It was a bright and sunny morning. The sun shone down on an elegantly built mansion, reflecting off it's lake red exterior and gold trim.

Within the large house, an alarm clock began blaring, prompting the person in bed near it to stir awake. A hand reached out from under the covers and turned the alarm off, then slipped back under the blankets, ready to go back to sleep.

Then, the person in the bed, a little girl, threw the blankets off, exclaiming, "Crud! I almost forgot!"

She leapt out of bed, carefully stepped over all the toys and books that were littered on the floor and ran out of the room.

The child bolted down a staircase and ran down a marble-floored hallway, leading to a huge room that doubled as the dining room and living room. On one half of the room, was a long table surrounded by over a dozen chairs; on the other half was a large sofa, a few armchairs and ottomans, a coffee table, and an entertainment center that contained a wide-screen TV and stereo.

At the dining room table sat a gray-haired man with a beard, who was reading a newspaper. He looked at the little girl that just entered and said, "Good morning, Alex."

"Morning grandpa," the kid greeted, before walking into the kitchen to see a tall woman with raven-black hair stirring a bowl of batter. She looked over at Alex and said, "I just finished making the batter a few moments ago. The pancakes will be ready in about half-an-hour."

"Okay, Zara," Alex replied before going back into the dining/living area. She took a seat at the dining table and looked around the room before asking, "Where's Gramps?"

"In his study," her grandpa answered. "He woke up very troubled about something and needed to be alone in it for a while. He's been there for about an hour now."

"Should I go get him?" Alex asked.

"That won't be necessary. He'll be out before breakfast is ready," the old man answered. "Besides, you know you're not allowed to enter his study."

"I know," Alex said.

For a big mansion, there were a lot of places Alex and a few others were not allowed to go in. There were several locked rooms that nobody, but her grandparents, Samuel and Beast, were allowed to enter, two of the rooms being Samuel and Beast's studies.

Samuel was very calm in telling people that the places were forbidden and how he'd appreciate it if they didn't intrude into them. Beast on the other hand, relied on threats of physical violence to ensure nobody attempted to break the rules, though Alex was sure he'd never really hurt anyone.

These rules made Alex, and her older brother, Robbie, really suspicious of their grandparents. They had only known them for 2 years, meeting them right after an incident involving their parents that prevented either of them from being able to take care of them. Alex was four at the time, so the change effected her a lot, but she didn't exactly know what the "incident" was, other than the fact that her mother was dead and her father was now missing. Robbie on the other hand, might actually know what happened to their parents, but he refused to tell her.

At that moment, a teenage boy with messed up brown hair trudged into the room.

"Morning Robbie," Grandpa Samuel greeted his grandson.

"Morning," Robbie mumbled in response as he sat down in a chair next to Alex. Within seconds, his head had fallen onto the table, seeming to fall asleep.

Samuel sighed, "I knew him staying up half the night to play video games was a bad idea. I should've shut off the power to his bedroom."

"Can you blame the kid for doing it, though?" a voice asked. A bearded, middle-aged Cuban man entered the room and took a seat across from Samuel. "Yesterday was the last day of school. Of course he's going to celebrate in some crazy way," the man named Constantine stated. "And what better way than a Nintendo marathon!"

"It was Playstation, actually," Robbie muttered.

"Ah, so you're still alive," Constantine said.

"I'm clinging," Robbie replied.

Samuel then turned towards his two grandkids and asked, "So, what are you plans for summer vacation going to be. Hopefully you're not going to hold yourself up in the house the whole time. Or play video games without stopping."

"I'm going to play outside a lot more," Alex answered. "And read more books."

"Very good, and you, Robbie?" Samuel asked his grandson.

Robbie lifted up his head and said, "Well, since you're so concerned with my video game obsession, maybe I'll take up reading as a hobby."

"Excellent idea," Samuel said, smiling.

Then, Robbie got a mischievous smile on his face and said, "However, in order to read the material I'm interested in, I'm going to need to take up lockpicking."

Samuel's smile fell. In the library, there was a cabinet of books with a lockable glass door that was full of books that nobody, but Samuel and Beast, were allowed to read. Robbie, along with a few others, had been badgering him for a while about what the books were, though Samuel always insisted that they weren't very interesting.

Constantine laughed and said, "Robbie, lockpicking is not as easy as Bethesda makes it look. It requires a lot of patience."

"I'm smart. I can figure it out," Robbie said.

Alex then piped up. "If only there was some special device that could automatically unlock something when you stuck in in a lock. Imagine all the places I could rob with it!"

Then, a voice snarled, "There's no way in hell I'm letting either of you kids grow up to become criminals."

