you look familiar. Like… like I've seen you before."

"My name is Duncan Wheeler. You've probably never heard of me."

"I've heard of your last name. Do you have a younger sister?"

"God I miss her," he answered after nodding.

"Her name's Cassandra, right?"

"You know Cass?" he asked, looking up in surprise. "Is she alright?"

"She goes to this same college place my friends and I do."

"The College of Trades," he muttered.

"Yeah," she said. They then heard the sound of a distant explosion.

"What the hell was that?"

"I don't know," she said pushing herself up. She stood in the best fighting position she could manage with her fists clenched, staring intently at the door, hearing the noise of a small group of people running toward the room. She braced herself, ready for whatever was going to come her way. The door was then smashed through and pulled off its hinges. Suzy rushed through the dust with her eyes shut and she brought her fist forward to a punch before making contact with a body. She heard him groan with the contact and she and the guy she ran into both fell to the floor. The dust then settled and she opened her eyes. It was Rikki. She had punched Rikki.

"Rikki?!" she cried out.

"Hey," he groaned, forcing a smile.

"I told you to be careful," Aoi said with half a smirk.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry!" Suzy cried. "I... I missed you."

"I missed you too."

"Don't ever leave me!"

"I won't." Rikki offered to help her stand up, but she shook her head so he simply picked her up and he carried her.

"Who are you?" Dan asked Duncan.

"That's Cassandra's older brother, Duncan," Suzy said looking at him from her place in Rikki's arms. She then smiled and fell asleep.

"Can we trust you?" Dan asked Duncan.

"She did," Duncan said.

"Yes," Aoi said, "We can."

"Dan, help him up," Rikki said as he walked away.

"Where are you going?" Dan asked.

"I'm taking her to the RV."

"Be careful," Jack said. "Take Aoi and Lotus with you."

"Alright," the three of them said. Rikki walked back the way they came from the tunnel since that was the easiest way. They followed him out of the tunnel and down the road toward the RV. They then stopped by the pet store. Rikki noticed that the dog was still there.

"I want that dog," he said looking at Suzy, "for her."

"Alright," Aoi said. She went inside and after a few minutes of intense haggling, she was able to get the white puppy for a cheap price.

"You know what Jack's gonna say, right?" Lotus asked.

"Nope, but I'll take the heat for it," Rikki said. "I don't want you guys to get in trouble."

"Thanks," Aoi said with a wink, holding a small box with the puppy in it as it moved around excitedly, going home with a new owner. They then arrived at the parking garage where the RV was at. Lotus opened the door and Rikki carefully carried Suzy inside. He lay her down on the bed gently and he covered her with the blanket. He smiled and he stroked her cheek. The others later arrived carrying Duncan. Rikki was sitting at Suzy's side. Dan looked at them and sighed softly.

"He hasn't left her side since we got here," Lotus whispered to him.

"Hm. I figured," he said.

"Yeah." Jack started the RV and he drove out of the garage. He drove them back to the college. Jack parked the RV and they all got up and quietly went to their rooms. Jack and Dan carried Duncan to the infirmary where Ailsa was. She was looking at herself in the mirror giving unsure faces at her scars. She heard the sound of the door opening. She looked over and her face lit up.

"Jack! You're back!" she said walking over and helping Duncan onto one of the beds. Rikki lay Suzy down on the other and he put the blanket over her. She opened her eyes and she looked at him. She smiled and reached up to stroke his cheek. He did the same. Her arm dropped and she fell asleep. Rikki stayed there, holding her hand. Ailsa looked over at them and sighed before walking out of the room. Rikki looked up, noticing that Duncan had fallen asleep. He then looked back at Suzy, before dozing off and falling asleep, his head resting on his arms.

16: Fuzzies The Puppy

The refreshing sunlight was shining into the room. Suzy slowly woke up and sat up, remembering what happened. She looked at herself and didn't seem at all hurt in any way. Even her aches and pains were gone. Then she saw Rikki asleep at the bedside. She smiled to herself as she liked the way the light shone on him. It looked very artistic. Rikki's eyes slowly opened and he stood up and yawned. He then looked over at her and they both smiled. The light on her face made her look like an angel. He sat up and they hugged each other.

"I'm glad you came to get me," she said.

"Of course I would. I love you," he said.

"I love you too."

"That reminds me," Rikki said walking away to pick up a box, "I got you something." He came back and handed it to her.

"What is it?" She took the box and looked inside. Her face lit up with so much happiness, she seemed to glow. "Oh my God!" she squealed. "You are so cute!" She lifted the white puppy from the box. She looked at it closely and it licked her face and she laughed.

"I saw him on our way to get you so I thought… well…" he trailed off.

"Thank you so much!" There were tears of joy in her eyes. Her hair changed colours to the happiest shade of orange that's naturally possible.

"Be sure to take care of him."

"It's a boy?"

"I'm not sure."

"I'll call him 'Fuzzies'."

"That's a good name."

"You think so?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, Fuzzies you're so cute!" she said to the dog. It licked her face and she laughed some more. Rikki patted the dog. He was glad he was able to talk Aoi into buying it. Just then, Jack walked into the room.

"Is that a dog?" he asked.

"Yeah," Rikki said.

"You know the rules."

"And they are?" Rikki asked and Suzy looked over.

"No pets," he said firmly. Suzy's heart sank.

"But-but-" she started to protest.

"No 'but's' Ms Garrison, now I'm going to have to ask you to get that dog out of here." Rikki looked over. Suzy's head was lowered. He saw a tear roll down her cheek. Just then, Aoi came into the room.

"I bought that dog for him," she said at Jack. "Do you even know how much a dog costs?"

"Yes, Ms Hashimoto, now I'm sorry, but there are to be no pets in the building." Rikki looked back at Suzy, her head still down. Her shoulders shook up and down as she started to cry with her hair going blue. Even Fuzzies whined sadly.

"Wait," Rikki said. Suzy looked up at him. "Jack, please. She's been through a lot. Let her keep it for a few days to let the dog get used to her. If it's your rules, then… we'll send him back to her house."

"You mean with Mom?" Suzy asked him.

"Yeah." Jack had a contemplative look on his face.

"Alright," he said with a sigh. "A couple of days. I want him sent to your mother before classes on Monday." Suzy looked down at the dog in her arms, her eyes still wet with tears.

"Thank you," she said quietly.

"Oh, that reminds me," Jack exclaimed, "I have to tell Florence that you're okay." He walked briskly out of the room. Rikki then noticed that Duncan had gone.

Later that day, back at the Garrison House.

The phone rang. Florence walked into the room and answered it.

"Hello?" she asked with mild trepidation.

"Florence," Jack said on the other end "I am Jack Trades, headmaster at College of Trades."

"Yeah," she said with slight indifference. "I know."

"The authorities in North City found your daughter." Her face lit up.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Can I speak to her?"

"Sure, just hold on a minute." She waited a couple of minutes.

"Mom?" Suzy's voice said from the other end. Florence gasped and tears fell from her eyes.

"Susan, is that you?"

"Yeah, Mom. I'm fine."

"Oh... oh thank God."

"Yeah." Florence couldn't stop herself from crying. "Aw Mom, you don't have to cry."

"I'm sorry, sweetie. I'm just so happy you're safe."

"Also, how would you feel if I had a new dog?"

"What?"

"Rikki got me a new dog."

"Why?"

"Because I was so happy to see her returned to me, safe and sound," Rikki's voice said.

"Oh. Can you have him there?"

"We can't keep the dog here," Suzy said again. "We have to send him home. Can you promise me you'll take care of him?"

"Sure. I promise."

"I love you, Mom."

"I love you too Suzy." The call ended.

17: The Ups and Downs About Love

Monday.

Rikki had found the phone number for a delivery service that specialized in transporting animals. He gave the dog and Suzy's address to the delivery man.

"He'll be home safe tonight," the delivery man said with a smile.

"Alright, thanks," Rikki said to him with Suzy standing at his side.

"Thank you," Suzy said. The man tipped his hat toward them and he carefully set Fuzzies in a box in the back seat of the car. He started the car and he drove away down toward the driveway. "What a kind man," she said. Before everyone headed to their first class, Jack called everyone to the main room.

"I'm sure that all of us have heard the news, that recently, a student was taken from us. I am pleased to say to all of you, that this student has been found," Jack announced. Everyone applauded. "She will rejoin her fellow students today and she has asked me to tell you that she doesn't want to be the centre of attention today. She doesn't want to answer any questions you may have, so she and I ask that you please respect her and her wish. Now, let's get to class." Everyone headed to their classes.

Ms McCracken was back in her teaching position after what had happened during the chase. Rikki noticed that she walked with a hardly noticeable limp and that she was using her telekinesis more. She didn't want to move around very much.

"Another reason why control of your Gifts is very important," she said with her partially Scottish accent, "because sometimes, your Gift can come in handy," she added with a smile. The end of class came. "See you all tomorrow." She stopped Rikki.

"What is it Ms M?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing. I just noticed the way you look at her," she said.

"Yeah," he said. "I missed her so much."

"I can understand that." She waved him toward the door. He gave her a small smile and he walked out to his next class. Max caught up with him in the hallway.

"You should've seen it," she told him. "Suzy was all of the attention in the class."

"Really? Why?"

"Because everyone knew that she was taken and now she's back."

"Who said-?" he then stopped himself, knowing the answer before he finished the question.

"She also got out of having to do any physical work."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"That's good for her." Now it was Gift usage class with Coach L., not that anyone cared because Suzy was back and a lot of kids wanted to ask Rikki what happened. "Guys, please," Rikki said. "Give us some space, come on." A few of them groaned and walked away. "I'm sorry."

"That's a brave thing to say," Max said to him.

"Is it?"

"Yeah."

History class.

Rikki and Suzy walked into the room holding hands.

"Good afternoon," Ms Martinez said as they walked into the room. She had barely begun the lesson when the tone went off marking the lunch period. Rikki and Suzy walked up to the cafeteria together and they sat down at their table by the window. Dan sat down with his lunch.

"You two are inseparable," he said with a laugh.

"So what?" Rikki asked his brother.

"Nothing. I just think that you two will be together for your entire life."

"We have been together for our entire life," Suzy told him.

"So far," Dan added with a half-smile. Max walked over holding a plastic bottle of water.

"How's it going?" she asked them.

"Just fine," Rikki said.

"I can see that. You two are like the letters 'q' and 'u'. You can never be separated."

"What about that middle-eastern country Qatar?" Dan asked her. "It's spelt q-a-t-a-r."

"That has nothing to do with this," Rikki said playfully punching his brother's shoulder.

"Yeah, it does."

"It does not."

"Does too," he said quickly. Rikki stared at him.

"Don't even get me started."

"Don't pay any attention to him," Kilo said walking over.

"Whoever said I was?" Suzy then felt a tap on the shoulder. She turned and looked. It was Cassandra.

"Hey!" Cass said.

"Hi, Cass," Suzy said. "I'm back."

"I know. I'm so happy!" They hugged each other.

"Wait, now hold on," Dan said.

"What?" Cassandra asked.

"If you're only 11, how'd you get here?"

"I'll be twelve in a few days."

"Oh, well happy birthday," Max said with a smile.

"Thanks. And I got here because of something that happened when I was little. I don't remember what it was though."

"Well, no need to dwell on bad thoughts," Lotus said sitting down and ruffling Cass's hair. "It's nice to see you again."

"Yeah."

"Also, while I was away, apparently, I unlocked my Gift."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"That's so cool. What is it?"

"It's this healing thing."

"She means a healing factor," Luuk said, leaning in from behind.

"Oh."

"I unlocked mine too," he said sitting down by Lotus and giving her a romantic look. She blushed slightly and moved a few inches away.

"Good for you."

"Yeah." He touched the tabletop and his arm turned into the same type of wood.

"Whoa, that's cool," Cass said with wide eyes.

"Thanks."

"I see we're all catching up," Chyanne said and she sat down at the table followed by Aoi. "So I guess I'll join in." There was a few moments of the silence of them expecting her to say something. "What?" she asked as they were all looking at her.

"Aren't you going to say something?" Kilo asked.

"I thought I did." Chyanne scoffed.

"Don't be so mean,"

"I'm not," she said opening her can of soda.

"What?" There was an angry and confused look on Kilo's face. "What happened to you? You were never this mean to people back in NC."

"That was my last life. Things are different now."

"So what, in this new life of yours you're a jerk?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "Maybe." She drank some of the soda. Kilo sighed.

"Sometimes… I can't believe that we're related," she said just loud enough for Chyanne to hear. Chyanne's anger snapped and she slammed her drink down onto the table flattening the can completely and she stared at her little sister with rage in her eyes.

"Is that so? Well, sometimes I can't believe you were born," she said in a low voice without any hesitation whatsoever causing silence to fall over the entire cafeteria. Kids from the nearby tables heard and looked over.

"Dude," Dan said a few moments later, breaking the unbearable silence. "that's just… just mean." Chyanne looked about the room with her eyes then back at her little sister who looked as if she had been shot in the heart, before sighing and walking away. Ever so slowly, conversations began to resume. Rikki looked off in the direction Chyanne had walked only she had gone. He looked back at the table and found Suzy giving Kilo, who had started to cry, a sympathetic hug. Lunch later ended without another incident. Rikki walked back to history class. Ms Martinez continued the lesson, not bothering with the fact that Chyanne hadn't come back. She had ended the lesson a few minutes early. Rikki sat in silence, just wanting to go to his next class.

"Hey," a voice said. He looked over and it was that girl, Kora Mas, with the slight German accent. "What happened earlier?"

"At lunch?"

"Yeah."

"An argument between a couple of friends of mine."

"But, it was deeper than that. I heard the whole room go quiet."

"Yeah."

"So, what exactly happened?" Rikki sighed as he scratched his head and told Kora all about what happened.

"Wow," she breathed. "That's heavy." Then the bell rang, ending the period. "See you tomorrow."

"Yeah, you too."

Gifts in combat class.

"It's nice to see your girl again," Professor Hawking told Rikki.

"Thanks?" Rikki said unsurely.

"She's nice. Especially toward the kids in my second class."

"Oh, well that's good."

"Remember to always keep her happy," Hawking said, putting his hand on Rikki's shoulder.

"Yes, sir."

Finally, the end of the day.

Rikki sat with Suzy in their favourite spot on the bench under the tree in the front. They could sit there for hours upon hours just sitting there and looking at each other and kissing. Instead, they just sat there, holding hands leaning on each other. A few kids waved at them as they walked by.

"It's nice that we're together again," Suzy said.

"Yeah, it is," Rikki said. Just then, a familiar face came up to them. It was Will.

"Hey," he said.

"Hi," Suzy said.

"S'up, man," Rikki said.

"Jack wanted to talk to you," he said pointing at Suzy.

"Uh, okay," she said. She stood up and walked with Will. "I'll be back," she called to Rikki behind her. Rikki nodded with a smile and he leaned back on the bench and he closed his eyes as he enjoyed the nice late-afternoon weather. He heard the sound of someone walking over and sitting down. He opened one eye and looked over. It was some girl, that wasn't Suzy. She had long, purple hair and strong, golden eyes. She was also obviously a fan of Batman.

"I'm sorry, but this seat is reserved," Rikki said to her.

"Hm?" she asked. Rikki opened both eyes and turned to face her.

"This seat is taken."

"Yeah," she said with a smile. "By me." Rikki laughed on the inside but stared at her for a moment.

"Can I help you?"

"No. I just wanted to say hi."

"Well, you've accomplished your goal." Just then, Suzy came back.

"Hi," the girl said to Suzy standing up and shaking her hand very quickly. "Wow, you're pretty! Who are you? My name's Jaylen Pierce. What's yours? Are you a nice person? Can we be best friends?" she asked quickly. "What kind of Gift do you have? Where are you from? What's your family like?" she continued to go on.

"Uh…" Suzy was unsure as she could barely understand what Jaylen had said. Jaylen was still rambling questions. Rikki brought his finger up to Jaylen's lips, silencing her.

"Jaylen, this is Suzy. She's my girlfriend," he said bringing his finger down.

"You are?" Jaylen asked.

"Yeah," Suzy said slowly.

"That is so cool!" she said. "My best friend is in a relationship!"

"Slow down, slow down," Suzy said. Jaylen was fanning herself with her hands as she was trying to catch her breath.

"Sorry, I tend to ramble."

"I know, but… I wouldn't say we're best friends… quite yet," Suzy told her. Jaylen stopped.

"Oh…" she said with her eyes tearing up. "W-we're n-not?"

"Don't cry!" Suzy said. "We're just not… best friends… yet. You have to just be friends for a little while before you become best friends."

"H-how long-" she paused as she wiped her eyes, "how l-long is that?"

"Well... it could be a few days... it could be a few weeks. Or it could be a few years, even."

"I see," she said with a sad sigh. "You just don't want to be friends with me." She lowered her head and she turned around and she started to walk away slowly, her shoulders shaking. Suzy watched her walk away with a regretful look on her face.

"Jaylen, wait," she called after her. She stopped walking and she continued to look at the ground. She felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked up. Suzy was standing by her side.

"What?" she asked her eyes still red from crying.

"Sometimes… it only takes a few moments." Suzy hugged her.

"Yay," she said. "My first friend."

"Look at me," she said and Jaylen looked at her. "Just try not to step into other people's relationships, okay?"

"Okay." They hugged again. Rikki walked over to them.

"Come on, let's go to the snack bar."

"Awesome!" she said. "I went by there earlier and I saw those chocolate bars everyone's been talking about and I've been wanting one since." She continued to ramble on as they walked toward the cafeteria.

"Jaylen?" Suzy asked her.

"Yes?" she asked in a singsong tone.

"Please try to talk slower so we can understand."

"Sorry!" she rushed. Rikki started laughing. Jaylen gave him a dirty look and she punched him in the shoulder.

"Ow!" he said. Then Suzy and Jaylen started laughing. Rikki just couldn't resist joining in a moment later.

18: Inseparable Separation

It was about 6 p.m. Rikki was out on the basketball court outside the college. He never noticed it before, but it was there and he decided to pass the time while Suzy was still inside. She had left because Jack had called her back to his office for some reason again after they had left the snack bar with Jaylen. Probably about her kidnapping or something. He was bouncing a basketball a few times before he nonchalantly took a shot, missing the hoop entirely.

"I am so bored," he said. "How long can she be gone? Maybe Jaylen's in the office with them, not shutting up." He laughed at himself for thinking that. He didn't bother with the boredom though, because it didn't appear that anyone else was out here with him.  Sure there were a few people around, but it didn't matter.  After a few more boring minutes he saw Suzy walk back outside. He smiled and she waved at him. The group of girls standing far over there then called Suzy over. She looked back toward Rikki with an expression that said: "I'll be there soon." She talked with the girls for a few moments and suddenly, he felt the ball feel different in his hands. It tried to move. This was weird. He tried to hold it, but it then flew out of his hands and toward Suzy. He watched in horror as it hit her.

"Ow!" she cried out. Their conversation stopped, her hair turning blue. She looked at what had hit her. A basketball. She looked back toward Rikki. She couldn't tell what face he was making, but she was sure that he threw it. She burst into tears and she ran inside. Rikki didn't know what to do. That wasn't him. Someone used telekinesis.

"Wow, that was mean," he heard one of the girls say.

"Yeah, I thought he loved her," another said.

"See? I told you boys are impatient," a third stated. Rikki had to go find Suzy.

"Shit, that wasn't me," he said to himself as he walked inside. He looked around for her. He couldn't see her. He saw Lotus. He walked up to her. "Lotus, did you see Suzy run by?"