The four looked at the entrance of the room to see a scrawny-looking man with long red hair pulled back into a tight ponytail and piercing purple eyes. Beast, Robbie and Alex's other grandfather, had a very unique appearance for his age, but his hair and eye color weren't the characteristics he had that stood out most. It was these two scars he had that ran from the edge of each side of his mouth and went halfway through his cheek.

Robbie and Alex would've been lying if they said that these scars didn't freak them out the first time they saw them, which was probably way Beast wore a doctor's mask for the first few weeks they had moved into the mansion. They got used to them after a while, but they had questions as to what gave their second grandpa these scars. Unfortunately, this was a question the kids weren't allowed to learn the answers to yet.

"Morning Beast," Samuel greeted his husband, who just grunted in response and took a sip from the mug he was holding.

"Morning Gramps," Alex greeted her other grandfather.

As odd as it may seem to some people, Beast and Samuel were married, despite the fact that during the time when Robbie and Alex guessed they got together was during a time when being gay was heavily scorned upon. Unfortunately, how Beast and Samuel met was one of those questions the kids weren't allowed to ask yet.

"What have you been talking about?" Beast asked.

"What the kids will be doing over the summer," Samuel answered simply.

"Like digging into the family secrets you keep hiding from us," Alex threw in.

"Cute," Beast replied sarcastically. "Keep that talk up and I'll never trust either of you to be alone in this house."

"Got it, Gramps," Robbie and Alex obliged.

Beast looked over at Constantine and asked, "Where's your wife?"

"In the kitchen," Constantine answered. "I was just about to go in and see if she needed any help."

"Well, then get to it! Just cause you're a married man doesn't mean you can put the weight of all the kitchen work on your wife," Beast snarled, prompting Constantine to hop up from his seat and run into the other room.

Within seconds, there was a loud explosion that came from somewhere else in the house.

Beast slammed his mug down on the table and shouted, "Jesus christ, what did that idiot Russian do now?!"

Alex, in shock from the loud explosion and frightened by Beast's raised voice, began crying, covering her ears. Loud noises have bothered Alex ever since she was three, but Robbie, Beast and Samuel had no idea why. They just know that it was very difficult to calm her down afterwards.

While Samuel calmed his granddaughter, Beast stomped out of the room, with Robbie following close behind to see what had happened.

The two came across a teenage girl with tan skin and black hair, who said when she spotted them, "Good to know that I wasn't the only one that heard that noise. Morning Beast, morning Robbie."

"Morning Leah," Beast replied. "Did that noise come from Ivan's lab?"

"Pretty sure," the girl named Leah answered. Leah was 18, two years older than Robbie, and was Constantine and Zara's daughter. She had apparently lived in the mansion all her life and knew the whole building very well...except for the secret rooms of course. She was as curious about what was behind those doors as Robbie and Alex were, but she minded her own business, figuring that Beast or Samuel will tell them what they were eventually.

The trio of people made their way down the hall until they got to the stairs that led down to the entrance hall. They went down and turned towards a pair of double-doors that were towards the back of the hall.

Standing near the doors was a brown-haired man holding a toddler girl with the same hair color.

"I see Ivan's latest mishap has caught your attention, Frederick," Beast said to the man.

"How could it not? It practically shook the mansion," the man named Frederick said.

Frederick had been a resident at the mansion a few years before Robbie and Alex showed up, moved in straight from Britain according to Beast. He was married to Ivan, another resident of the mansion who had caused the loud explosion that occurred a few moments ago. A little while before Robbie and Alex moved in, they adopted a baby named Carina, who was the child Frederick was holding.

"Well, better see what the damage is," Beast said, throwing open the doors to Ivan's lab.

Inside, smoke was streaming from a large machine and a black-haired man with stubble was trying to fan it out through an open window with a large piece of cardboard.

Seeing he had company, he tossed his makeshift fan aside and stood up straight with his hands behind his back. "Morning Wagner, Frederick, children," he greeted his new audience.

Ivan was a bit of an inventor and engineer. He fixed anything electrical and mechanical, and liked to create his own machines in his spare time. However, it was very rare that any of his creations worked. The closest he ever got to a success was inventing a kind of ring that would alter your appearance, specifically your skin, hair, and eye colors, but who would need that?

"What'd you fuck up this time?" Beast asked.

"Just a machine I've been working on for a while," Ivan explained. "I just plugged it in and turned it on to see if it was functioning, and part of it must've suffered a malfunction and...combusted."

The group observed the contraption as it shut itself down and smoke stopped billowing out of it. A huge piece fell off it and landed on the floor with a loud bang.