"Yeah," she said. "She ran by crying. What happened?"

"I don't know what happened." He explained the whole ordeal to her.

"Wow, and she thinks you did it."

"Yeah, but I didn't!"

"Yes you did asshole!" a voice from earlier said. It was one of the girls. "What else happened? You threw that basketball at her."

"I did not. I was holding it, and someone used telekinesis and they threw it."

"No one else was outside."

"Are you sure?" he asked her. She paused.

"No," she muttered.

"Exactly. So, someone was standing somewhere out of sight and they did it."

"Well, even if someone did, who would do something like that?"

"I don't know. Now if you'll excuse me," he walked off to look for Suzy. He found her sitting behind their tree out front.

"What do you want?" she asked crying.

"I want to say I'm sorry," he said. She stood up.

"No," she cried. "As far as I'm concerned... we're done," Suzy said. "Goodbye, Rikki." She started to walk off.

"That wasn't me!"

"Stop talking to me."

"I didn't throw the ball at you!"

"Get away from me."

"Someone used telekinesis to throw the ball from my hand and it hit you."

"Get the hell away from me!"

"I tried to hold it back." She stopped but said nothing. "Honest to God, I would never do that!" More silence. "Suzy, you have to believe me." This time she turned, just enough to see him. "Please," he begged. She then started to cry again. She ran back inside. Rikki sighed. He walked inside, trying to think when he suddenly saw a boy with a guitar.

"Can I borrow this for a moment?" he asked him. The boy looked at him. "I'll give you my shoes as collateral."

"Sure," he said with a smile. "Just make sure I get it back."

"You will," Rikki promised. Rikki took the guitar and he walked back outside to the tree. He sat down and he tuned it. He strummed a few notes and he remembered the tune that he was able to play that Suzy liked. It was from a novel that she had read.

"When Moon and Sun are found, In Mysterious Rivers sound, an ancient foe will arise, To bring the land’s demise. Only on Moon's warmth and Sun's cold, can keep the foe at bay. With help from Wolf and Sky, Shall our foe's demise begin? Bewarned, for if Moon, Sun, Wolf, or Sky shall veer, the land's ground shall break. Only in Moon's light, the foe shall be vanquished. With Sun's fury and Wolf's fang in Sky's rain, Moon shall come to send the foe packing. Only then peace will reign..."

Suzy walked out onto the balcony outside her and Cass' room, after she threw on something comfy, a tank-top and skirt, but there was a bit of a sudden breeze, so she put on a jacket. She sighed, and a tear fell from her eyes. Then she heard the music in the wind. A song, one she knew from somewhere, but she couldn't remember where. As she listened to more notes, she gasped as she suddenly remembered. She ran back down the stairs and outside to where the words were coming from. She gasped and she put her hand over her heart. It was Rikki, singing that song from that book she loved. Rikki looked up and he smiled, but he continued to sing. Suzy started to cry again, for realizing that she had been so wrong. She sat next to Rikki. He stopped singing, only to hug her back.

"I'm sorry," Suzy cried. "I love you."

"I love you too," Rikki said. Then Dan appeared, surprising both of them.

"Hey. Heard you two fought. Caught the guy who did it though," he said. The kid was a boy. He had long jet black hair and he wore black jeans and a black tank-top. Rikki picked him up by the collar of his shirt.

"Who are you?" he asked him.

"Darius," the kid said slowly. "Could you put me down, please?"

"Rikki," Suzy said. Rikki looked at her, remorse covering her eyes that seemed to have died to a dull blue. Rikki dropped the kid.

"Don't do this again. Not to us or anyone else," Rikki said to Darius.

"I'm sorry. I was just jealous of your relationship," he walked off, never to be seen by Rikki or any of his friends again. Rikki looked at Suzy, this problem only increasing their love for each other, and they kissed.

"Come on," Rikki said, "Let's go inside."

19: The Plan for the Weekend

The next morning.

Rikki was shaken awake. He opened his eyes to see Luuk with an excited expression.

"Get up, man!" he said.

"Come on, man. I was sleeping," Rikki said groggily.

"Dude, it's Saturday."

"I know! That's why I was sleeping."

"Come on. Get your American ass out of bed." Rikki groaned and pulled himself out of the bed and threw some of his clothes on. They walked down to the cafeteria for the breakfast. After breakfast, Jack gathered everyone in the main room for another announcement.

"Today, as it is the weekend and you have no classes, the faculty and I have decided that it is safe for us to take you to Secret City," Jack said. A girl in front raised her hand.

"What's that?" she asked. Rikki recognized her voice as Kora.

"Ah, it is a city with its name because the majority of this country knows not, it exists. It's not on any map. It is a city where Gifted people can live in peace. We will take a trip there today and you will see how people use their gifts in everyday life." Some girls exchanged excited squeals because apparently, going to the city meant shopping. Rikki groaned inward. He then felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned and it was Luuk.

"This is perfect," Luuk said. "Now we can get a TV."

"Yeah, I guess we can," Rikki said, forgetting that Luuk had an Xbox one but they didn't have a TV for it. "Oh, for your Xbox!"

"Yeah."

"This should be cool."

"Now," Jack continued, "I should not have to tell you to be on your best behaviour. You should all know how to exercise good judgment and be aware of appropriate social interactions." Rikki heard some murmurs that were both excited and anxious.

"Also, one last rule." He paused for a moment. "Because of recent events, I will require you all to travel in groups of no less than 4." There was some disagreement from the crowd. "Unless you'd prefer to not go at all," he added, immediately silencing the room. "I thought so. We board the bus in 15 minutes. Be here by then." He walked off. Everyone then went into getting-ready mode. Some went back to their rooms for their wallets, others to make sure that they looked nice.

"So what kind of TV should we get?" Rikki asked Luuk.

"One that's HD," Luuk answered.

"Well, duh."

"Although that depends."

"On what?"

"Did you want to buy anything?"

"Not really. I may have to pay Aoi back for buying that dog though."

"I still have a couple of grand left," Luuk said, holding his massive wallet.

"What?!" Rikki asked in disbelief. "Wait!-Sh!" He took Luuk's wallet and shoved it back into his pocket.

"Why?"

"If people find out you're loaded, no one will leave us alone."

"But we have to be in a group of at least four."

"I know. I'll find Suzy." Rikki made his way across the room where Suzy was standing next to Jaylen, who still wasn't shutting up. "Excuse me," he interrupted, "but may borrow her for a moment?" Suzy gave him a weird look.

"Sure!" Jaylen said. "Just bring her back." Rikki brought Suzy over to an empty part of the room.

"You want me to come with you?" she asked, reading his mind with a happy smile. "Yes, of course, I will, I love you."

"Thank you. Is Jaylen wanting to go with you?"

"Yeah. Although I wouldn't mind a break from the endless talking."

"You can come with Luuk and I."

"Sure," she said with a smile. Her smile then disappeared and she looked off in a direction. "Oh, she is."

"Who's what?"

"Cass is wanting to go with me, and wherever she goes, Aoi is sure to follow which then also means Lotus."

"That's fine with me," Rikki said. "I think the only problem we'll have will be Luuk and Lotus."

"Yeah."

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see how this plays out."

Later out front.

The buses were the luxury coach type. Jack had everyone form their selected groups outside before they boarded the buses.

"Now these groups you have chosen will be final. No changing. Unless one group just happens to come across another, then you can form one large group, if you choose. This is however optional, so you may separate again if you please." The students were getting anxious to go. "Settle, please," Jack said with a smile. "My wife just has one more thing she would like to add." He stepped aside and he let Carlyta speak to them.

"Every student group will elect one group leader," she said. "This person must and will be in charge of all group decisions, so choose wisely. Thank you." There was some applause and Carlyta stepped back and she blushed slightly with a sheepish smile.

"Thank you, Carlyta. Now, let's board the buses in an orderly fashion, please."

"And try to keep your groups together," she added quickly. The students boarded the buses.

20: The Bus Ride

On the bus ride.

Rikki, Suzy, Luuk, Jaylen, Cass, Aoi, and Lotus were all in their group. They were able to sit together on the bus as the seats were aligned inside in a restaurant booth style with four seats two on each side of a small table facing each other. Ms McCracken was walking along the bus writing down the group names and members on her phone. She also got the cell phone number from the group leader. She then came up to Rikki and the others.

"Who is in the group?" she asked.

"The seven of us," Rikki said.

"Alright. Who have you elected group leader?" They all just remembered that they hadn't elected a group leader.

"Rikki," Suzy said quickly. "He's the leader."

"Okay," McCracken dragged in an unsure manner, "Rikki what's your number?" Rikki wrote out his cell number on her notepad. "Alright, thank you." She said with a small smile and she continued.

"Was I elected leader?" Rikki asked.

"Yeah," Aoi said.

"But we didn't discuss it."

"Yes we did," Suzy said with a laugh. "It was only half a second, but we discussed it."

"Yeah," Cass said from behind him.

"Well, I promise to be a great leader," Rikki said in a mocking king-like manner, with his right hand raised. They all laughed.

"So Rikki, are you going to buy anything?" Suzy asked him.

"I'm not sure. I've just been thinking about-"

"-paying me back," Aoi finished his sentence.

"Yeah. How much was it?"

"The dog was listed at $750 but I was able to sweet-talk the kid into selling it for $450," she said with a devious grin.

"Wow, how'd you'd you do that?" Cass asked her.

"Oh, I have my ways." She looked at Rikki who was already filing through his wallet. He stopped and sighed.

"I have $325," he said. Aoi clicked her tongue.

"You're still $125 off," she said with a mockingly disappointed tone.

"I'll get what I can," Rikki said handing her the stack of money.

"Wow, you guys have a lot of money," Cass said seeing the cash.

"It's not as much as you think," Lotus said.

"Well, that's because you're used to... Pounds," Jaylen said. "right?"

"Yes. And besides," she said rubbing Cass's hair, "we are members of the working class and we have jobs that pay wages and salaries."

"And I'm only 12, so I don't have a paying job yet," Cass said.

"But I'm sure you'll get one," Luuk told her. "Ya know when you're older."

"Nah, if anything, it's waiting until you're old enough to drive," Rikki said.

"So which is better, getting a license or a job?" Cass asked.

"It's getting a license. There's nothing better than the feeling of freedom." He sighed contently. "God, I miss those times. The feeling of driving down the road with nothing stopping you. Pure ecstasy."

"What?" she asked almost genuinely confused.

"It means it never gets old."

"Wow, I'm almost scared now," she said with a laugh. The others laughed too, but Suzy could tell, the way the light shone in Rikki's eyes, that he did miss those times. They then noticed that the bus took an exit off of the highway that didn't seem to go anywhere. At first, it looked like they were following an animal path carved into the hillside. The path then seemed to turn into an asphalt road. Then, off in the distance, they saw that the horizon was no longer rolling hills, but instead, it sort of levelled out and they saw large towers in the distance. They had arrived in Secret City.

21: A Game in the Hand is Worth Two in the Head

The students looked out of the windows in amazement as they knew that they were in a city that only people like them knew about. The buses stopped at a station in the middle of downtown. They all exited the buses and they drew in the sights. Rikki looked up and saw the sky filled with streaks of light. It was people who had the gift of flying, their streaks creating the multitude of colours, weaving their way through the sky.

"Isn't it amazing?" Suzy asked.

"Yeah," Rikki breathed. "It is." They all stared in amazement at all of the Gift variations and combinations that the citizens had. All of the colours of the neon signs and the fascinating buildings and shops.

"It's like New York and Vegas put together," Dan commented.

"With the culture of Tokyo," Aoi added. They drove by an Asian street vendor who was selling fish and her mouth watered.

"Now remember the main reason as to why we are here," Jack said to the students. "But do feel free to enjoy yourselves a little. There's a small square nearby where we'll meet up for lunch. Other than that, feel free to explore and shop." The groups went off in all different directions. Rikki and the group went to the nearest shop they could find. It was just a little gift shop. He opened the door and it swung into a small overhanging bell.

"Welcome," the shopkeeper said. It was a tall and nicely handsome man in at least his mid 30's. His hair was blonde with black ends. "Is there anything I can help you, kids, with?"

"Just browsing," Rikki said. He walked through the shelves while Suzy was standing at the counter talking with the man.

"We're visiting this city for the first time," she said to him.

"Well then, welcome to Secret City," he said with a smile.

"I was also wondering if you could tell us about daily life here."

"So it's information you want?" he asked with a light laugh. "Well, there's plenty of that here, and at the most reasonable price of free." He went on to explain what he did and why he did it. Rikki was still just skimming through the shelves until he came across a book. It was titled, "The Secrets to Secret City". Intrigued, he picked it up off the shelf and opened it to a random page. It just showed a schematic of one of the skyscrapers. He frowned and placed it back on the shelf. I have no interest in architecture, he thought to himself as he moved on. Suzy was still at the counter talking to the man.

"...and that's why I decided to run this little gift shop," the man said, finishing his short story. "I'm just that small-business type of person."

"I see," Suzy said.

"So I guess to make us even, can I ask where you kids are from?"

"Oh, from all over the world," Luuk said to the man looking over a stack of wooden trinkets.

"Hey, your voice is pretty cool. Are you from England?" On the other side of the store, Lotus couldn't help groaning and blushing.

"I'm from Denmark actually," Luuk said walking up to him and he shook his hand.

"Wow. What's Denmark like?"

"Well, it's like any other European country. We have mild winters and cool summers."

"Interesting. It's nice to talk to people from across the world. You can learn so much." Just then a woman came out of a doorway from behind the front counter.

"What's going on out here?" the tall blond and black-haired woman asked in a friendly voice. She was dressed similarly to the man and she had a nice black bow keeping her blonde-coloured, pink-ended hair styled the way she wanted it.

"Oh, Emmalyn, we have some customers," the man said.

"Hello!" she said with a wink. "I see you've met my husband Damianus."

"Yeah," Luuk said. Back on the other side of the shop, Rikki was looking for Aoi and he found her staring transfixed at a small statue of what he thought was a human.

"Hey," Rikki said tearing her from the weird figure. She gasped and turned around nearly knocking him and some merchandise over.

"Sorry," they both said.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Can I have some of my money back?"

"Wha… wait, why?"

"Well, I don't want to see all these great places broke." She sighed angrily.

"Fine." She gave him $100 back. "Use it wisely," she said in an almost seemingly parental tone but she still held the angry expression.

"Sure thing, Mom," he joked, emphasizing the word 'mom'. Rikki grabbed a simple Secret City refrigerator magnet and he brought it to the counter. Luuk and Suzy were still talking to the man.

"I can help you over here," Emmalyn said to Rikki as she walked over to another cash register. Rikki handed the magnet to her and she rang it up. "That'll be $1.03." Rikki handed her $2. She gave him the magnet and the change. "Anything else for you nice kids?" she asked.

"No thanks," Jaylen said. "It was nice meeting you though,"

"Same here," Damianus and Emmalyn said as they walked out of the store. Rikki had to run back to where Aoi was still staring at the weird figure. Rikki grabbed her arm and he nearly had to drag her out of the store.

"No!" Aoi whined like a child. "I want it!"

"Come on, we can come back later," Rikki told her. She huffed with a pouting expression on her face. "Yeah, now who's the parent in this?"

"Shut up."

"Such kind people," Suzy said.

"Yeah," Cass said. "Emmalyn was nice. She gave me a free piece of candy cause she said I was cute." Rikki looked at the magnet and he placed it in his pocket. Luuk then pointed out an electronics store so they and their group walked inside. Rikki noticed that the group Dan was with was also in there. It was Dan as their leader with Kora, Max, Alex, and Rey. Rikki and Luuk however had made their way over to the televisions.

"Which one?" Rikki asked.

"We need one that's HD," Luuk said. A store clerk came over.

"Hey, can I help you guys?" he asked.

"We need an HD TV for gaming, but not too big, cuz we're living in a college dorm," Rikki explained.

"Well, I got just the thing. A lot of customers like you guys prefer the 48-inch LCD flat screen. Now available in 4K resolution."

"Alright!" Luuk said. "How much we talking?" he said rubbing his fingers together, making the hand gesture people make when they talk about expensive items. The man directed them to the display model which was showing a preview for some kind of movie.

"This is the baby, I'm talking about, right here. Man, she is a beaut."

"I agree," Rikki said.

"But how much are we talkin'?" Luuk asked again.

"These go for $799.99 apiece."

"Deal!" Luuk said.

"Okay, okay," the man said. "Settle down bro, I'll hook you up in the front."

"Alright," Luuk said as he walked with the man.

"I'll see you there," Rikki called after him. Luuk looked behind him gave a thumbs up. He walked back over to Dan who was looking at digital camcorders.

"Nothing interesting," he said as he moved over to the video games. It was a separate area with a separate check out desk for the video games. He walked up to the counter to ask for the newest releases. There was a young woman with pink coloured hair that appeared to be asleep in a chair behind the counter.

"Hey," Dan said to her, but she didn't budge. "Excuse me." Dan got angry and he grabbed a game from off the counter and he tossed it, hitting her in the forehead. She then sighed angrily, having been rudely awakened.

"What?" she asked with an Irish accent, looking up. Suddenly, Dan's heart skipped a beat, as this girl was the most beautiful person he had ever laid his eyes on. He then sighed dreamily. "Oh, customers. What can I-" she stopped herself. "No. Which one of you ass holes threw this at me?" Rikki instinctively pointed at his brother. She looked at Dan who was red-faced, not with embarrassment, but with love. She knew what he was feeling, but when she looked at him, she began to feel the same. "Wow uh...you-you threw this at me," she said blushing and looking away.

"I-I'm sorry," Dan said blushing and also looking away. Rikki smiled wryly at the whole scene unfolding before him.

"It looks like Luuk's got the TV, so I'll leave you two alone," he said with a big grin on his face and he walked away laughing. When he found Luuk who was having Jaylen help him to carry the TV, he was still laughing.

"What's so funny?" Luuk asked him.

"You…" he said between rolls of laughter "you sh… you should've seen it!" He was almost on the floor laughing. "Dan's face!" he laughed. "It was priceless!"

"Calm down and tell us what happened," Aoi said. Rikki was doing his best to catch his breath.

"Okay. Okay. I'm sorry," he said with his laughter dying. "Dan was at the game counter, and this girl who was working there, but she was asleep, so Dan threw some game at her and when she looked up, they then both instantly fell in love." His laughter was coming back. "It was so hilarious!" He continued to laugh for a while even when they went back to the bus where Luuk put the TV in the storage compartment above his seat. He came back out and Rikki was still laughing.

"Come on man, it couldn't have been that funny," Luuk said.

"It was funny as hell."

"Seriously?"

"Yes!" he laughed. He laughed for another moment until something hit him on the back of the head. He turned around and looked. Standing there was Dan and the girl, who was tossing some handheld games in her hands.

"Nice shot," Dan said.

"Thanks," she said in her Irish accent.

"You didn't tell me she was Irish," Lotus said crossing her arms, as the tension between her and Dan's new girlfriend began forming. Rikki shrugged.

"I didn't think it was all that important," he said.

22: Hybrids

Midday.

All of the groups congregated at the square with the large, open-style food court where all the restaurants were located. There was a large variety of foods so there was a nice mix to choose from. Rikki's group and Dan's group shared a large table.

"So, why are you here again?" Rikki asked the girl with Dan.

"Go ahead," she said, "tell them." She pulled out a large hamburger and she took a bite.

"I sorta got her fired," Dan said blushing, then he took a large bite out of his large cheeseburger.

"How'd you do that?" Luuk asked eating some Chinese food with chopsticks.

"He threw bloody games at me," she said. "I was pissed off and started throwing them back at him."

"Ah."

"But it's cool," she said. "Your life seems way more interesting than that stupid dead-end job. And I thought America would be great." Dan laughed and slapped his hand on the table.

"Well, be prepared for a shitload of disappointments," he said finishing his food. He stopped, noticing that he was being given weird looks. Then, a man, some human and wildcat hybrid walked by the table and had heard what Dan had said. Judging by the colour of the fur on his face, Rikki guessed that this person was a cross between a human and a cheetah.

"Hey!" he said walking over to the table. "You gotta problem with America, son?" the cheetah-man asked him with a threatening tone.

"N-no," Dan quivered.

"No, what?"

"No, sir." The hybrid backed up and pointed to his cat-like eyes, then he pointed at Dan's eyes before walking away.

"Redneck nationalist," Lotus scoffed under her breath, loud enough for the others to hear.

"What the hell was that?" Rikki asked.

"A Hybrid," a woman said. Dan turned and saw Ms McCracken. "Artificially given a gift. It's not a true gift though if you ask me."

"Uh, okay," Dan said with some fear in his voice still.

"Don't mind them. They distrust normal humans."

"You mean Gifted people, right?"

"Yeah. They would kill an Ungifted human."

"So, why so distrustful?"

"If you pay any attention in Ms Martinez's class, you'd know. The relationships between the Gifted and Hybrids have been… shall we say… stormy… for the past few hundred years."

"Wow."

"Yes, and all this discrimination and hate crimes only makes matters worse."

"I've never heard of these problems before," Suzy said.

"That's because it's usually concentrated in cities like this."

"Wait, there are more cities filled with Gifted people?" Cass asked.

"Yes," Ailsa said. "There's quite a lot. Some aren't as hidden as others, and some are so obvious that you wouldn't even know it."

"Incredible."

"Yes. Now try to not engage with any Hybrids. All of you. Understand?"

"Yes, ma'am," the students, except Aoi, responded.

"I can't believe that Jack didn't go over these with you." She sighed and walked off over to Jack.

"Yes," he said. "You're right. I didn't go over Hybrids with them." He sighed. "I should have told them."

"Why didn't you? A student was verbally threatened by a Hybrid. This is something that cannot be allowed."

"Ailsa, please. I may have forgotten."

"Jack, the Order will not be pleased when they hear about this."

"Then we won't tell them."

"They will find out somehow. They always do."

"I know. Did you tell the students about Hybrids?"

"Yes, Jack. I have."

"Thank you, Ailsa," he said. She didn't respond. They continued with their lunch. After lunch, they still had a few hours left to spend downtown. Rikki's group continued to go into stores that they thought would be interesting.

Later that afternoon.

"Well, it's almost 5," Rikki declared, looking at his watch. They were walking back toward the bus station. They then passed by the gift shop that was owned by Damianus and Emmalyn.

"Wait," Aoi said. Rikki stopped walking.

"What is it?" he turned and asked but Aoi was already inside the shop. Rikki stepped inside and saw that she was buying that strange figure she was staring at earlier. He groaned. "Aoi, are you serious?"

"What?" she asked.

"You're buying that?"

"I like it."

"Well…"

"Well, what?"

"I'm sorry, I just don't trust the damn thing." He stepped back outside. By then she was done paying and Emmalyn gave her the change.

"Thanks," Aoi said to them with a wave.

"No, thank you," Damianus said.

"Take care," Emmalyn said as the door closed behind her.

23: Aoi's Secret

5 p.m.

The kids were walking back toward the buses parked in the bus station. They arrived at the station and before the teachers could do a headcount, Luuk ran onto the bus to make sure his TV was still there. It was. He came back out and Ms Martinez gave him an impatient look. After the headcount, everyone was ready to go, but no one boarded the buses because there was a problem, they had one extra.

"Who exactly are you?" Jack asked the girl with Dan.

"My name is Florida Gators. I'm from Ireland," she said. Jack stared at her for a moment before turning to Dan.

"Why is she here?" Jack asked him.

"I got her fired," Dan answered. Jack raised an eyebrow at him.

"That job was worthless anyway," Florida added. "So don't worry about it."

"You have a Gift, right?" Jack asked her.

"Yeah," she said as her body ignited into flames. "I can do this." Jack thought to himself for a moment.

"Well, I never sent you a letter, but I guess you can enrol in my school," Jack told her as she powered down.

"Hey, as long as I'm with Dan I don't care where we go," she said hugging Dan's arm.

"Besides, Professor," Dan said with mild wryness, "I thought you told us earlier to get more students to enrol?" Jack gave him a slightly dirty look and shrugged, walking to the first bus. The other students then loaded their assigned buses, carrying anything they had purchased. The students placed their new belongings into the overhead storage compartments. The buses then rolled out of the bus station and they went through the city and onto the highway back to the college.

Later that night.

The buses pulled back up in front of the college. The students carried their things to their rooms and then those who weren't falling asleep went back down for some dinner. Rikki met Suzy at their table by the window. They were joined by Lotus and Aoi.

"Did you enjoy yourself?" Aoi asked Lotus, just starting a conversation.

"It was nice," Lotus said. "I hope we can go back sometime."

"I hear it's a nice place to spend spring break at."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah."

"We never really had spring break. I mean, not back home."

"Why not?"

"She's from England, remember," Rikki said.

"Yeah," Lotus said. "So the only season we have there is rain."

"Seriously?" Aoi asked.

"Yep," she answered. "For most of the year anyway."

"That's why I keep telling ya," Florida said as she and Dan sat down at the table. "Ireland is better."

"What makes you say that?" Lotus asked, a mild hint of anger rising in her voice. "You know damn well it's just as cold and rainy there as it is England."

"That may be true Sweetheart, but our festivals are a lot better than whatever it is you posh English celebrate there. We have Guinness, ya know."

"So you have beer, big surprise. Germany does too."

"What about Germany?" Kora asked from another table, having overheard.

"Nothing. Besides Florida, what does that even mean?"

"It means Ireland is better," she answered.

"Good God," Lotus scoffed. She then felt as if someone was standing behind her and she looked over her shoulder, seeing Ms McCracken standing there. "Oh, Professor McCracken."

"Sorry," she said sitting down. "I just couldn't help overhearing your argument."

"Well, what do you think?"

"Be specific Ms Elise."

"Where do you stand on 'Ireland versus England'?" Aoi pulled some headphones out and she plugged them into her MP3 player and she began to listen to a heavy-metal song.

"Well," McCracken said with a small, wry smile, "I believe that Scotland overrules those two." There was a dramatic pause.

"WHAT?!" Lotus and Florida shouted at the same time.

"I almost forgot you were from Scotland," Rikki said.

"Ailsa, I told you to not involve yourself in the students' arguments," Jack said walking over to the table. "Also you forgot to mention Wales."

"I'm sorry, Jack," she said ruefully. "I couldn't help myself."

"Then let me be the first to say, that I also overheard your little quarrel, and I just couldn't resist laughing." he sighed heartily. "Oh, the things this generation of youths argue over."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Suzy asked.

"Hm? Oh, nothing Ms Garrison. I just envy the young, so full of youthfulness and energy. It makes me wish I were back at that age."

"The pizza's ready," Aoi said not looking up from her phone screen.

"Then feel free to help yourself," Jack said to them. Everyone but Aoi stood up and walked toward the serving bar with Florida and Lotus still locked in battle.

"Hm," Ailsa said looking at them. "Those two are going to start World War 3," she said with a small laugh. She stood up and walked away toward the teacher's lounge. Jack was still standing by the table. Aoi moved her eyes in his direction and he glanced back.

"Do you not like pizza?" he asked with a slightly curious smile. Aoi pulled her headphones off.

"What?"

"Do you not like pizza?"

"Not really." They looked over and saw Dan with a large stack of pizza slices on his plate. "I never really know why it's so popular."

"Well, you could always try it sometime."

"I have. Before." There was almost a smile on her face. "I didn't like it."

"It sounds like you should be more adventurous."

"What?"

"Don't be all show and no go."

"Are you saying... that I don't show emotion?"

"No, not at all. I'm not saying anything like that." He sat down in front of her.

"Then what are you saying?"

"I'm simply saying, you can show your friends more of who you are, or rather, who you really are." Aoi thought to herself for a minute. "I'll leave you to your thoughts," Jack said as he stood up and walked to the teacher's lounge.

"Show my friends more of who I am?" she asked herself. She continued to stare downward while everyone came back to the table with their dinners. Lotus and Florida were still locked in their argument. She simply decided to put her headphones back over her ears but she didn't play any music, she just heard her thoughts saying 'show my friends more of who I am over and over. Something then made its way into her field of vision. She looked down and she saw a plate with a slice of cheese pizza on it. She looked at it and she saw Rikki's arm retreating. He had offered her a slice. She looked at him and she removed her headphones.

"You should eat," he said.

"I… uh…" she said, "I'm not hungry." She pushed the plate back toward him. Rikki picked up the slice and he ate it. A moment later he then pushed the plate back toward her, this time there was a chocolate bar on it.

"If you don't like the pizza, then at least have something sweet." Aoi blushed as she couldn't help but show a small smile. She unwrapped the candy bar and she broke off a small piece.

He was right, she thought to herself as she ate the chocolate. Maybe… I should tell them. But... what Ms McCracken said earlier... how would they feel? How would they feel about me? What would they say? Damn it all! What should I say? She then groaned aloud.

"Something wrong?" Rikki asked.

"I-uh…" she stuttered as the others looked at her. She then stood up and ran outside.

"What's wrong with Aoi?" Suzy asked him.

"I don't know," Rikki answered. "Maybe you should talk to her. Here, she left this," he gave her the half-eaten candy bar. Suzy stood up and went to find her. After looking around the front, she found Aoi in the small group of trees just right of the entrance. She was sitting on the ground crying, with the full moonlight shining through the leaves.

"Aoi?" Suzy asked as she walked into the small thicket. There was something different about Aoi. She looked different. "Aoi?"

"Suzy?" she asked not turning around. "Don't come in here!"

"Okay. I won't."

"Is it... just you? Are you alone?"

"Y-yeah." Aoi stood up and took a deep breath.

"Okay. I'll come out, but please don't be scared."

"Aoi what are you talking about?" she asked. As an answer, Aoi turned around and Suzy saw her face had changed. She had whiskers and her eyes had vertical slits, like a cat. Suzy gasped and she brought her hand to her mouth. Aoi was a Hybrid.

"Hello, Suzy," she said in a calm but nervous voice. "This… is… me."

24: True Nature

Suzy was very surprised to see that Aoi was a Hybrid, a human-cat Hybrid. She had cat ears on the top of her head, whiskers, her eyes changed to cat-like slits, the tail sticking out from the top of her skirt, and her hands grew fur and her fingernails turned to claws. Aoi was a true hybrid. But if there has been a constant uneasiness between the Gifted and Hybrids, why was she at a Gifted school?

"How are you like this?" Suzy asked stepping toward her.

"It's-"

"You-you're a Hybrid."

"Stop it!" Aoi cried. Suzy took a half step back. "Just shut up and let me explain! I'm not a full Hybrid. This is a Gift, I can control it. It came from my mother."

"Your mother?"

"Yes. She was a Hybrid."

"But, how… with the-?" Suzy couldn't understand any of this.

"My mother married a Gifted man." Suzy's eyes widened.

"W… what?"

"I come from a bloodline of both Hybrids and Gifted who have remained friends for generations. Even though the wars, including the worst one, the Gifted War of 1984. It was my uncle's cousin that had stopped it, the legendary Gifted man Tadashi Ayalta." Suzy was still standing there her expression unchanged. Aoi walked over and hugged her. "Please, you can't tell the others."

"I-I…" she faulted the words she wanted to say.

"Please," Aoi begged to look at her directly in the eyes, with tears glinting in the moonlight. "You have to promise me." Suzy then nodded in understanding.

"Not a word," she said with a smile.

"Thank you so much. You're a true friend." Aoi hugged Suzy, who swore she could feel her purring.

"Thanks." There was a few moments of silence. "We should probably go inside."

"Okay. Give me a moment." Aoi stepped back into the shadows and Suzy could barely make out her morphing silhouette. "Okay," Aoi said with mild shortness of breath. "Let's go back inside." Suzy handed her the half-eaten chocolate bar. Aoi took the half and she broke it in two, giving Suzy the other half. The two girls came back and Rikki and Jaylen were sitting on one of the couches in the main room by the large fireplace, and Lotus and Florida were nowhere to be seen.

"Where'd Lotus and Florida go?" Suzy asked Rikki.

"To Jack's office," he answered sipping a cup of tea that he was holding.

"Why?" Aoi asked as she and Suzy sat down next to him.

"Their argument did turn into World War 3," he said with a laugh. There was the sound of a door opening down the hallway and they all quieted.

"Now, I want this argument to be forgotten. If I learn that you two girls are arguing about this again, I will have you both in detention with Coach L. Understand?" They heard no response. "Good. Now I suggest that the two of you get to bed." They heard the sound of footsteps. They all acted as if they heard nothing as Lotus and Florida walked by. Suzy and Aoi looked over at them and gasped silently. Lotus showed no sign of injury, obviously, and Florida was holding an ice pack to the side of her head, just behind her right eye. Both of them looked as though they had been crying. Suzy knew that their relationship would be awkward from now on. They both sat down on opposite ends of the couch and they avoided each other eye contact. There were no spoken words for a few moments as the tension in the air gradually thickened.

"Dammit guys," Jaylen said to them, "come on, it's not that bad." The two of them said nothing and she gave a defeated sigh. The mood seemed gloomy in the dying firelight.

"We should probably get to bed," Rikki said.

"Yeah," Suzy said, hugging him. He then kissed her on the cheek. They all then walked up the stairs and to their rooms. Rikki wasn't surprised to see Luuk asleep in front of the TV with the Xbox home screen showing. He was still holding the controller. Rikki thought this was so funny that he pulled out his cell phone and took a picture of him sleeping and holding the controller. Rikki took the controller from his hand and he put a blanket over him. He then climbed into his bed on the other side of the room.

25: New Friends and Enemies

The next morning.

Luuk threw himself awake. He found himself sitting up in front of the TV. He looked over and saw Rikki standing on the balcony. He stood up and the blanket fell off of him and onto the floor. He stepped onto the balcony next to Rikki.

"Dude, what the hell happened? I wasn't done yet." Luuk said.

"What could I do? You were fast asleep," Rikki told him.

"Oh, I was?"

"Yeah."

"Sorry, man."

"Don't worry, your game saved."

"Thanks."

Later at breakfast.

Rikki and Suzy sat together at their table. The others soon joined them and they exchanged their usual morning greetings. Then, Lotus walked over and sat down, looking not in the best mood with a sad and scared expression.

"What's the wrong Lotus?" Cass asked her. "You never cry."

"Some guy was being mean to me," she answered with a crack in her voice. "He…" she sniffled.

"Who is this guy?" Luuk asked raising his head and looking around the cafeteria.

"I… I don't know wh-who he was. He just started talking to me and before I knew it he shoved me against the wall… and he said…" She began to cry, unable to finish her sentence.

"It's okay," Suzy said hugging her. Her hair turned to a sympathetic magenta shade.

"He… he…"

"What did he do?" Lotus couldn't answer because she was too busy crying.

Time to head to their first class.

Rikki walked with Lotus to the Gift Management class because she was still very sad and scared. She just barely made it through McCracken's class. Afterwards, she walked with Rikki and Max as they went to their second class, but when they had to head outside for their class, it left Lotus was alone in the hallway. She looked around fearfully, hoping that boy wasn't around and she ran to class, History Class with Ms Martinez and suddenly, as she rounded a corner in the hallway, she tripped over something.

"Ow!" she cried when she hit the floor. "Damn it." She pushed herself up to her hands and knees and she saw a face that she recognized. It was the boy from earlier, with his foot nonchalantly sticking out. She screamed and stood up, holding her aching, bruised arm.

"Hey there," he said slyly, his voice like venom.

"Stay the bloody hell away from me!" she yelled.

"Aw come on," he said, "you should be more polite."

"Say that to yourself you… you…"

"What?" he asked mockingly. "What are you going to do about it?" He grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and he shoved her against the wall. She cried out in pain. The boy was laughing with an evil grin on his face. Lotus then saw some girl run over and smack him in the side of his head with a large book. His evil expression changed to pain and he dropped her before falling onto the floor and his body suddenly vanished. However, Lotus was more focused on her rescuer and she looked up and saw a girl standing there with her hand offered out. Lotus took it and the girl helped her stand up.

"Th-thank you," Lotus said.

"Not a problem!" the girl said with a confident, yet nice smile. She had long, dark hazel hair that was combed neatly straight, her eyes were sort of dark orange colour and she wore a leather jacket that framed her ripped shirt that showed her midsection. Lotus could tell she seemed very fit because of her highly noticeable six-pack and she managed to make her antagonist completely disappear.

"Um, who are you? I've never seen you before," Lotus said with a small smile coming back onto her face.

"My name's Yin. Yin Harmony. Today's my first day."

"My name's Lotus."

"It's nice to meet you Lotus! Now can you tell me where Ms Martinez's classroom is at?"

"Oh, we better hurry. I was just heading there. We don't want to be late." Lotus grabbed her books that had fallen on the floor and she hurried off toward Martinez's room with Yin following. The both of them burst into the room, tripped over each other, and fell onto the floor.

"Damn it, not again," Lotus muttered as they pulled themselves up. Ms Martinez looked at them, with mild surprise at their entry, as were the other thirty students.

"Ms Elise and," she said before pausing to look at her roster, "Ms Harmony. You're late. Care to tell us why?"

"Uh, I…" Lotus said, unsure. Yin put her hand on Lotus's shoulder.

"Don't worry, I got this," she said and she cleared her throat. "Lotus was on her way here when she was harassed by some mean dude. I easily stopped him but it was his fault we came in late."

"Mm-hm," Martinez said slowly, "and where is this man now?" Yin gasped as she forgot about that.

"Crap!" she hissed. "I hit him so hard he disappeared."

"What?" Ms Martinez asked in disbelief. "But how did-?" She sighed walked quickly out to the hallway, leaving Lotus and Yin standing in front of the class. Yin then broke the silence.

"Hey everyone! I'm Yin!" she said in a friendly way to the entire class. A couple of students waved.

"Whassup," someone in the back said with mild indifference. Yin then paused after a moment.

"Uh," she muttered getting nervous and red-faced. She then decided to just take the empty chair next to Lotus.

26: Pyromanipulation

Later that day.

Lotus and Yin were sitting in their dorm room together, as no one would join with Lotus so there was still space for Yin to move in, as they were enjoying the lunch that they ordered.

"Thanks again for helping me out Yin," Lotus said. "You're a nice person,"

"No problem Lotus!" Yin said with a friendly grin. "I don't like seeing nice people getting hurt by bullies and thanks."

"You're welcome."

"What class do you have next?"

"I have Gifts in Combat class."

"Hey, me too," Yin said looking at her schedule.

"Um, does your schedule match mine?" Lotus gave Yin a paper copy of her schedule and she looked at it.

"Yeah, I guess it does. That's so awesome."

Later it was time for class.