Beast slapped his hand on his forehead and grumbled, "Get this mess cleaned up and get upstairs for breakfast. And don't attempt to activate any other machines today! That last explosion scared Alex!"

"Yes, boss," Ivan said.

As the group of five left the lab, Frederick said to Beast, "Sorry about that, Beast. Ivan is really eager to get that machine to work. You know how determined he tends to be."

"Idiocy is what I would call it. No wonder he didn't get a job at that Russian lab," Beast replied.

Leah's eyebrows raised, "Ivan almost got a job at a Russian lab? What happened?"

"I'm not the one you should be asking, but if you ask Ivan, I doubt he'll tell you," Beast said.

Robbie sighed. Seems like his grandparents weren't the only ones who liked to keep secrets from people.

Then, the group heard Constantine holler from the living/dining room, "Food's ready!"

Soon, everyone was settled in their chairs at the dining room table, eating their breakfast and talking about their summer plans.

Alex, who recovered from her overstimulated state due to the explosion, and Robbie, mostly zoned everyone out and thought about all the mystery rooms in the mansion and all the secrets their grandparents were keeping from them.

Even if it took all summer, even if it risked getting them in serious trouble, even if it risked them getting killed, they were going find out what their grandparents were hiding from them.

Later that day, Alex, now dressed in their day clothes, was waiting by the front door. Her friend, Skylar Jones, was going to come by to play, and Alex had a lot of ideas for games to play.

Then, there was a knocking at the door. Alex threw it open to see a boy slightly taller than she was with dreadlocks pulled back into a sort of ponytail standing on the doorstep.

"Hi Skylar," Alex greeted her friend.

"Hi Alex," the boy replied. Next to Skylar stood an adult woman with braided hair.

"Hi Darrian," Alex greeted the woman.

"Hi Alex," the woman replied. Darrian was one of Zara's friends, and she usually came by the mansion to talk to her every couple of days, with Skylar always in tow.

Before Alex moved in 2 years ago, Skylar was usually watched by Leah, but she wasn't that fun to play with according to Skylar. When Alex showed up, Skylar was delighted to have someone closer to his age to play and talk about his interests with.

"I have my toys in the ballroom," Alex stated.

"Okay," Skylar said, following her into the big room that was located not far from the entrance while Darrian went up to the second floor to find Zara.

Meanwhile, Robbie was sitting in one of the lawn chairs in the backyard, scrolling through his phone to see what was happening on social media. So far, it was pictures of people celebrating the start of summer break, like having parties, or heading out on vacations.

Robbie's family never really took vacations before moving in with his grandparents, and now since he and Alex were living with them, they probably would never take a vacation to some other place because Beast wasn't a big fan of traveling.

Robbie wasn't sure if it was because he had a fear of planes or boats, or if he was worried about scaring people with his facial scars, but Robbie couldn't find out because that was yet another question he wasn't allowed to know the answer to.

Naturally, when someone's sitting in the backyard of their house, a neighbor who's in the backyard of their house as well, tending their garden, playing with their pet, or relaxing, would try to strike up a conversation with said someone. However, there were no neighbors to talk to where Robbie lived.

The mansion was pretty isolated from society; it was located in the middle of some woods a few miles away from the city. The city was where Robbie, Leah, and Alex went to school, shopping got done, and errands were went to. The mansion was so isolated that they didn't even have an address, so they didn't have a mailbox or get a newspaper every morning, so they had to go to the post office in the city to retrieve their mail and buy a newspaper, which was always a hassle.

Also because they had no address, nobody really knew they lived there, so ordering takeout was impossible and Robbie couldn't have any friends over because giving them directions would be very difficult...well, that latter thing would be an issue if Robbie had any friends to hang out with.

Robbie had plenty of friends back in his old home, but ever since he moved, he had a lot of trouble being social with the other teenagers and usually kept to himself. The only people he ever socialized with were the people he lived with, which was kind of lame to be honest.

Robbie looked forward to going to college, to have professors and classmates, to have some excitement in his life. But college was still a few years away, so he'd have to settle for what he had now. When summer was over, he'd be in 10th grade, so he'd have to be in school for three more years. Three more years of isolation and loneliness…

At that moment, Robbie heard someone coming into the backyard and he turned around to see it was Zara and Darrian, with the latter talking.

"So Skylar is now reading about Marsha P Johnson and how she started the LGBT movement, and he's talking about how a lot of people seem to forget that the movement was started by a black trans woman," Darrian was saying. "Earlier this morning, he was begging me to donate to Miss Major's retirement fund, and as we drove over here, he called my brother to do the same."

Zara smiled, "That boy is going to be quite an activist when he's older. Martin Luther King would be proud of him."