"Now, you will see how he uses his Gift to block her attack," Hawking said to the class. A boy and a girl were standing in the practice field. The girl manifested a lightning bolt in her hand. She brought her arm up and she threw it like a spear straight at the boy. He brought his hands up and he used telekinesis to stop the bolt. He focused more on it and the bolt dissipated in the air. "Well done," Hawking said. The boy straightened his back and he bowed to the class. "Well done. Anyone else wants to try?" No one felt comfortable answering. Professor Hawking looked around. His eyes came upon Lotus and Yin. Intrigued, he stepped over to them. "I haven't seen you here before Miss," he said to Yin. "You must be new."

"Yes sir," Yin said nervously.

"And what, dare I ask, is your Gift?"

"Fire. I can shoot fire."

"Care to give us a demonstration?"

"Uh, I can try." She stepped over to an empty spot on the field. "You might want to stand back," she said with a more commanding tone, causing everyone to back up a few large paces. After everyone was well back, she closed her eyes, inhaled deeply, and cleared her mind as she held a closed fist out forward, using her other arm to hold it up. Concentrating on nothing but the constant energy from the sun, she opened her eyes which began to glow from within. She slowly opened her hand out and flames shot from her palm. Even though the class was standing well back, they could all feel the heat as they shaded their eyes from the brightness. Hawking was impressed at the sheer magnitude of the fire blast. The large fire then receded toward Yin then disappeared into some smoke as she exhaled, the glow disappearing from her eyes. Everyone stared at her utterly dumbfounded, including Hawking.

"Oh my God," Lotus said. "That was amazing."

"Thanks," Yin said.

"A-Alright then," Hawking said finding his voice, "anyone care to try with Yin?" As he expected, absolutely no responses. "Well then, uh, that's all for today. If possible, do feel free to keep practising and we'll all see each other tomorrow." The class made its way back inside the building, Yin and Lotus walking together.

"You know, you never told me what Gift you have," Yin said.

"It's not a fighting Gift like yours, It's just some sort of healing factor," Lotus said.

"That's cool. It must come in handy."

"I guess you could say that."

"What class do we have next?" Lotus did not answer, looking a bit distant. "Lotus?"

"Hm?"

"What class do we have next?"

"Using Your Gifts class with Coach L."

"Oh, I heard some kids talking about that. They just call it gym class."

"Well, that's pretty much what it is, only we're always outside."

"Wait a second though, we have gym class after combat class?" Yin asked. "Aw, man. I'm tired already."

"You'll just have to get used to it and, well… how fit are you?"

"What?"

"Are you a fit person? You certainly look like it." Lotus ogled Yin from top to bottom.

"Uh, I guess? That's kind of a weird question, but whatever."

"Hm. Well, today is your first. Maybe Coach L. will go easy on you."

"I hope so."

Later at gym class.

The students walked outside onto the field.

"Alright," Coach announced to the group, "today we will be focusing on those whose Gifts can help with-" he paused as his eyes came across Yin. "You must be new," he said to her.

"Uh, yes sir," Yin said nervously.

"Well, care to show us what you can do?"

"Uh, I guess I can do it again."

"Again?"

"I've already shown what I can do."

"She has, sir," Lotus said. "I can vouch for her."

"Hm. Anyone else seen the new girl's Gift?" A few other students raised their hands. "Hm. Well, maybe I haven't. What is it anyway?"

"Pyrokinetic manipulation," she enunciated the syllables the best she could. "I think is what someone said it was."

"Hm…" He remembered seeing a large flame from earlier. "How large is this fire that you can create?"

"If you saw that huge fire earlier, that was me, sir."

"Ah yes. I did see that. Well, then Miss..." he paused and waited for her to say her name.

"Yin Harmony, sir."

"Well Yin, I expect great things from you." The coach walked away to instruct some other kids.

"What did he mean by that?" Yin whispered to Lotus.

"That means you have a Gift that he likes," Lotus said to back. "He likes Gifts that would be good for combat."

"Oh. Is that good or bad?"

"I'm not sure." Lotus shrugged. "I don't understand Russians and power."

27: The Auraless Boy

Later that afternoon.

Rikki and Suzy were sitting beneath their tree. He was leaning back, relaxing and she was leaning on him. She sat up when she heard someone walking down the gravel path and saw Lotus walking with someone they hadn't met.

"Oh, hey Lotus," Suzy said. This caused Rikki to sit forward and look over as Lotus and Yin came over.

"Hello guys," Lotus said. "This is Yin."

"Hello," Suzy said with a smile.

"Hey," Rikki said with a laid-back wave.

"Hello!" Yin said in a sing-song way. "It's nice to meet you guys."

"Same here," Suzy said standing up and shaking Yin's hand. "So how did you guys meet?"

"Uh…" Lotus hesitated.

"I saved her from that jack-ass who was being so mean to her," Yin said.

"You did?" Suzy asked.

"Yeah. I don't like it when bullies are being mean to nice people."

"You're such a role model."

"Well… I guess you can say that," Yin said blushing slightly.

"Did you ever find out exactly who this guy is?"

"Nope, not yet."

"What did he look like?" Rikki asked.

"Oh, tallish. He had a sort of brown, blond hair. He had greenish eyes and glasses."

"Anything else? What was he wearing?"

"An orange shirt," Yin and Lotus said. Rikki looked down at his shirt then Yin started to laugh.

"It wasn't you!" she said.

"Sorry," Rikki said. "That was instinctive."

"You're funny. I can see why she loves you."

"Wait, you knew?" Suzy asked her.

"Naw, I just saw the way you two sit together. Only true lovers would sit together like that."

"I'm sorry Yin, but do you know what love even feels like?" Rikki asked her.

"Hey!" Suzy scolded. "Don't be rude."

"No," Yin said. "It's fine."

"Well do you?" Rikki asked.

"I did," she said after a few moments.

"What happened?" Suzy asked.

"I'm sorry. I don't want to talk about it." There was a sad expression on her face.

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"Come on, cheer up," Lotus said. "You have all of these new friendships to look forward to."

"Yeah," Yin said with a smile coming back. "I guess you're right." Just then, there was a weird, gurgling noise coming from the nearby bush. "Did that bush just-?" Yin asked but Rikki dismissed her by sighing and nodding as he recognized the sound of his brother's stomach growling. He walked over to the bush and reached down into it, grabbed a hold of something and he pulled it up. Sure enough, it was Dan.

"What the hell are you doing?" Rikki asked him.

"I was looking for Florida?" Dan said with a sheepish shrug.

"In the bushes?"

"What, she can't be at one with nature?" Rikki dropped him onto the ground.

"Dude, just get the hell outta here and go get yourself something from the snack bar." Dan then stood up.

"I was gonna check there next," he defended, brushing leaves off his shoulder. "Thank you very much."

"There's a snack bar?" Yin asked.

"Yeah. They have a lot of cool stuff, then dinner gets served a couple of hours later."

"Let's go get something then, I am so hungry." They all then started walking toward the snack bar, not seeing Florida hanging upside down from the tree above the bench.

"Guys?" she asked.

At the snack bar.

Yin was adoring everything that was laid out.

"Wow, there's a lot of good stuff here. How do they make the food last?" Yin said looking around. She then saw Carlyta standing there.

"Well, some of the fruits and vegetables are grown here actually," Carlyta said to her.

"That's cool. I bet they taste really good."

"Well, you won't know for sure unless you try one for yourself," Carlyta said with a laugh. Yin picked up an apple and she took a bite. It was really tasty and it had the right amount of juice.

"This is…" Yin was at a loss for words.

"Good?"

"Yeah. How do you get these so good?"

"I grow them myself."

"How do you have enough for every day?"

"Ah, now you see, that's where I come in. My Gift allows me to control the growth rate of all sorts of plants. It may not seem like much of a Gift, but when it comes to fruit-bearing plants, I can get the perfect apple, pear, or orange every time. Your teacher, Professor Hawking has the same Gift. He's good at getting the vegetables just right. Working together in the garden allows us to have nearly an infinite amount of fruits and vegetables."

"This place is amazing."

"Aw thank you. You're sweet." Just then Jack walked over.

"Ah, Ms Harmony, I see you've met my wife," he said.

"Mm-hm," Yin said. "The food here is good Mr Trades."

"I told her already," Carlyta said.

"I see," Jack said. "Well Yin, if you have any other questions, feel free to ask us whenever either one of us are available."

"I will sir," Yin said. She grabbed a chocolate bar and sat back down with Lotus, Rikki, and Suzy. "Oh, boy!" she enthused. "I haven't had a candy bar in over a month." She eagerly ripped open the wrapper and she took a bite. "Mm. I miss the sweet taste of chocolate."

"Why haven't you had candy for a month?" Rikki asked.

"I don't know. I guess I just haven't gotten around to getting any," she said with a laugh.

"Well don't overload yourself."

"Okay." The candy was then gone with nothing left but a torn up wrapper. "That was good."

"Well save some room for dinner," Rikki laughed.

"What is for dinner?"

"Pizza," a voice said. "It's pizza again." They all looked over toward the sound of the voice. It was Aoi.

"Hey Aoi," Suzy said.

"Hey everyone," she said with a small smile. She and Yin met eyes. "Hey."

"Hi," Yin said. Lotus gasped. "What is it?" She pointed across the room. There, sitting at a table alone, was a boy wearing an orange shirt with the same sort of dirty blond hair that Yin had described. She clenched her fists and stood up to confront him.

"Are you crazy?" Rikki asked.

"I wouldn't," Aoi said. "He could be dangerous." Yin took a step but Lotus grabbed her arm.

"Wait," she said looking closer. This boy seemed slightly different. His hair was the same colour but in a different style. He stood up and walked toward the exit, nearing their table. His face didn't show the same sort of arrogant smugness that she remembered, but instead, it showed sadness. Yin walked up to him with a smile but he stepped back a bit.

"Hello!" she said in a friendly way. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

"Uh..." he said with soft uncertainty as Yin continued to smile. Not sure what to do, he turned and walked away leaving Yin and the others with confused expressions.

"What's wrong with him?" Yin asked herself.

"I'll say," Lotus agreed. "He just left. How rude."

"There was something off about him though," Suzy said.

"What do you mean?" Rikki asked.

"I peeked into his mind and memories. He's gone through so much pain, but he's hurt others too. People close to him."

"So he did attack me," Lotus said.

"Maybe, maybe not. I couldn't tell."

"Hm," Lotus thought to herself for a minute. "I'm not sure what his Gift is, but he's felt a lot of pain. Now he's just weak emptiness," she said, regretting calling him rude earlier.

"How can you tell that?" Rikki asked.

"His aura," she answered. "I can sense people's aura and he… well, for some reason… he has none."

"Wait, that's a Gift?"

"No. It's just a skill."

"Wow. No aura?"

"Not even a trace."

"But I thought it was that stuff that connects living things."

"Yes and no. It's a little hard to explain, but… well…" she groaned, forgetting it. "Dammit. Just look it up."

"But how can he not have an aura?"

"I don't know. We'll have to ask him ourselves." Yin walked out the door the boy had left and looked around for him, but he was nowhere to be seen. She shrugged and walked back to the group.

"I couldn't find him," she told them.

"That's because he's with me," Jack's voice said as he walked back to the group.

28: Splitting Image

"He's with you?" Yin asked.

"Yes, Ms Harmony," Jack said. "He is. Why do you ask?"

"We just wanted to talk to him."

"We?"

"Yes. Us." She gestured to Lotus and the others. Jack thought for a moment before checking his watch.

"Alright. I'll see what I can do." Jack walked toward his office with the group following. They waited inside the office while Jack stepped into a room next to his office. The boy was sitting at the table with a magazine, looking at Jack. "They want to talk to you again," he whispered. The boy looked over and met his eyes with Yin. He said something to Jack, but they couldn't hear it. Jack walked away and nodded to them. Yin came over to the table and sat down by him. He avoided her eyes.

"Hello again," Yin said in the same friendly manner. The boy sat in his chair and avoided her eyes. She stepped closer to him. He turned away from her. Yin stepped back into his line of sight while the others watched. "Hey," she said with a small laugh. "Come on, Guy. I won't bite." He glanced up at her.

"I'm sure you're a nice person," he said with a soft voice. "I'm not scared of you." Yin lost her smile.

"So what's wrong then?"

"I'm scared of hurting you."

"What do you mean?" she asked, sitting down in front of him.

"Please. If you value your life, then stay away from me." Yin stared into his eyes for a few long moments.

"How do you hurt others?"

"It's not me. It's him." Lotus came over, hearing this.

"Someone who looks like you assaulted me in the hallway," she said. "Do you have a twin brother or something?" The boy's face changed and he looked up to her in the eyes.

"He attacked you?"

"Uh… yeah. He who?"

"I'm sorry!"

"Hey, it's alright. I just want to know who he is."

"Okay. I call him 'Evil Me'." They exchanged a few weird glances.

"Why?"

"You know, because of his stupid attitude and hatred toward others."

"Yeah, I figure," Yin giggled.

"Yeah. He looks like you only his hair is different," Lotus said.

"I know," the boy said. Jack watched as this boy began to open up to them, learning more about him.

"So what do you know about him?" The boy sighed.

"Well... he's a… part… of me. See, I have to control my emotions but if I have too much of a negative emotion…" he paused to take a breath. "Oh, the pain. I have to rid myself of it somehow, of all the negativity. All of the negative energy gets channelled into him. He's the physical incarnation of all about me that is wrong, immoral," he paused again. "Evil. I'm sorry he attacked you. I do my best to keep him under control… until I have to lose it all."

"That explains why you have no aura."

"Hm?" he asked, looking up at her.

"You have no aura because you have been split into two separate entities. You must be one with yourself to have an aura."

"How do you know I don't have an aura?"

"Because I can see and read people's aura."

"That's a beautiful Gift."

"It's not a Gift. It's just a skill."

"Tell me, next time you see him and I'll try to take care of him."

"But wait, there's a flaw," Aoi said.

"What do you mean?"

"If he's your bad side then all you should be able to feel is nothing but happiness and contentment. Right?"

"I can see what you mean, but that's not how it works. There must be inner balance."

"What do you mean?" Suzy asked.

"I have to have inner emotional balance. So there's a space that must be filled."

"How do you fill it? Which emotion would you fill it with?"

"Nothing." He paused. "Nothing but sadness and emptiness."

"Aw," she said holding his hand. He blushed and looked away. Jack stepped back over to the table.

"Dinner is being served in half an hour," Jack said. "Aaron, I think you should remain in here for now."

"Okay," the boy said.

"Your name is Aaron?" Yin asked.

"Yeah."

"That's a nice name," she said with a smile. Aaron gave a small smile back, and for the first time, she saw happiness shine in his light-green eyes from behind his glasses.

Later.

Everyone was getting their pizza. Yin got herself a slice and she then got another one and put it on another plate.

"What are you doing that for?" Jaylen asked her.

"I want to take this to Aaron," she said.

"Will Jack let you?"

"I'm sure he will." Yin walked to Jack's office where he was working behind his desk. He looked up when she came in.

"Ms.-"

"If Aaron hasn't had dinner yet, then I wanted to give him this," she said interrupting him.

"Alright," he said with a small smile. He stood up and walked over to the door which led to the room Aaron was in. Just as he reached for the doorknob, they both heard a groan followed by a crash. Jack instinctively threw open the door and they found Aaron doubled over on the floor, twitching in pain.

"Oh, Lord!" Jack exclaimed.

"Shit! Aaron! What's wrong?!" Yin asked.

"H… he's… he's out!" Aaron said between groans.

"What? Who?" Jack asked.

"E… Evil…" he coughed up some blood.

"What!?"

"Evil him!" Yin said. "He's the one who attacked Lotus!" Just then, they heard another scream from the other side of the building.

"Oh, God, what now?!" Jack asked as he ran out of the room. Aaron was still screaming in pain. Yin wanted to stay with him, but she also wanted to know what else had happened.

"Mrs Trades!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.

"What is it?" she yelled as she came into the room. She gasped at the sight of Aaron who seemed to be dying on the floor. "What happened?"

"The evil half of him is out!"

"Oh, God! Was he the one who assaulted that friend of yours?"

"Yeah! Can you help him?"

"I don't think so."

"Wha-Will he live?" Yin asked as tears formed in her eyes.

"I-I don't know!"

"We have to help him!"

"Let's get him to the infirmary." Filled with adrenaline, Yin was able to pick Aaron up and carry him, still wincing at the pain as he took shallow breaths.

On the other side of the building.

Jack ran into the hallway toward the source of the scream. There he saw a boy who looked like Aaron, only his hairstyle was different. It was long and covered half of his face.

"Hello, Jack," the boy said in Aaron's voice, but in a threatening way. He was holding a girl against the wall.

"H-how the hell do you even exist?"

"Ask Aaron… if he hasn't died of the pain yet," he said with an evil, arrogant grin.

In the infirmary.

Yin lay Aaron down on a bed.

"Oh, God! The pain!" he yelled twitching violently. "D...damn... this fu-" he gasped "p...PAIN!"

"Aaron, calm down, please, I know it hurts, but you have to calm down."

"I… can't! It… hurts… too... damn... much!"

Back in the hall.

Jack stared at the other half, not knowing what to do.

Other students ran to him. It was Rikki and the others.

"Lookie, Jack… your army's here to help," he said mockingly. His attention was drawn away from his victim who was able to crawl away from him.

"Back away!" Jack commanded, to them not looking away from Evil Me.

"You can't destroy him!" Suzy said. "He's part of Aaron!"

"If anything, he needs to back in," Aoi said, "And Aaron is going to have to learn control."

Infirmary.

Aaron was still in agonizing pain. Then, he felt as if something had left him from the inside. He gasped and went wide-eyed before passing out.

"Aaron?" Yin asked. "Aaron?!" She shook his shoulder, tears forming in her eyes. "Aaron! Damn it Aaron don't you fucking die!" Her hands glowed with a reviving heat. She put her hands on his chest in futile attempts to try to revive him. She was screaming and crying, trying to bring him back. Carlyta gasped.

"Yin, stop!" she cried, afraid she might accidentally kill him. She pulled Yin away from Aaron's unconscious body.

"No!" Yin cried and she wrenched free from her hands and continued. Carlyta had to act fast. She took a hypodermic needle with a sedative and she put it in Yin's back. Yin came away from Aaron and her vision began to fade.

"Damn it... Aaron... no," she said weakly before she finally succumbed to the sedative, passing out on the floor.

"Oh Yin, I'm so sorry," Carlyta said to her unconscious body. 

In the hall.

Evil Me stopped laughing as he felt something. He felt like he was free from something. His grin then grew as wide as he possibly could. He then laughed triumphantly.

"The connection has been severed," he said looking at himself. "Finally." They knew that whatever had just happened, wasn't good. "I. AM. FREE!" He sighed contently. "At last."

29: Just Visiting

Jack stared at Evil Aaron, not knowing what to do. The evil half stood there laughing menacingly as they were unsure exactly what to do.

"We have to find a way to get them to join back together," Rikki said.

"How do we do that?" Jack asked.

"I'm not sure."

"We do have one advantage though," Lotus spoke up.

"And that is?" Jack asked her.

"I've read about something like this happening to someone before, and if this is like that case, then Aaron's split-half can only go so far from his real body. Aaron's evil half won't be able to get very far." Upon hearing this, Aaron's evil half started to run in the other direction. He only got halfway down the hallway before being thrown backwards by some force. He sat up and spat curse words at the invisible wall.

"We're disconnected!" he yelled at Lotus. "Why can't I go?!"

"Because you're either not entirely disconnected or I was right in that you can only go so far," Lotus said calmly but with a stern expression. Evil Aaron growled and he stomped down the hall and he shoved his way through them, but Jack grabbed his shoulder.

"Don't think you're going to be getting away that easily," Jack said to him. Evil Aaron stared at him with a look of silent rage and Jack dragged the evil half to the room by his office and he sat him down in the chair, locking the door behind him as he left. He walked back to the infirmary where he found Carlyta caring for Aaron. He looked down and saw Yin unconscious on the floor.

"Sorry Honey, she freaked out and I had to sedate her," she said.

"I understand. You did what you had to." He carefully picked Yin up. "I'll take her to her room." Carlyta nodded.

A while later.

Yin awoke to feel dizzy. She found herself laying on her bed in her dorm room. Lotus was by the kitchenette and she came in with a kettle of tea. Yin groaned and put her hand on her forehead. "What the hell happened?"

"When you tried to revive Aaron, Carlyta sedated you," Lotus said handing her a cup of tea.

"What... why?" she asked, as Lotus helped her sit up with mild shortness of breath.

"Well, you could have killed him."

"No! I would never!" she said, getting out from under the cover and standing up, only to have a massive migraine. She groaned and held her head, falling to the floor. "Ow, my head."

"Careful!" Lotus said, getting down on her knees holding an ice pack to Yin's forehead. "You may still be feeling the effects of the sedative." Yin groaned and took the ice pack from her.

"No shit, Sherlock. What was your first clue?" she groaned angrily.

"Sorry," Lotus said regrettably and Yin sighed.

"Me too." She placed the pack back on her forehead and there was a momentary silence between them. "I wanna go see Aaron."

"Jack promised us that we could visit him in the infirmary before we go to bed later."

"Really?"

"Mm-hm," she nodded. "You have been out for a few hours." There was a knock at their door. Lotus stood up and answered it. It was Aoi.

"You want to see Aaron? Cuz' Jack's letting us visit him in the infirmary."

"Are we all going to see him?"

"Yeah," Suzy said appearing behind Aoi. "We're all going."

"Alright," Lotus said, walking back to Yin. "Come on." Lotus slowly helped Yin to her feet and they walked behind the others. Yin held Lotus's hand for balance.

Outside the infirmary.

Rikki, Suzy, Aoi, Lotus and Yin were standing outside the room where Aaron was.

"Stay out here," Jack told them. "Let me check on him first." He walked in and he shut the door behind him. He walked over to the bed and Aaron looked up.

"I know. They want to see me," Aaron said. Jack nodded.

"They won't be too long," he said.

"Thanks." Jack walked out of the room and allowed them in. Yin gasped and hurried over to him, ignoring her pounding headache, when she saw he was awake.

"Aaron!" she said taking his hands in hers, crying tears of joy. "I was so scared that you were gonna die."

"You were?" he asked.

"Yeah. I… I was yelling at you. Telling you not to die."

"I know." She brought herself away from him and looked at him with disbelief.

"Y-you knew?!"

"Yeah. I could hear you."

"H-how?!"

"When people are unconscious, they can still hear anything around them," Aoi explained.

"Oh," Yin said going a little red-faced. "Sorry for yelling… at you." She bowed in front of him. "Please forgive me!"

"Hey," he said, taking her hand. "It's okay. Really."

"Besides," Rikki said joining in, "I'm sure it would take more than what you went through to get rid of you."

"Hm," Aaron said with a laugh. "It would take a hell of a lot more than that to kill me."

"What can we do to keep it from happening to you again?" Suzy asked. Aaron fell silent.

"I don't know," he answered.

Yin then noticed that Aaron had a broken arm.

"How'd you break your arm?" she asked him.

"I broke it when I fell off the chair."

"Aw. Does it hurt any?"

"No, it's alright." She hugged him.

"At least you're okay."

"Thanks." Jack then walked in.

"Come on students, let the man rest," Jack told them. As the others left the room, Yin quickly leaned in and kissed Aaron on the forehead, her cheeks reddened slightly.

"Sweet dreams," she whispered to him. Then she walked out of the room. Jack gave Aaron a slightly wry grin.

"Aaron, You're not even blushing," he said.

"Why would I be?" he asked and Jack laughed lightly.

"Sorry. Rest well." Jack shut the light off and he walked out with the door closing silently behind him. Aaron lay his head back and closed his eyes.

"Now I'm the lucky bastard," he said to himself, smiling. "About damn time, too."

30: Aaron's Dimension Lesson

The next morning. Yin was up early. She walked down to the cafeteria and she was it was empty, except for one soul. It was Aaron. She gasped happily and ran over to him.

"Hey," she said, hugging him from behind.

"Hey," he said relatively unsurely, trying to turn around. Yin let go of him and he faced her. "Yin, right?" Yin cried out in dismay, dropping her jaw wide-eyed. 

"You...you've forgotten me?" Tears formed in the corners of her eyes.

"No!" he said quickly, not wanting her to cry. "I know you! You're Yin Harmony!"

"Oh," she said, her cheeks red with embarrassment, but then a pouting expression came to her face. "You almost made me cry, you jerk."

"I'm sorry," Aaron said exasperatedly. "It was only a joke. I shouldn't have done that, I'm sorry."

"Fine," she said crossing her arms. "You're forgiven. But yes, I am Yin Harmony." Aaron let out a sigh of relief.

"So uh, why are you up so early?"

"I want to get a head start on the day." She then noticed the cast on his arm. "You got a cast?"

"Yeah, but it makes it hard to do some of the easiest things." He was at the breakfast bar trying to get some food. "I can't get the bacon," he said with a sheepish expression.

"Here cool guy," Yin said laughing, "let me help." She took his plate and she used the tongs to get some bacon and she put it on his plate. "That enough?"

"Yeah thanks," he said as he grabbed a bottle of milk from the mini-fridge. Aaron walked over and sat down at the table by the window. Yin set his plate down in front of him. "Thanks."

"No problem," she said with a wink. Aaron ate his bacon and eggs while Yin enjoyed a stack of pancakes. "So, tell me a bit more about yourself," she said after a while, staring at him endearingly. Aaron blushed slightly and looked away.

"Um, uh..."

"That's okay," she giggled. "You don't have to if you don't want to."

"No no, it's fine. Let's see… uh well, my name is Aaron, but you already know that." Yin laughed. "I grew up in the Midwest and my favourite colour is orange."

"Yay! I love orange!"

"I can tell." He looked over and he saw a few more students who were working their way over toward the breakfast bar. "I see others are getting up."

"Mr Aaron," a voice said behind him. Aaron looked behind him and he saw Jack standing there.

"Headmaster Trades," he said.

"Do you think that you can get to class today without any incidents?"

"I'll be fine," he said a little quickly so he added, "sir."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"Hm. Alright. But just to be on the safe side, Ms Harmony, would you care to escort Mr Aaron to his classes?"

"It would be my honour, sir," she said.

"Fair enough. Take care now," he said as he walked off. Rikki and Suzy sat down with their breakfast.

"It's nice to see you," Rikki said.

"Nice to see you too," Aaron said to him.

"Hi Aaron," Suzy said to him with a smile.

"Morning." One by one the others joined the table. Lotus, Aoi, Cass, and even Kilo and Chyanne, who stopped fighting long enough to meet Aaron, said hello. They were enjoying some small talk when Aaron was interrupted by someone putting their hand on his shoulder.

"Well, well, well," a voice said. "So this is the boy with the evil twin."

"Hello, Daniel," Aaron said, not looking at the person standing behind him. The group went silent and Dan's eyes went wide.

"Whoa! Wait, how the hell do you know my name?" Dan leaned over and looked Aaron in the eyes.

"Rikki told me."

"Yeah, but I didn't tell you his full name," Rikki said.

"Allow me to explain. I am a fifth-dimensional being," Aaron said. "I can be everywhere at once, so I already know everyone's name."

"Omnipotence," Aoi noted.

"Aye."

"So you say you know everyone's name? What's mine?" Florida asked in her Irish accent.

"You are Ms Florida Gators. You're Irish, and your parents immigrated to America when you were 5 years old." She leaned in and looked at him in the eyes.

"How the bloody hell do you do it?"

"I just explained. I'm fifth dimensional."

"You're so amazing," Yin said.

"Thanks, love." Yin blushed at his words.

"If you're omnipotent, then what am I?" Aoi asked, genuinely curious.

"You can see things before they happen."

"Yeah."

"That's foresight. So you, Ms Hashimoto, are fourth dimensional. Our powers are just about equal."

"Damn, that's cool."

"It is quite interesting."

"Hold on a minute, if you're omnipotent, then that means that you can see into our rooms!" Lotus said.

"What?" Aaron asked in disbelief.

"She does have a point," Aoi added.

"Look, before you accuse me of being perverted, on my Mother's honour, I do not do that," Aaron said. "I swear it. My Mom did not raise me like that."

"I believe you," Yin said.

"I just learned your names as I watched from that room. I will admit to that. You were all out here, talking to each other." He looked at Suzy. "You're a telepath, read my mind."

"You're telling the truth," Suzy said, peeking into his head. "He is." Then the others believed him too.

"See, I told you telepaths come in handy." Everyone laughed, and before they all readied themselves for class they signed Aaron's cast.

31: Flame the Cat

Yin and Aaron were able to get through the first two classes without incident and then lunchtime came. She helped carry Aaron's food to the table.

"Thanks," he said.

"No problem. I like it cuz' they let us go early."

"Yeah. It's great." He looked out the window. "Aw, look at that." Yin looked out the window as well. Aside from the grey clouds, she noticed the small white specks of ice falling toward the ground.

"It's snowing."

"I like it when it snows."

"Why do you like it?"

"Because it reminds me of Christmas."

"Well, it is late November."

"And I heard that we get to go back to Secret City for the Christmas Festival."

"Where'd you hear that?"

"Jack was talking to himself just now, as he noticed the snow."

"Well, Aaron, you are not wrong," Jack's voice said from behind them. "I understand your capabilities, but I'm going to ask you to please mind people's personal space, alright?"

"Yes, sir," Aaron said.

"Good. Enjoy the rest of your classes." Lunch later ended and they went through their other classes. Later that afternoon, they bundled up in their coats and walked outside to marvel at the falling white. Just then, Yin saw something run by her feet.

"What was that?" Yin asked. Aaron ran after it and he stopped as he bent over and he picked something up. "What is it?"

"Do you like cats, Yin?"

"Yeah?" She gasped, as she hoped that he was holding a cat. "Is it a-?"

"Yep!" Aaron said turning around and showing the tiny orange cat he had in his hands.

"Can we keep him?" Yin asked, giving Aaron puppy dog eyes. He paused momentarily as Yin took the cat and pet it. Aaron then facepalmed.

"Headmaster Trades does not allow pets!" he remembered.

"Aw," Yin pouted sadly. "But I can't send him home." Her eyes began to water.

"Why not?"

"Because… I don't have one… my parents and my family are dead." A tear made its way down her cheek and fell from her anguishing face, freezing before it hit the ground where it shattered it into countless, tiny ice shards.

"I'm… I'm so sorry." He hugged her. "Let me talk to him. Maybe I can get him to see reason." Aaron walked inside and Yin sat down on the bench underneath the deck's roof with the cat. She looked at it and it looked back. She smiled as she stroked its soft, orange fur.

"Flame," she said, naming the cat, and it purred in response. She hugged it close to her and Aaron came back outside.

"Alright, the bad news is we can't keep him here, but there's a nice couple in Secret City who are willing to do some long-term care for him. Would that be alright?" Yin looked at the cat and she nodded.

"Yes. Thanks."

"I can call the pet delivery service. Don't worry they're the best in the entire world and Secret City is only a few hours from here, so Flame won't be too far."

"Okay." She pulled out a collar with a small Yin and Yang charm on it and put it around the cat's neck. "Be good okay?" she asked the cat as she pets it again.

"I'm sure Damianus and Emmalyn would be happy to care for him."

"You do know that Flame's a girl, right?" she smirked at him as Aaron looked up from his phone and stared at her with a slight frown. She then started laughing and Aaron's face lit up as he couldn't help laughing either.

"He laughs."

"I do indeed."

"I'm glad to see you happy."

"I am too. It feels... good." Yin smiled and she looked at the sky as snow continued to slowly fall from the high clouds above.

"I'm sure it does."

Later the pet delivery service came up and Yin gave the lady the cat and the address of Damianus and Emmalyn's shop.

"Don't worry Miss, I'll get her where she needs to go, all warm and safe."

"Thank you so much," Yin said to her. "Stay good Flame!" she said to the cat as the lady carried her over to her car. Flame was gently placed on a warm blanket in a box, buckled to the back seat of the car. They watched as the lady climbed into the car and drove off.

"I miss her already," Yin said, slowly wrapping her arm around Aaron.

"Don't worry, when we all take a trip back to Secret City before Christmas, we can see her again."

"Yay."

32: The North City Harbor

Somewhere in the harbour of North City.

"How could you dumb-asses let them escape?!" a man yelled at his group of henchmen standing in a line in front of him.

"We-we w-weren't h-here, s-s-sir," one of them shakily said to his boss, who looked like a demon. He was tall, thin, his skin was smoothly flat and almost grey. He had long jet-black hair that covered half of his face which was lined with scars. His red eyes glowed evilly. He picked up the man who had spoken and he threw him across the warehouse, screaming as he flew through the air until he landed in a pile of metal drums.

"Find them!" The henchmen scrambled trying to do what they were told.

"Victor, what are you yelling about?" a female voice asked. She had blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing a revealing outfit with a collar around her neck.

"Shut up Serina!" Victor yelled behind him. The woman stopped and gasped, her eyes welling with tears in fear. She turned and started to walk away. "Get back here!" he commanded. She drew in her breath and stopped where she stood. "NOW!" She briskly walked back to him, whimpering. "How long were they gone?"

"T-the-they've b-been g-gone f-f-for a-a while n-now." He waited. "S-sir!"

"How long is a while?!" he yelled, pausing between words.

"A-a-a f-few m-months." He paused for a few moments.

"Tell me… again. Exactly what happened."

"Th-they came by a-and they got th-them out."

"I need details!"

"Th-They came by and they saved the girl and that other guy we had locked up!"

"More! Dammit! I need to know what happened!"

"Jack and some students came and got their girlfriend back and they took the other prisoner we had with them!" She shut her eyes and yelled out. "They rescued the Garrison girl and my son!" There was a few moments of silence. She opened one eye, then the other. He was looking at her with his normal expression as he stepped toward her. She looked up at him in the eyes and she gulped out of fear. At an inhuman speed, he raised his arm and he smacked her across the face, leaving her cheek red. She exhaled at the impact as her head was forced to the side. She slowly brought her head back to face him. His expression showed a little more anger. Even though she was promised life for her and her son so long as she did as she was told, he had never really hurt her, let alone physically hit her. She continued to stare at him with her surprised and angry expression which was slowly turning to sadness. Her eyes welled with tears.

"Are you gonna cry now?" he asked her. She absentmindedly nodded and she started to cry. He shoved her onto the ground. She hit the ground and she continued to cry. "You're a disgrace." He walked away and left her on the ground. Her tears stained the concrete floor beneath her. He had some men surround her. "Lock her up where she won't be a nuisance," he commended them. They grabbed Serina by the shoulders and they dragged her to another small room. She did nothing to resist. They threw her inside and she lay there crying. The door was slammed shut behind her and locked. Victor felt nothing for her. He walked back to his office, which was an old TV sitting on a tabletop on the ground, as the table legs themselves had long ago collapsed. There were a few old chars in front of the TV with some people sitting in them.

"What now, Vic?" one of them asked.

"Xane, it's time we executed my plan."

"Your plan of attack?"

"Damn right. We leave tomorrow."

33: Return of the Enemy

The late November day went by normally. In the middle of her third class, Aoi suddenly saw a hellish vision. She saw multiple cars pull up to the school and several shadowed people getting out. Then she saw the school, which was nothing but cinders and rubble, with dead bodies lying around and with one person standing triumphantly at the top, but she couldn't tell who it was. She knew she had to say something and she raised her hand.

"What?" Coach L. asked.

"I have to go talk to the Headmaster," she said.

"Hm. How important is this?"

"Coach please, we could all be dead in the next few minutes." Everyone's eyes widened and some exchanged a few worried murmurs. 

"Is that a threat?" he asked, walking up to her.

"Not from me, but someone else."

"Who else?" Aoi decided that she didn't have time to answer so she ran inside. "Hey! Get back here!" He caught up with Aoi just as she entered Jack's office. "What do you think you are doing?!"

"I'm saving our damn lives!" she yelled.

"What now, Ms Hashimoto?" Jack asked her.

"I think Victor's coming."

"What?!"

"Victor's coming God damn it!"

"To do what?"

"To kill. Us. All!" Jack looked into her eyes. They showed honest determination with a hint of fear. Jack picked up his phone and sent a message to Ailsa. A moment later, Aaron came into the office.

"What is it, Headmaster?" he asked.

"Aoi says that Victor is coming." Aaron closed his eyes and reached out with his omnipotent mind. He saw vehicles speeding down the highway toward the school. "Is he?"

"Black vehicles, people who use their Gifts for evil... it must be."

"Damn. I'll call the Order. I'll get as many members as I possibly can. Dmitri, Aaron, and Ms Hashimoto, you need to go alert the other students and teachers. This is a matter of life and death." Aoi and Aaron nodded and ran back outside with Coach L. following. Jack went to his phone, sent a message to the teachers, and called the Order.

Outside.

Aoi was telling everybody about what she saw. A few believed her. Most didn't. She had to let the teachers convince them that this was a matter of life and death. Jack was done placing the call and he went outside to gather all the students inside. When he was done counting everyone as they headed inside, that's when he heard the noise. The sound of multiple engines. Countless armoured, black trucks appeared coming down the driveway. Jack froze with fear, recognizing the logo of a demon-like bird that was spray-painted on all of the vehicles. It was Victor. He then heard another sound. The sound of something dive-bombing through the air. A black blur appeared in the sky and it plunged onto the ground leaving no mark or crater whatsoever. The figure stood up and looked at Jack with its evil-looking wings shrinking back.

"Hello… my old friend," Victor said. Jack had found his courage and he stood his ground.

"Victor," he spat. His angrily stern expression was met by one of pure evil and arrogance.

34: The Stand-Off

"Where's your army, Jack?" Victor asked with mock confusion as he walked toward the man. "I heard you had at least 200 of them. And I see not one!" There was a mock surprise in his voice.

"Shut up!" Jack spat at him.

"Oh, come now. You think that we can get over our problems, just by yelling at each other?" Jack whipped out a pistol from his belt and he pointed it straight at Victor. Victor looked at it and laughed. "You think you can stop me with that?"

"Try me," Jack said. "Take one more step and you die."

"Suit yourself," Victor shrugged and Jack pulled the trigger. The was silence as the sound of the gunshot dissipated from the air. Victor looked down and saw the hole in his chest.

"Ooh, right in the heart!" he said. The hole was closing over by itself and it spat the bullet out as it healed. Victor looked at the bullet. "You know, even without my healing ability, this would do little to stop me. Heh. Pathetic. You always have been and you always will be." Just then Carlyta came running out.

"Carlyta, stay back!" Jack said looking at her. Victor was already looking at her and he flicked the bullet toward her. Jack quickly did calculations and he was able to fire another round at the precise moment to hit the other bullet and both fell meaninglessly onto the ground.

"Wow, you are good," Victor said. "I guess you're not as pathetic as I had thought."

"Well, your arrogance made you wrong. You always have been, and you always will be," Jack said with a smirk.

"You're wrong again. I have an army. You and every single one of your precious students will die. Every. Single. ONE!"

"Well then," a voice said, "It's a good thing I have a girlfriend." Jack turned around. It was Rikki and all of his friends.

"HA!" Victor laughed. "That's your reinforcements? You're hilarious!" he was laughing evilly.

"You can't win against us!" Xane laughed as he threw a fireball at Rikki. Rikki simply caught it and absorbed all of the heat and kinetic energy. Xane looked at him dumbfounded.

"Yeah!" Rikki said with a smirk. "That felt great! Come on, throw another one!" He stood like a baseball player, ready to catch a fly ball, with an excited smirk on his face.

"Don't," Victor said to Xane. "That won't work on him." His eyes fell onto Suzy and Xane smiled.

"But they'll work on his girlfriend!" he yelled as he threw one at Suzy. Rikki stepped in front and absorbed that one too.

"Dammit!" Xane yelled.

He's going to be hard to beat, Victor thought to himself. I'll have to separate him and his girlfriend. He looked at some of the others, thinking that even though he didn't know what sort of power they had, they would still be no match for him. He pulled out a blade and threw it at Lotus. She yelled at the impact but she pulled the blade from her chest and her she healed over. Victor took this note and Jack knew what he was doing.

"Damn it, he's testing them," he said to himself. He fired his gun at Victor again, but Victor knew Jack and he knew this was just a distraction to get him away from the students. Victor continued what he was doing until he had pushed Jack to the limit.

"Students!" Jack yelled, "fight wisely." The students who had all the pent up rage from wanting to fight charged forward. Whether they were on fire or flying straight at Victor. Victor had some of his armies run forward to retaliate. The students used the defensive techniques that they had learned and Jack noticed that they were using what they had been taught to fight. He momentarily felt proud. He looked at Victor with a smirk. Carlyta was watching with careful eyes to see if any student needed medical help. Victor looked at his army then at the students.

"Impressive, Jack. What have you been teaching them?" Victor asked him.

"Just some defensive moves," Professor Drogo Hawking said appearing behind him with his arm reeled back and he threw it forward, landing a punch right in the middle of Victor's face.

"Is that all you have?" Victor asked him. Hawking didn't answer him and Victor grabbed the man by the collar and he threw him across the field. After some more of Victor's henchmen had been falling from the students' attacks, his army started to draw back, leaving just some people who were Victor's most trusted followers. They were each standing by a car that they called their own. Rikki wasn't surprised to see them look like they were so rich. After seeing them, Jack had the majority of his students back off and had Rikki and the others come forward. After Carlyta rounded up the other students she tended to Professor Hawking. Victor's followers lined up with Rikki, Suzy, Dan, Florida, Aoi, Cass, Kilo, Chyanne, Jaylen, Luuk, Lotus, and Kora. For some reason, Aaron and Yin were nowhere to be found. Jack looked around for them, but he didn't see them anywhere.

"Stop!" a loud voice said. Everyone looked toward the front doors of the school, where the voice had come from. Jack and the rest of them gasped at what they saw as the person stepped outside. Aaron's evil half was holding Yin, who was crudely bound at the wrists, in his arms with one hand over her mouth. In his other hand, he was holding a knife pressed up to her neck. "Give up, Jack…" he said as they looked at him helplessly. "Give up… or she dies!"

35: The Wait For Death

Yin was helpless with her wrists tied together, and Evil Aaron's strength was too great for her to fight out of his arms. She couldn't say anything either, because his hand was over her mouth. She felt truly helpless for the first time in many years.

"Y...Yin!" a weak voice called from inside. Evil Aaron looked behind him and he could see Aaron limping down the hallway. Evil Aaron had managed to get out of the locked room and he immediately went for Yin and Aaron. He wanted revenge on Yin and Aaron was already weak, so he was his first target. He had found Aaron looking for any students by the library and he was able to get Yin away from him, not that she could do much about it since that if she used her Gift, she would burn the entire school down. He was able to easily beat Aaron and he then turned onto Yin. Without her fire, she was easy to beat, yet she was stubborn as heck to drag out here. Aaron made his way outside and onto the snow-covered ground where there were spots where a fire was thrown so the field looked like an absolute mess. Aaron stumbled his way over to his evil half, who smirked.

"Stop," he said. "Stop or I'll kill her." He pressed the knife against her skin and Yin felt the pressure. She whimpered from under his hand, shivering from the cold. Aaron stopped walking and he continued to breathe heavily, holding his more broken arm.

"D... damn you," he hissed.

"That's right. Stay there and I won't kill her." He looked at Aaron, then back at Yin. He saw sadness in their eyes and realized something. "Oh! So that's what's going on here. It's all clear for me now. You two are in love!" He laughed insanely loud. "Aw, that's a pity. When one of you dies, you'll be without each other. Ooh, heartbreak is my favourite kind of pain." Aaron growled as Evil Aaron laughed. "You two are completely pathetic." Victor was walking over toward Evil Aaron.

"Don't move or she dies," he reminded them. "What are you?" he asked evil Aaron. "You don't appear to be like him, even though you... look like him."

"No shit," evil Aaron said. "What the hell are you and why the hell do you wanna know?"

"You might be quite useful," he said as he walked over to him. "But it's time to end this little standoff." Aaron stared at Victor as he walked toward him. Victor stood behind him and Aaron knew the inevitable was going to come, so he took a deep breath and braced himself, waiting for it. "Correct," Victor simply said to him, using telepathy he had stolen from someone a while ago, to read his mind. He pulled a long blade from his belt and everyone watched in dismay as they heard the sound of the blade being shoved through him from behind. Yin saw his eyes go wide as the tip of the blade come out from the centre of his chest. She screamed from underneath evil Aaron's hand with tears cascading down her cheeks as she watched Aaron fall to his knees. The fallen snow from yesterday was changing from its natural white to deep red.

"I'm sorry… Yin…" Aaron bloodily coughed out the words as he fell onto the ground. Victor chuckled, while Yin and everyone else stared in disbelief. Suddenly, everything surfaced as Yin began to grow angry with a low growl, so much so, that her eyes turned red and her body became covered with flames, burning the rope and Evil Aaron's hands as he yelled out in pain. Yin expelled all of the flames and started screaming at the top of her lungs. Evil Aaron did his best to get away from the spreading fire, but to no avail, as he was swallowed up by them. He disintegrated into nothing in a yell of pain and fury. All of the snow within twenty feet of Yin instantly melted and the ground burned away. Everyone but Victor moved back and started to take cover. Yin focused all of her energy and she pointed her closed fists at Victor while orange tears made of liquid fire fell from her eyes and onto the ground. Jack watched with wide eyes, knowing he had seen this before.

"Everyone get back!" he yelled to his students as all of the fire shrunk into a small orb in Yin's hands before a massive inferno at least a mile long, and nearly a mile wide exploded from her hands as she concentrated it to where Victor was standing. The blazing wall lasted for nearly 10 seconds and after she had set fire to the trees far off from the school and melted most of the snow on the campus grounds, the firewall dissipated and she collapsed onto her hands and knees, out of breath, next to Aaron's body. She heard laughing and she looked up and saw Victor, still alive and rather unaffected, aside from burned armour.

"Impressive work, little girl. That started to hurt," he said with a smug cackle. "You should join me, and with your power, we could take over the world together." She looked at him through regretful eyes and took some shaky breaths as she began to cry, her tears still steaming.

"Aaron," she sobbed weakly, "I'm sorry…damn it... I'm so… sorry. I couldn't… avenge you… I'm sorry!" Victor came over to her and he pulled out another long blade similar to the one that he killed Aaron with. Yin looked up at him, with an angry defeated look, her face still awash with hot, dry tears. "Do it!" she yelled. The others watched in dismay, as they ran forward to help.

"As you wish," Victor said as he raised his arm. All Yin could do was wait for the pain to come and go.

"I'll be with you soon, Aaron," she said, crying to herself. She closed her eyes and waited for death. "I love you."

36: For The Love of Victory

Victor raised his arm, ready to deliver the killing blow when suddenly, he felt the pain of a blade being shoved into his heart from behind. He gasped and he looked behind him. Yin and the others looked up and gasped, their expressions showing complete disbelief. It was Aaron. He had no hole in his chest and the only proof he had of being stabbed was the blood-stained shirt that had the rip where the blade came through it. He quickly picked up Yin and moved away from Victor.

"A… Aaron?" Yin asked. The others were surprised as well as they stared wide-eyed at Aaron. Victor slowly turned around.

"What the hell?" he asked, fear in his eyes. "I killed you. How are you alive?" Everyone looked on with a sigh of relief. Rikki noticed that some of Victor's followers were ready to strike at Aaron, but Rikki and the others quickly put a stop to them. Aaron put Yin down.

"It's going to take a lot more than that to kill me," he said calmly, brushing his hair back with his hand.

"Fine then! But how the hell is you alive, dammit?!"

"In the fire, Yin destroyed my other half. His destruction caused him to join back with me. Aaron and Evil Aaron are now one in the same person. I am one again."

"Of course!" Lotus said. "The destruction of your purged emotions, causes it to rejoin with you and it healed you."

"Right," Aaron said, nodding toward her and helping Yin up.

"Is… is it… you?" she asked.

"Yes. I am still the same Aaron you fell in love with a few days ago. Even my broken arm is healed." Yin burst into tears of joy.

"It is you!" They hugged each other. "Don't you ever leave me again. Damn it, Aaron, I don't want to worry about you."

"I'm sorry."

"For the love of God, just die already!" Victor yelled as he charged at Aaron from behind. Aaron grabbed Yin and he jumped out of the way. Victor missed and he stumbled and fell onto the ground. "Help me you dumb-asses!" he yelled at his followers. He stood up and looked at them. "Come on!" He knew he was looking like an idiot.

"No," one of them said.

"Jerry, what the hell, did you just say?" Victor asked a boy wearing an orange shirt, a green beanie, and blue jeans.

"I said no, Vic! I didn't sign up for this revenge shit. I'm tired of your shit! Besides, they kicked our asses. Kill them yourself."

"Don't you fools turn against me!"

"Sorry, Luv," a beautiful blonde girl said with a French accent. "I don't listen to you. I only listen to Rov," she said pointing at her car.

"You too, Saleen?"

"Oui," she said.

"I still follow you, sir," Xane said.

"Anyone else?" No one spoke up. "You… damn... traitors," he growled. "When I am through with every single one of you, you will all be begging me for dea-" he was interrupted as Jerry had manifested a lightning bolt in his hand and had run it through him. The horrific scream he made cannot be described by mere words. The electricity was shutting down his body. Victor fell to one knee. "Y… you… fu… fools!" he rasped. His vision was fading. He looked up and saw a blurry Saleen with an angry expression on her face.

"You killed my parents and forced me to do your dirty work!" she yelled at him. "Now it's your turn!" She touched her car, a metallic tan-coloured Range Rover Evoque, and it sped forward straight at Victor at such a high velocity, that it severed his head from his body at impact. The car came to a stop as she exhaled. She said something in French under her breath. Dan looked around.

"Is that it?" he asked. "Did we win?"

"It would appear so," Aoi said. Jack looked at Xane. Xane looked at Victor's headless body with a terrified expression. The others leaned in on him. He looked around, fearful for his life and he turned tail and ran, yellow like a coward. Just then some other adults wearing matching outfits arrived.

"13, we received your distress call," a man in the group said.

"It's fine, 22, everything is fine now," Jack, or 13 apparently, said. Rikki figured that in the Order you didn't have a name, you had a number.

"Are you sure?" a woman asked in an Australian accent.

"Yes, 7. We are all fine."

"Well, not Victor," Dan said. 22 looked at Dan.

"Victor? Oh, 12. How is he-whoa!" he said as he saw the headless body. "Th-that's 12?!"

"Yes," Jack said. "My old friend. Wherever he is I hope he can learn to forgive."

"Ah, I remember the day 12 went rogue. It was a tragic day indeed." Suzy then pushed her way to them.

"W-What about my Dad? What happened to my Daddy?" she asked them.

"11 was her father," Jack said.

"Oh," 7 said. "Miss, 11, your father went missing looking for 12. We lost contact with him shortly after. We found the source of his last communication and we found him, but…"

"I understand," Suzy said tearing up and her hair turning blue.

"Hey, there's no reason to be upset."

"Why not?" A tall man stepped forward and he pulled his hood back. Suzy looked at him and she gasped as she was struck with a sense of dé-ja-vú. She had seen this man before, but where? In a dream perhaps? A vision?

"Hello, Susan," he said sweetly bending down to her level. He looked a bit like her with dark blue eyes and jet black hair.

"D… daddy?" she asked. The man nodded. Suzy ran into his open arms. "Daddy!" she cried. "Why weren't you there when Mommy needed you? When I needed you?"

"I'm sorry, Susan. Truly… I am."

"Why didn't you come back?"

"Because I'm needed here." Suzy let go and she wiped her eyes.

"Mom has started to see someone else, you know," she said with her beautiful voice broken by sadness. At first, he was concerned but then he thought otherwise.

"Who?"

"Rafferty."

"My best friend. Heh, I haven't seen him in twenty years. How is Raff doing?"

"He's doing fine."

"Well then, are you and him taking good care of Mommy?"

"Mm-hm," she said nodding.

"Good," he said with a smile. I'll try to visit whenever I can.

Thanks, Daddy. I'm sure Mommy will be happy to see you again. But then again, she'll probably also be upset with you.

Oh, my little Suzy, Mommy was never mad at me when she found out that I had left.

She… wasn't?

No. She understood why I had to go. I'm sure she was sad, but she understood.

"Come on, 11," 22 said. "We have to go."

I'll stop by. I promise.

Pinky swear? Suzy held her pinky finger out.

Sure. Her father met the gesture. They hugged one last time and then the Order members disappeared. Just know this, Suzy my dear daughter, I will always watch over you. By now, Saleen was done cleaning her car of Victor's blood. Jack looked at Victor's ex-followers. 

"Now what will you people do?" he asked them simply. They all exchanged glances.

"I'm outta here man," Jerry said. Saleen and another young Russian man, called Alexsey Volikov, did not leave, however. They had decided to stick around for a while. Alexsey and Coach L. bonded rather quickly. Rikki was standing by Suzy as she was still looking off in the direction where her father walked off.

"At least I know he's alive," she said.

"I know," Rikki said as they kissed.

"Rikki, you do know that the boyfriend is supposed to have a dinner meeting with the girlfriend's parents first, right?"

"Suzy my love, I have a feeling he already knew we were dating."

"I guess you're right," she said with a smile. Yin and Aaron were together, Yin still recovering from her happy sadness.

"Um... Aaron?" she asked.

"Yeah?" he responded.

"Well... I just wanted to say... thanks. For saving me."

"You're welcome."

"And Aaron..."

"What is it?"

"I... I... I have-" Aaron interrupted by kissing her. She gasped and stared at him, her face red.

"You don't need to say anything. I know how you feel." He hugged her tightly. "And I feel the same way."

Dan and Florida kissed each other. Jack and Carlyta found each other and they kissed as well, and of course, Rikki and Suzy were kissing. Chyanne hugged her little sister. Aoi and Lotus hugged each other as well. Lotus then looked over at Luuk, who was looking in some other direction, a lonesome expression on his face. 

"Damn it, I know I'm going to regret this," she muttered to herself, with a bit of a forced smile. "Oh, what the hell. Luuk?" She walked over to him and she planted a kiss on his lips. Aoi laughed. This was a good way to celebrate victory.

37: Christmas with a Side of Gold Rings

After everything was taken care of, there was a celebration feast at the college. Now that the enemy was gone forever, everyone could live in peace. Everyone at the college anyway. All of the students enjoyed the buffet Jack and Carlyta served but the food was kept to a festive minimum because everyone saving their appetite for the Christmas feast in Secret City next month, they didn't serve turkey. They just ate chicken. Everyone was sharing small talk and general conversations. Jack was more interested in those who followed Victor. There was the tall, blond French girl, Saleen Fleur, who was a highly Gifted technopath, and Alexsey Volikov, a young Russian man who also had superintelligence.

December, in Secret City.

Today was Christmas and Jack brought the students to the Christmas Festival. The city was decorated with many coloured lights and decorations, lighting up the nice layer of snow on the ground with festive music in the air. Before the feast in the city's main community centre, Rikki stopped by a store to buy something. He met up with the others in the building a while later.

"You better get some turkey," Dan told him.

"Oh!" Rikki said as he went toward the turkey and he grabbed the last leg off the last one. "That was close," he laughed to himself as he got himself some mashed potatoes and gravy. He sat next to Suzy at their table.

"Where have you been?" Suzy asked him.

"I was buying some things," Rikki answered.

"Buying what kind of things?"

"You'll find out soon enough." Suzy's heart skipped a beat, as she wondered what exactly it could be. She resisted the urge to read his mind to see what he bought. The entire population was enjoying the city-wide feast. Yin and Aaron were sitting a few tables over enjoying their food.

"How's your turkey?" Yin asked Aaron.

"It's really good. Best I ever had," Aaron said with a smile. Yin looked over his shoulder and gasped happily. Aaron looked with his omnipotence and saw a couple walk in. The wife was carrying something and she set it on the floor. Aaron saw a familiar orange blur move along the floor and over to their table.

"Flame!" Yin enthused as she picked up her cat, holding her close to her face. "Oh, I missed you so much!" The couple then walked over to their table. It was Damianus and Emmalyn.

"Flame's been very good," Emmalyn told Yin.

"Thank you so much for bringing her," Yin said. Flame looked at the table and she jumped out of Yin's hands and onto the tabletop. A few other students nearby watched as the cat made her way over to Aaron's plate. She sat down and looked at Aaron, then at his plate. Aaron looked at Flame in the eyes and the cat looked at him, then at the plate and back up at him.

"What, you want some?" Aaron asked the cat. The cat meowed in response. Aaron took his turkey and he pulled a small piece off and he held it forward. The cat ran up and clawed into the bigger piece and it came right out of Aaron's hand. The cat grabbed it and pulled it away before Aaron could retrieve it, leaving him with the tiny piece. "Hey!" Aaron said with an upset look and Yin laughed. A few of the other kids watching laughed too.

"I guess she's hungry," Yin said. The cat was using her claws to cut off thin slices of turkey and she ate them in a refined, cat looking way.

"She's been a very nice cat, and she even help out a little," Damianus said as he and his wife sat down.

"How?" Yin asked.

"Because she's so friendly with people, she helped attract some more customers."

"Well aren't you just the nice little helper," Yin said to the cat, who looked at her as if saying 'I was a very good kitty.' She stroked her soft orange fur.

"You must like that cat," Jack said to Yin as he was walking over. "Are you the couple who took care of her?" he asked Damianus.

"Yes, Mr Trades," Damianus said, standing up and shaking his hand. "I see you've been well."

"That was very generous of you."

"Oh, it was nothing, really," Emmalyn said.

"Well then, I may have some rules to update," he said with a small smile as he walked away to some other table.

"Thanks for taking care of Flame," Yin said to them.

"No problem," Emmalyn said.

"How much do I owe you?"

"Oh you don't have to pay anything," Damianus said. "Doing something nice for someone shouldn't require any sort of payments."

"Are you sure?" Aaron asked.

"It's fine, really," Emmalyn said to him. "But I guess one thing you could do is tell us what happened a month ago at the college."

"You heard about that?" Yin asked.

"Of course," Damianus said. "The entire Gifted world heard about it, and we were students there ourselves about 15 years ago."

"You were?" Aaron asked.

"Yes," Emmalyn answered. "It was the best place in the world. Oh, I remember like it was yesterday." She closed her eyes and sighed.

"So anyway, what happened last month?" Damianus asked.

"Remember what I told you, Damian," Jack said coming back over. "Don't ask questions-"

"Yeah, I know. 'Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer to.' I remember."

"You see," Jack said to Aaron and Yin as he sat down, "We were friends, that year. It was my first year teaching there."

"Yeah. I decided that after Emma and I got engaged, we would retire and move here," Damianus said. "It was his first year and it was my last. I taught him how to be a good teacher, even though he's a few years older than I."

"I wasn't older by that much," Jack interjected with a laugh.

"Yeah," Damianus laughed. "But I was also able to hook him up with Carlyta," he emphasized her name because she had to be walking by.

"Oh, hi!" she said to them, "Damien and Emma! Are you guys talking about the good old days?"

"Yeah," Emmalyn said. "How you been?"

"I've been great. You?"

"Just fine!" They continued with their small talk for another few minutes.

"Uh, Aaron?" Yin whispered to him.

"What?" he whispered back.

"Have they completely forgotten that we're still sitting here?"

"I'm sure they know."

"Yes, we do," Jack said.

"So then tell us, what happened last month?" Damianus asked.

"You remember Victor?"

"That troubled boy?" Emmalyn asked.

"Yeah. He went "insane" all those years ago?"

"Oh, yeah."

"Well, he raised an army and he attacked the school."

"Gosh, was it bad?"

"Not at all. It was quite easy. He died but we all lived."

"How?"

"By a surprising turn from Aaron," Jack said pointing to Aaron.

"Wow, what happened?" Aaron and Yin went on to explain exactly what happened. Emmalyn sat back, astonished. "So… you almost died?" she asked Aaron.

"Yeah. Twice actually," Aaron said.

"What did it feel like?" Damianus asked. "When he stabbed you?"

"It was a pain like no other. It hurt a lot."

"Well, I imagine it did."

"So, how'd you come back?" Emmalyn asked.

"The details will have to be told another time," Aaron told her. "It's a long story."

"Oh, okay."

"I'm just so happy he didn't die," Yin said hugging Aaron's arm. "When Victor stabbed him, I thought I would lose him forever." She leaned on his shoulder and looked at him dreamily.

"I did too," Aaron said to her. "I didn't want to die." He stroked her hair.

"Aw, are you two in love?" Emmalyn asked. Aaron looked at her. Yin sighed happily and she began leaning on Aaron as if he was the softest bed in the world.

"Yeah," she breathed, "we are."

"Aw, that's so sweet. You're so cute together." Just then something caught Aaron's attention. He looked over Jack's shoulder and they all looked over to see what was going on. Yin sat up and looked.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Look in Rikki's hand," Aaron told her. She focused on his hand, seeing that he was holding a small square box.

"Is that a-?"

"Yes. He's going to propose to Suzy."

"Can he do that?"

"They are old enough," Jack said. "And I could tell by the way they are always together, that it would only be a matter of time."

"How long have they been dating?"

"Their whole life," Emmalyn answered.

"How do you know?"

"Suzy told me all about it when they stopped at our store. It's such a sweet story."

A few tables over.

Rikki was not nervous at all. He was holding the ring box between his fingers, under the table so Suzy couldn't see it. She noticed that Rikki was only holding her with his left arm.

"Rikki, you're acting weird," she said. "What's going on? What's in your hand?"

"An important question," he answered. She gasped and blushed as her heart fluttered. Rikki brought his hand out from under the table and she saw the small box. She then knew what was going to come next. Rikki climbed out of the chair and he got down on one knee. People around them gasped and looked and the whole room went quiet. "Susan Marie Garrison," Rikki said opening the box revealing a diamond ring, "will you marry me?" Suzy's face was red and she leaned in close to him.

"Is this some kind of joke?" she whispered to him.

"No, my love," he whispered back. The redness from her face disappeared.

"Yes," she said with passion and applause erupted from the entire room.

38: Promises

Everyone was applauding. Some of the students were cheering. Dan was talking to Luuk about bachelor party plans, already. Suzy was hugging Rikki with tears shining in her eyes. Jack looked around at all of the students. They were all clapping and cheering. He glanced back at Aaron and Yin and guessed that they would be next. He smiled to himself thinking about it.

The following June.

The wedding party was standing outside the outdoor chapel that was on the college grounds. It was in a special area on the tree line to the east of the college with a small gravel road leading to it. Rikki was standing in his suit with Dan as his Best Man. Suzy appointed Cass to be her Bride of Honor, so she would have to walk down the aisle with Dan, much to her dismay. Their parents had stopped being angry with each other long enough to enjoy their son's wedding. Jack was ordained as the minister and was standing next to them, while Rikki's father was telling Rikki some things.

"Make sure that you make her happy," he explained to his son. "Do everything that she says."

"I will, Dad," Rikki said with a laugh.

"Also…" he sighed, "Also, for me… if you have kids, be a good father. I want them to have the best childhood possible."

"Sure, Dad."

"That's going to be very hard though, giving your kids what I never gave you."

"Well Dad, you tried your best." His father chuckled.

"Ha, you're just like your mother." There was a brief moment of silence between them.

"Can you promise me something, Dad?"

"What's that?"

"Don't be a bad grandpa." His father roared with laughter before the guests had started to arrive so everyone took to their proper places as more and more guests arrived. The chairs that were set up began to fill as everyone signed the guest book. Jack was standing at the podium with Carlyta straightening his tie. Rikki was standing near the podium with Dan by him.

Back up at the college.

Suzy was standing there in her wedding dress. It was very beautiful on her and her deep-sea blue eyes, shown nicely from behind the veil. Her mother was standing next to her.

"I'm so happy," she said with happy tears. "It's my baby girl's wedding day."

"Thanks, Mom," Suzy said.

"I just wish your father was here to see it."

"Me too," Suzy said after a few moments. They were standing in the college main room with the Rolls-Royce waiting just outside the doors to take her to the chapel.

"It's too bad he couldn't be here, to walk you to your husband," Florence continued.

"Mom, technically, he's not my husband yet."

"Oh, don't sass me on your wedding day."

"Sorry." There was a knock on the open door. They looked over and Suzy saw her father standing in the doorway wearing a suit and tie. "Daddy?" she asked.

"I see today is your special day," he said. "Aren't I supposed to walk you down the aisle?"

"Yeah."

"Well, then I'm here to do just that." Florence hugged her husband.

"Oh my God, it's been so long," she said. "How long can you stay for?"

"Just the wedding and the party."

"That's plenty of time… for us to catch up."

"Florence, is what Suzy told me about you and Rafferty true?" Her mother looked heartbroken.

"Oh, n… not really. I… don't think he… loves me back."

"Aw." They hugged each other again. "Come on, let's go. We have a wedding to attend." He walked her daughter to the car out front and they all climbed in. Suzy and her Dad in the back with Florence riding in the front. The chauffeur drove the car down to the chapel.

39: Vows

The car pulled up to the chapel. The chauffeur got out and opened the door letting Suzy and her father out. As they began to walk down the aisle everyone stood up and Florence walked to her seat. Suzy's father had her by the arm, seeing Rikki waiting at the podium as Cass and Dan reached it.

Are you nervous? He telepathically asked her.

Mm-hm. She answered.

Hm. I understand. Just stay calm, there's no need to be nervous. Today is your special day. They had made it to the podium. Jack looked at them and as her father stepped back down to his seat in the front by Florence, Jack cleared his throat.

"Dearly beloved and Gifted, we have gathered here on this fine day to witness the marriage of Rikki Lance Soto and Susan Marie Garrison," Jack preached. Rikki and Suzy looked at each other and they smiled. "Now, then," Jack cleared his throat. "Do you Rikki, take Suzy to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love and to hold, to honour and cherish, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?"

"I do," Rikki said, looking straight into her eyes.

"And do you Suzy, take Rikki to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love and to hold, to honour and cherish, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?"

"I do," she said looking at Rikki, with hopeful eyes.

"I believe you have rings?" That was Yin's cue. She walked up carrying the rings on the cushion. Rikki and Suzy took each other's ring and Yin went back to her seat. "Are your vows prepared?"

"Yes," they both said. Jack motioned for Rikki to go first.

"I, Rikki, take you, Suzy, to be my wife, my partner in life and my one true love. I will cherish our friendship and love you today, tomorrow, and forever. I will trust you and honour you I will laugh with you and cry with you. I will love you faithfully through the best and the worst, through the difficult and the easy. What may come I will always be there. As I have given you my hand to hold so I give you my life to keep," Rikki said as he put her ring on her finger.

"I, Suzy, take you, Rikki, to be my husband, my partner in life and my one true love. I will cherish our friendship and love you today, tomorrow, and forever I will trust you and honour you I will laugh with you and cry with you. I will love you faithfully through the best and the worst, through the difficult and the easy. What may come I will always be there. As I have given you my hand to hold So I give you my life to keep," Suzy said as she put his ring on his finger.

"Entreat me not to leave you, or to return from following after you, For where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your Gift will be my Gift. And where you die, I will die and there I will be buried. May the Gifted Gods do with me and more if anything but death parts you from me," they both said in unison and looked at each other directly. "Together shall we be, henceforth to the end of eternity." Some of the guests were beginning to tear up.

"Well then, in that case… you may kiss the bride," Jack said. Rikki and Suzy didn't need to be told twice. Rikki moved Suzy's veil gingerly and once it was out of the way, Suzy planted her lips on his. The audience clapped. They stopped kissing and looked at each other.

"I love you," Suzy said to him.

"I love you," Rikki said to her.

40: The Starlight Rain Reception

Rikki and Suzy walked back down the aisle together and back into the back seat of the Rolls Royce. The chauffeur closed the door behind him and he walked back around to the front. He climbed into the driver seat and drove the car off. They were heading for their wedding reception, which was at the fanciest hotel in Secret City, the Starlight Rain. They had rented out the largest meeting hall it had and a few hotel workers had everything set up. The wedding guests then immediately set off for the hotel after them. The driver slowed down for the cross-country part of the way there, but the ride was still in supreme comfort. Rikki looked at Suzy and she smiled back at him.

"I like your hair," he said and she blushed.

"Thanks," she giggled sheepishly. She had started to let her hair grow long, so instead of the tomboyish short hair she usually had, it had a little bit of length to it and it flowed down to just below her shoulders and her bangs were just slightly longer but combed to the sides. Rikki had also let his hair grow out a little. His was longer as well and it framed his face with a long and thin ponytail laying down his back. "I like yours too."

"Thank you." They then kissed again as the car had made it onto the asphalt road leading to the city. Suzy leaned on him.

"I'm so glad we're married."

"Yeah, me too." He stroked her silky smooth hair. "We'll be together forever."

"Together?" she asked.

"Forever," he answered. Her eyes watered with happy tears. "We will never split up, or ever be split up. No other could ever come between us. Nothing can break our immortal love."

"Wow," she breathed. "You're so deep."

"And you, my love, are the only one who can make it to the bottom."

"Aw," she laughed. "You're so sweet."

"Thanks, Suzy. Oh look," he pointed out the window. "We're here." The car had pulled in front of the Starlight Rain. The chauffeur parked the car and a doorman stepped over and he opened the door. Rikki stepped out and he offered his hand to Suzy and she held his hand as she stepped out. They then held each other's hands as they walked inside toward the reception area. Somehow, the others had arrived there before they did.

"How'd you get here so fast?" Rikki whispered to his brother as they stood outside the hall.

"It's a long story," Dan whispered back. "So don't ask." He didn't. "Alright everybody and wedding party people," Dan announced, "our couple of the night has arrived." There were cheers and applause. Rikki looked around the room. All the food was laid out on tables along the left wall. All the food and drinks on the tables were overshadowed by the large 5-layer wedding cake. He looked back at Suzy and she looked up at him and they kissed. That's when the music and the applause started as flashes from cameras lit the air.

A few hours into the reception.

People were chatting amongst each other and they were talking with Rikki and Suzy.

"I'm so happy to see you two finally married," Aoi said to them. "I knew it was going to be sooner or later."

"Oh you did, did you?" Rikki asked with a jokingly sarcastic grin.

"Sure did," she said with a similar expression. Suzy laughed and she then felt a slight tug on her arm. It was Cassandra.

"Hey," Cass said with a smile.

"Hey, Cass, glad to see you here," Suzy said.

"All of the students are here."

"All of them?"

"Yeah! Everyone is here." A boy walked by their table.

"S'up," he said to Rikki. He looked vaguely familiar to him with his light blonde hair and deep blue eyes. "What, you don't recognize me?" Rikki stood and looked at him. He then snapped his fingers.

"Alkiviadis," he said and the boy smiled and laughed.

"Yep, that's me."

"How ya been doing?"

"Just fine. You?"

"Uh…"

"That was rhetorical. I know how you're doing!" he laughed.

"Oh, you think you're funny Alkiviadis."

"Please mate, call me Alkiv." He then looked at Suzy. "And Susan, you look great."

"Thanks, Alkiv," she said with a nice smile. He smiled back and walked off.

"See?" Cass asked. "I told you everyone was here."

"Well, you're not wrong," Rikki said sitting back down. He saw Aaron and Yin. "Hey, Aaron," he called. Aaron and Yin walked over.

"Hey, what's up?" Aaron asked.

"Glad to see you here."

"So am I."

"Yin, you did great," Suzy said to her ring-bearer.

"Thanks," Yin said, blushing slightly and rubbing the back of her head. "I was so nervous."

"You did great."

"Heh, heh. Thanks."

"Hey," Aoi piped in, sticking her head in the group, "I heard Jack saying that you two might be next," she motioned to Yin and Aaron. Aaron became red-faced.

"Next for what?" Yin asked. Aoi looked at her with an expression that read, 'Seriously?'. "Oh," Yin said, the realization hitting her like a hammer. She looked at Aaron and became red-faced as well. Aoi laughed.

"Aw, come on," she said playfully, "don't deny it. We can all tell." She sipped her drink.

"I know," Yin said sheepishly, "It just that…" she trailed off, her face growing redder.

"We're not quite there yet," Aaron finished for her.

"Y-yeah, that."

"If you say so," Aoi said and she walked away with a skip.

"What's with her?" Aaron asked.

"Hey, I'm sure she was just kidding," Suzy said.

"I'm both halves now, remember?"

"Oh, yeah."

"But hey, don't let me ruin your night. It's your time, not ours." Aaron took Yin over to the food tables.

"Aaron's right," Rikki said. "Let's not have our night ruined."

41: A Sweet Girl and Her Cat

The rest of the night went by and the reception was so great, that Rikki was sure that it would make the top 3 in the world's greatest parties. But that was just his opinion. Late that night, so late in fact that it was early in the morning, they declared the reception over. He and Suzy snuck off to the penthouse, which they had also rented, afterwards. The reception area was returned to its proper state the next morning.

Back at the college.

Everyone was packing their things into their cars, getting ready to go back home since the wedding and the reception was done. Yin was sitting on the steps watching everyone pack their luggage. Aaron came over and sat down beside her.

"Are you done packing?" he asked her.

"Why would I pack?" she asked him sadly, not looking at him. "I have no family, I have no home. I have... nothing."

"I'm sorry. I forgot." She looked at him with watery eyes.

"It's okay," she said, leaning on him and sighing.

"But you're wrong."

"W-what?" she asked, looking at him in the eyes.

"You're wrong when you say you don't have anything."

"How?" she asked with a tone of anger.

"You have me." She paused and looked at him and he smiled. She blushed and smiled meekly.

"Oh. Do you have a home? Can I stay with you?"

"Sure. If you can handle my family."

"What's your family like?"

"My father died when I was little, so Mom cared for Auralyn and me."

"Is she your sister?"

"Yeah. She's about two years younger than me."

"Oh."

"You okay?"

"I'm sorry. It's just that... at least you have a sibling who's there for you."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because... I had a brother… once."

"What happened?"

"My parents died in a horrible fire. Yang and I were 5 years old."

"Yang's your brother." She nodded, her eyes becoming wet with tears again.

"My twin brother, yeah. He died in a car accident 6 years ago." Aaron paused.

"I'm sorry." He hugged her sympathetically. He could feel her sobbing silently. "Yin, I'm so, so sorry." Yin continued to noiselessly cry. Aaron patted her head and stroked her hair. "It's okay, it's okay," he said soothingly.

"W… why are you… always so nice… when I'm sad?" she asked. He held her chin and he looked her in the eyes.

"Because I don't like seeing you cry."

"Y… you don't?"

"Nope. Sorry, I'm just like that." Yin rubbed the tears from her eyes.

"It's okay. You're sweet." He laughed lightly. "Really... sweet."

"Well, I try to be," he said blushing slightly. There was a pause.

"We could do it, ya know."

"What?" He looked at her.

"We could just go off somewhere and build a house, start a family, and live happily ever after."

"You believe in that stuff?"

"Yeah."

"But what about my family?"

"What about mine?"

"Point taken. Here," he stood up and helped her stand. "Let's go to my car." They walked to Aaron's car, a Volvo station wagon. Yin could see his things packed inside it. "Where I come from, I am hardly noticed. People don't even acknowledge my very existence. I'm always alone, and I have hardly any friends."

"Aw, I'm sorry."

"I know." He saw something on top of his car. It was Flame.

"Flame, there you are," Yin said. "Don't go off without me." She reached up and she picked up the cat.

"Come on. Let's go do that idea of yours."

"What?"

"Let's just go off somewhere and start a life. Mine was too sad and boring anyway. Besides, I have everything I need with me."

"Everything?"

"Almost. I'm just missing two things."

"What are they?"

"A sweet girl and her cat." Yin blushed. "Come on. Let's go live happily ever after." Yin was about to open the passenger door when she hesitated. "What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry… I just... don't like cars all that much."

"Oh. Don't worry though. This is a safe car." She still looked at it sceptically. "Scientifically tested and proven." She looked at him and the honesty in his eyes was too much to ignore. She smiled and she opened the door and she sat down. She put Flame down in her lap but Flame jumped back into the seats behind her.

"Flame what are you-?" she stopped when she saw Flame stick her small head into a bag and she poked back out with a cat treat in her mouth. "Flame, you silly cat," she said with a smile. Aaron climbed into the driver seat. He started the car and he looked at her. "What are you waiting for?" Yin asked him. "Come on, let's go!"

42: How the Others are Getting Along

Rikki and Suzy were standing on the front porch. It was a house that, with some help from Florence, they had bought. They started the next chapter of their life together.

"I like it," Suzy said, "but..."

"It's a bit nerve-racking owning a house?" he finished.

"Yep," she finished. She was right. They were only 19 years old and they had bought a house.

"Well," he said walking her inside, "We might as well get used to it."

"I guess you're right." The truck pulled into the driveway, and they directed where they wanted the things to go. The moving went on into the afternoon. By the time they were finished, it was nearly 5. Suzy sat down on their couch. "I am so tired," she breathed.

"I am too," Rikki said sitting next to her. She looked at him and she gave him a tired smile. He did the same. "I wonder how the others are getting along..."

Somewhere on the west coast.

The Volvo was driving down the road. In the driver seat, there was a young man. Next to him, was his girlfriend. They were only at that stage together in their relationship, but they knew they were destined to be together forever. It was Aaron and Yin. Aaron was driving along the tree-covered coastline when Yin pointed to an area by the seaside.

"Over there," she said. Aaron pulled off the road and he drove onto what would later become their driveway.

"I like this place," Aaron said. Yin smiled while petting her orange cat, Flame.

"I do too. It's by the ocean, we have a lot of land, and it's in a place where it will be just us." Yin was hopeful. Aaron was too. They have been looking forward to this the whole time they've known each other. Aaron parked the car and he and Yin climbed out. Aaron looked around.

"Hm. There are plenty of trees to use."

"For what?" Yin asked him.

"To build our house." She looked at him unsurely. "Hey," he walked around his car and over to her, "Don't worry. I'll hire some professionals, to help out. I'm just saying that, with all this, we can build anything we want!"

"Anything?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Oh, okay then. Then I want... hm, what do I want?" she walked around thinking about what she wanted to build. Aaron took a look around the surrounding area. They could do a lot here, he and Yin both knew that.

Outside Tokyo.

Aoi was riding the train. She had returned to her home in Tokyo. She was still single, but she remembered a friend that was still around somewhere. The train was leaving Tokyo and was on its way to the cherry blossom orchards outside the city. In the middle of all of the pink trees, was a large mansion. The Hashimoto home. The train stopped in the station and she got off. She walked up the road and toward the pink-coloured hillside toward the top of the mountain. She was finally going home. She smiled, as she thought of all of the family that she left. Then she looked at her phone. All of the pictures of her and all the friends she made back at the College of Trades. As she scrolled through the pictures, a tear fell onto the screen as she realized that she missed all of the fun she had. She wiped her eyes and she looked up, to find herself looking at a large iron gate. She opened the gate door and walked up toward the mansion.

"I'm home," she said in Japanese. She used her gift to look ahead of what was waiting for her. She laughed. "Izaya... you finally decided to show up, huh?" she said to herself.

LaGuardia Airport, New York.

Lotus was waiting in the departure lounge for the all-night flight to London. Luuk was with her. Yes, after many, many attempts, Lotus finally let Luuk take her on a date. It went well, and they did fall in love. Now they were going to fly to London to find a place to live. Kora was also with them so that she could get a connecting flight onto Berlin.

"Can't wait to be home," Kora said with a tired smile. It was 10 p.m. and the flight didn't depart until 11, let alone start boarding until 10:30.

"Same here," Lotus laughed. She was leaning on Luuk, who had dozed off.

"I am so going to sleep on the plane," Kora yawned.

"You are?" Lotus sighed.

"Já," she said in German. Lotus giggled and she fell asleep, snuggled against Luuk.

A ferry in the Mediterranean Sea.

The ferry was moving through the big blue sea. Having departed from Italy, it was on its way to Greece. Alkiv was leaning on the railing, admiring the Mediterranean.

"Can't wait to be home," he said to himself. "College of Trades, eh? Best time of my life. I am so having my kids attend."

College of Trades.

Jack was looking around the empty main room and he sighed sadly.

"You always miss the students," he said to himself. "I just hope that they can find their way into the world." Every year, before the students leave, he gathers them together in the main room for one final announcement. He distinctly remembered it. "If you cannot find a way into society, then you are always welcome to stay here." Then a man walked into the room, interrupting his thoughts.

"Jack," he said. Jack turned and looked. It was the head of the Order, 1.

"1," Jack smiled. "What are you doing here?"

"You cannot use this place as a home of solace for those who cannot fit into Ungifted society."

"Then what are you suggesting, sir?" The man put his hand on Jack's shoulder.

"Oh Jack, you know me. I am simply saying that this place cannot be both." Jack gasped.

"Oh!" he exclaimed in realization. "Oh alright, wonderful timing. Because I had this idea: Trades University. What about that? That would be the school, and this will be the home." 1 thought for a few minutes.

"If you can start Trades University then, by all means, go ahead. This place may need some remodelling done though."

"I will get right on it, sir."

"Good." 1 walked out and left. Just then someone walked into the main room. It was Will.

"Father?" he asked. "What are you doing up?" Jack smiled and he walked over to him.

"Son, this place will change. It will now be a home for the Gifted who cannot find solace in the world. Trades University will be built around this place."

"So this is the final year of the College of Trades?"

"No, Son," he said placing his hand on Will's shoulder. He paused as Carlyta walked out. She smiled as she heard the whole conversation. "This is only the beginning." He wrapped his other arm around his wife.

43: Miracles of New Beginnings

A while later

Rikki was walking through the front door of their house. Strangely, Suzy wasn't around, leaving him to wonder just what was going on.

"Suzy?" he called out.

"I'm in here," her fair voice came from one of the empty bedrooms upstairs. Rikki set his bag down and walked into the room. She was staring out the window, her arms warmly wrapped around her stomach. She turned and looked at him, tears in her eyes.

"What is it?" he asked with some concern. Suzy just smiled and the tears fell down her cheeks.

"Rikki... I'm pregnant." It took him a moment to comprehend what she had said.

"Wha-are you... are you sure that-" She nodded, wiping her joyful tears.

"Even though they aren't certain... they said it'll probably be twins." Rikki was still unsure how to react. Suzy hugged him. "We're going to be parents. I'm so happy." Rikki then smiled with her.

"I am too," he whispered to her.

A few cities away.

Dan was in the kitchen, preparing dinner for him and Florida. They were going to be married in a couple of months. Florida then walked into the kitchen.

"Dinner smells good," she commented and Dan smiled.

"Thanks."

"Dan... will it be good for it?"

"Good for what?" he asked, looking at her with confusion.

"Well see, it's just that... I'm expecting." Dan stared at her wide-eyed and dropped the stirring spoon he held and it clattered on the floor.

"Are you serious?" he asked, his voice barely audible.

"Aye." He ran over to her and hugged her, suddenly crying his eyes out. "Dan, what's the matter?"

"Nothing!" he cried soulfully. "I'm just so happy I'm gonna be a Daddy!" Florida laughed.

"Good Lord, you're such a sap."

"Are you shitting me?"

"No, I am pregnant." She gave him the doctor's note.

"Holy shit. I am gonna be called Daddy!" He hugged her. "I can't wait."

"Well, you better treat me like a queen then," Florida said. Dan stood up and wiped his eyes.

"Yes Ma'am," he said. Florida laughed again. "Sorry about my reaction. I'm proud of you." They embraced each other.

"I am too, Dan."

Somewhere in the forests of the West Coast.

Aaron was driving the new truck back toward the small house that he shared with Yin, his wife, and of course her cat, Flame. He was surprised to see her standing on the front porch when he arrived. He parked the truck, shut off the ignition, and climbed out, shutting the door behind him.

"Hi honey," Yin said.

"Hi yourself, what are you doing standing out here?" Aaron asked. "I thought you said that you were going to clean the kitchen."

"Don't stereotype, and besides, I finished early. I figured you'd like it when you saw me waiting for you."

"Well you're right about that," he said with a light laugh. He hugged her and they kissed.

"So... does that truck have a back seat?"

"What?"

"Does it have a back seat?" she repeated as she walked into the house. Aaron followed her in, intrigued by her relatively strange behaviour.

"Well yeah, it does. Why?" Yin gave him a sly, yet sincere look as she moved her hands to her midsection. Aaron's eyes widened as he noticed her gesture and why she asked that question.

"You're..."

"Pregnant?" she asked, finishing his sentence. She smiled at him and nodded. "Yeah."

"That's... wow that's just..." Yin laughed at his uncertainty.

"Try not to think about it too much, Sweetie," she said. There was a silence between them as they embraced one another, staring out into the trees, beyond which, was an endless blue ocean. "I hope it'll be a daughter." Aaron wrapped his arms around her.

"So do I," he agreed with an affectionate smile. "So do I."

44: Years Later

The school bell rang and all the students filed their way outside. It was the last day of the school year and the boy stepped out into the parking lot. He breathed the fresh summer air as his Ferrari red hair waved in the nice breeze. His blue eyes, the colour of the sea looked around and he saw only students' cars.

"Ah, nothing like fresh air to start your summer," he said with a smile on his face. He was a sophomore at West Coast High School and after summer vacation, he would be a junior. Suddenly, he was then tackled from behind.

"Hey buddy!" the tackler yelled. "What's up!?" The boy turned his head and he saw the face of his best friend.

"Come on, Jadd, I thought I told you to stop doing that."

"Come, one dude, you know me!" Jadd said. "I ain't gonna stop doin it, cause I know it pisses you off," he laughed.

"Well, could you at least let go of my neck?"

"Sorry, man. Hey, you ready for a summer vacay?"

"Yeah, you know it!" They both paused as a girl walked by. She was wearing a pink shirt and a short, black summer skirt that matched her hair colour.

"Wow," they both said.

"I want that!" Jadd said.

"Jadd, that's Vegas Meyers. There's no way she'd fall for guys like us."

"What the hell are you saying?!" Jadd asked loudly which caused Vegas to stop and look back. "Dude, seriously? You're having doubts? You're Leaf Soto! Your parents are rich, your mom is super hot, and you drive a freaking Maserati!" Vegas gasped and walked back over to them.

"You're the kid with the Maserati?" she asked Leaf. Leaf's heart skipped a beat, as Vegas was talking to him.

"Uh… yeah," Leaf said with his heart aflutter.

"Hey, Vegas," a voice interrupted. They all looked over. It was a boy with spiky purple hair. He wore a sleeveless leather jacket and black jeans. "Vegas, what are you doing talking to these nerds?" he asked.

"Leave us alone, Cross!" Leaf said.

"Hey!" Cross yelled at Leaf. "I'm talking to Vegas. Not you, you little shit!"

"You can't yell at my friend like that," Jadd said stepping up. Cross grabbed Jadd's shoulders and he shoved him to the side. Jadd hit the concrete with a grunt, causing his arm to bruise.

"Come on Vegas, let's leave these nerds."

"You know what Cross?" she asked him. "I would have, but now I know that you're just an asshole, I don't even want to think about you anymore." Just then, Leaf heard the sound of an engine. It was his mom's Ferrari. The white Ferrari FF pulled up by the door and a woman stepped out. Leaf looked back to where Cross was but he was long gone. The woman walked over.

"Leaf, is something wrong?" she asked.

"No Mom. We're alright," Leaf said. The woman brought her hand to her forehead and sighed exasperatedly as she shook her head. Vegas then stepped to the side as she answered her cell phone.

"It doesn't look that way to me."

"Come on, Mom-"

"Leaf Daniel Soto!" she said loud enough to make him cringe. "That's enough," she said as she ran out of patience. She looked at Jadd. "Jadd, you're hurt. Let me take you home and I can get you fixed up."

"Mrs Soto, I'm fine."

"Dude, there's no use arguing with my Mom," Leaf said.

"Fine." Vegas stepped back over to them.

"Um, excuse me, Mrs Soto, my mother just called and she said that she can't pick me up because she has to work late so I was wondering if I could come to your house to wait for her."

"You're Vegas, right?" Suzy asked.

"Yes."

"Hm," she thought for a minute. "Well, if it's alright with your mother, then it's alright with me."

"Thank you."

"Leaf, you'll have to give her a ride, I have groceries. Jadd, you'll just have to come with me."

"Yes, Mrs Soto." Suzy helped Jadd into the front seat while Leaf was walking toward his car with Vegas following.

"So you seriously have a Maserati?" she asked him.

"Yeah."

"That is so badass."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Leaf walked up to his off-white MC Stradale. He opened the door and he pressed the unlock button to let Vegas in on the passenger side. "Wow, you have a nice car. Seriously."

"Thanks." Leaf started the engine.

"Sounds sexy," Vegas said.

"Thanks?"

"Come on, take me to your place."

At the Soto household.

They all arrived at the house. Leaf carried the groceries in while Suzy marched Jadd to the kitchen to get him cleaned up. Vegas sat down on the couch with a novel. Leaf was done carrying the food in the set of his things in his room and came back down to turn on his PlayStation 3. Vegas looked up over the top of her book.

"Hey, what game is that?" she asked. Leaf looked at her.

"Oh, it's Gran Tourismo 6. On the PlayStation 3."

"That is so cool." Leaf did a double-take on the inside. How could this girl who he barely knew, know so much about cars? "That game is vintage."

"That's what my Dad said about it."

"Smart man." She moved off the couch to sit next to him and his heart skipped a beat again. "Do you like this game?"

"Oh… I uh, play it all the time."

"Really? I bet I could beat you in a race," she said with a wry smirk.

"Oh, you think so?"

"Yeah," she said slipping on a pair of black glasses. Leaf thought that they made her look even prettier because they suited her so well.

"Well then," he said giving her another controller, "Let's just see if you can." A couple of hours went by so quickly and soon Vegas's mom was at Leaf's front door. Vegas stood to leave.

"Well, Leaf Soto, it's been fun." She leaned in and kissed Leaf on the cheek. Leaf's face instantly grew as red as his hair. "What, first time a girl kissed you?"

"Yeah," he squeaked, barely audible. She giggled.

"You're so funny. It was so nice to meet you Leaf." She hugged him and she kissed him again. She then walked to her mom's car and she waved back before she climbed in and the car left the driveway. Leaf watched the car leave. He then sighed dreamily.

"Dude, she kissed you," Jadd said appearing behind him eating an apple.

"I know dude," Leaf said with a dreamy look on his face.

"You're a lucky bastard, you know that?"

"Jadd, watch the language in my house!" Suzy said from the kitchen.

45: Who Is Zephyr?

The very next day.

Leaf was playing video games on his slightly newer PS4 with Jadd online. There was a tone as a notification message appeared on the screen. Vegas had logged online. He invited her to play NFS with him and Jadd. Leaf was wearing a chat headset and he, Jadd and Vegas was talking while the game lobby was loading.

"Jadd, I'm sorry Cross hurt you," Vegas said.

"Hey, I'm alright," Jadd said. "It was just a scratch. Also Leaf, your mom is so nice to me. I think she'll come to like you too Vegas. I know I have."

"Really?" 

"Hell yeah."

"Hey," Leaf said, "That's just the way she is."

"I know."

"Leaf, your mother is nice," Vegas said.

"I know." Leaf then saw a name appear on-screen of the people who were in the same game lobby as them. The gamer tag simply spelt out 'Zephyr'. Leaf looked at the name, thinking that he had seen it somewhere before. "Hey, do you guys see that name?"

"What, Zephyr?" Jadd asked.

"Yeah."

"Yeah, I see it. Do you see the name under it? What kind of name is 'Black Nova'?"

"I don't know, but I think that 'Black Rose' would have been better."

"I've never seen a black rose before, but if they exist I would love to have one," Vegas said.

"I'm sure you could get some somewhere," Leaf said.

"Thanks, Leaf." There was a pause. "Did I tell you that… even though we've never talked before… and I was always with the popular kids… and we had a few classes together… and uh…" Leaf was shocked by her sudden outburst of truthfulness.

"Vegas, just say it," he said.

"I… I… I've always liked your name. I think it's really interesting and cute."

"Thanks…?"

"Yeah, a-and if I would've known that you were the one who owned the Maserati, we would've been friends a long time ago."

"Uh-huh."

"A-and what I wanted, to say was-"

"Hey, guys we're starting!" Jadd interrupted. The cars were sitting at the starting line on the road. Leaf in a Ferrari F12, Jadd in a Lamborghini Aventador, and Vegas in a Lamborghini Veneno. The mysterious Zephyr was in an orange McLaren P1. The Black Nova was in a black Pagani Huayra. The race then started. The McLaren shot off the line and was almost instantly gone. Leaf struggled to catch up in the Ferrari. Vegas shot into second place followed by Black Nova. She pulled through a repair shop and used a turbo boost to pull ahead into first place.

"Go Vegas," Leaf said pulling up next to Jadd. "Jadd can you see Vegas at all?"

"No, man, she's too far ahead," Jadd said swerving to avoid a traffic car and they heard Vegas laugh. The comms of the other two remained silent and Leaf hadn't muted them. Whoever they were, they were focusing.

"I'm a full 7 seconds ahead of Zephyr," Vegas said as Leaf was catching up to the Pagani. Jadd was behind Leaf. Vegas then groaned, "No!"

"What?!" Leaf asked.

"I crashed."

In Vegas's house.

She was sitting on a pink beanbag in her bedroom. She was face-palmed as her car regenerated. She gasped as the P1 was right there moving at an incredible speed which then used a shockwave pursuit tech. Vegas' car shot into the wall and her screen read "Wrecked" in large white letters. She gasped and yelled, "Damn firetrucking hacker!"

Leaf's house.

"What?" Leaf asked.

"This Zephyr guy's a damn hacker! I had little damage and he shockwaved me and I'm wrecked!"

"From one hit?"

"Yes!"

"I'll win for you. I'll avenge you."

"Do it, Leaf!" Leaf's car shot forward and he passed the Pagani. He then came upon the P1 with an active ESF. He hit the P1 in the side and he sent it flying into the wall and it flipped and rolled many times. It finally came to a stop on the side of the road. Leaf stopped his car and the Pagani shot by. Jadd stopped by Leaf.

"What's wrong dude?" Jadd asked. Leaf waited. Zephyr's comm finally lit up. It was a man and he was laughing.

"Boy, I haven't been thrown around like that in years," he said.

"So, what of it?" Leaf asked him.

"I'm not a hacker. That stunt with the respawn and the instant kill… that's a glitch."

"That's a glitch?" Vegas asked.

"Yes. I try not to use it."

"Why?"

"Because as you found out, it's unfair. If you master it, please save it for the AI."

"Oh." The race was then over.

"Hey, she's done," the man said.

"What?" Leaf asked.

"Nova. She won." Leaf then remembered the Pagani. It came back a minute later.

"Dear lord, Zephyr, what happened?" an accented female voice asked.

"This kid wrecked me. No one's done that for a while. He has some real skill."

"Hey, I think I recognize your voice," Vegas said. "Are you Aaron Paul?" The man laughed.

"No, I am not Aaron Paul."

"Hm. Are you a celebrity?"

"Uh, no I am not. I am a humble billionaire." There was a pause as Leaf, Vegas, and Jadd all showed the same dumbfounded expression.

"Wait," Leaf said, "A billionaire?"

"Yes."

"Zephyr, stop bragging," the woman said.

"Sorry," he laughed. "I will be a billionaire. I'm not a billionaire quite yet. So, where do you kids from?"

"Uh, we're all on West Coast," Leaf said.

"Same as us."

"Us?"

"Zephyr and I," the woman said.

"We should meet up then."

"That's sounds great. Meadow Mall? Saturday at noon?" Zephyr asked.

"Sounds like a plan."

"Good. We'll meet Saturday."

Saturday.

Leaf, Jadd and Vegas were in the Meadow Mall food court.

"Over here," a man said. They walked over to him. The man was young and in his mid-twenties. He had white hair and goldenrod coloured eyes.

"You Zephyr?" Leaf asked.

"You the kids from yesterday?" Zephyr asked them.

"Yep."

"Good. I'm Zephyr."

"I know," Jadd said.

"No, see, that's my actual name."

"Hi!" the accented woman said. "I'm Jaesyn, his girlfriend!" She had a friendly smile on her face.

"Hey," Leaf said. Jaesyn was a pretty young woman in her mid-twenties. She had short blond hair that framed her face and accentuated her blue eyes. "You must be Black Nova."

"Yes, but please, call me Jaesyn." She blushed slightly.

"Where'd you get your accent from?" Vegas asked as they sat down.

"It's part Italian and part Russian."

"Cool."

"Thanks. I was born in Paris."

"You know, Leaf," Zephyr said.

"What?" he asked.

"I have a feeling that we will know each other for years."

"Me too, sir."

The End?