Skylar was very obsessed with anything involving black history and knew practically everything about it. Darrian explained that it started when she dropped Skylar off at his grandparents and they decided that he was watching too many cartoons so they put the TV on the History Channel. It was February at the time so there was a bit of a marathon of black history documentaries being shown, and Skylar got hooked. According to Darrian, Skylar knew MLK's famous speech by heart, and knew of any case of black activism that went on in the world, even the ones he shouldn't know about since he's a little kid.

Darrian took notice of Robbie and greeted the teenager, "Hey Robbie, how's your summer vacation going so far?"

"Well, it's hard to say since it's only the first day," Robbie answered.

"Got a lot planned at least?" Darrian asked.

"Plenty of plans," Robbie said, thinking about what he and Samuel talked about earlier that morning.

At that moment, Alex and Skylar had run outside, heading into the woods.

"I thought you two were playing in the ballroom?" Darrian asked.

"We were, but we needed some fresh air," Alex explained.

The two kids walked up to a statue that was situated in the backyard near the path that led down into the woods. It was of a Native American man standing valiantly on a big stone base, wearing a warbonnet and holding a spear with the tip pointing up at the sky. A plaque screwed into the base read "Chief Taino".

"I always wondered why we had a statue of a Native American in our backyard," Alex said.

"Well, they're a pretty big part of American history, since they lived here first before anyone else did," Skylar said. "Also, they've gone through a lot of bad stuff so it wouldn't hurt to honor them in some way."

Skylar read the plaque. "'Chief Taino'? I've never heard of him. Must be a lesser known hero," he said.

"I thought you only focused on black history," Alex said.

"I'm running out of reading material that is appropriate for my age, so I've began looking at books about other histories, like indigenous history and Spanish heritage," Skylar explained.

The two kids then ventured further in the forest until they came upon a river that ran through a large pond. In the center of the pond was a small island and on the island stuck out a large gray rock on the side, and a large dead tree in the middle.

"I've always wanted to get over to that island," Alex said.

"Yeah, it'd be cool to have a fort or hideout on it, but I don't think we could with the tree in the way," Skylar stated.

"And there's no way to get over there," Alex added.

"We could swim over," Skylar suggested.

"There's no safe, dry way to get over there."

Skylar scratched his hair for a few seconds, before his eyes lit up and said, "What if we did a big jump to it?"

"You think you can make it?" Alex asked.

"Won't know if I don't try," Skylar said, before taking a dozen steps back. Then, he ran forward and leapt off the edge of the shore.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

"SKYLAR!"

Back in the yard, Robbie, Darrian and Zara heard Skylar scream and quickly ran into the woods.

"Skylar! Are you okay?" Darrian asked.

When the trio got to the pond, they saw Skylar dangling off the big rock on the island, at least a foot above the water.

"Oh god, Skylar, what happened?!" Darrian screamed.

"I tried to see if I could make it to the island in a single leap," Skylar exclaimed. "It kind of worked!"

Robbie muttered through gritted teeth, "Idiot" before jumping into the water and wading over to where Skylar was. He lifted the boy off the rock and carried him on his shoulders make to the mainland, where Darrian helped him and Skylar out of the water.

Once they were both on land, Darrian told her son, "No more crazy stunts like that, okay, Skylar?"

"Okay, mom," Skylar promised.

Zara then said, "Let's head back to the house."

The group walked back over to the mansion to see Beast standing outside. "What the hell was that scream?" he asked.

"Skylar. He tried to jump to the island in a single bound," Robbie explained.

Beast slapped a hand to his face and muttered, "Jesus christ." Then, he uncovered his face and straightened up, saying, "Samuel and I will be heading into the city later this evening for some business. I wanted to know if anyone would be available to watch the kids."

Zara was the first to answer, "Constantine and I will be heading out as well."

Darrian then added, "And I'm working a night shift tonight. I was actually hoping you'd let Skylar sleep over tonight."

"Can I, Mr. Verrat?" Skylar begged.

"Okay, first of all, I'm Wagner, second, you can call me Beast, and third, sure," Beast answered.

"Sweet!" Skylar cheered.

Later that afternoon, Robbie was going down the hall to his bedroom when he overheard Beast talking to Leah in her room. "Okay, so Ivan and Frederick will be heading out tonight, so that leaves you as the only legal adult in the mansion," he told her.

"Okay," Leah replied.

"Now listen, I want you to keep an eye on the kids while we're all out. Especially Robbie and Alex," Beast instructed. "I'm worried they'll try to break into one of the secret rooms while we're out. Your job is to make sure they don't."

"I'm sure they won't. It's not like Robbie and Alex knows how to pick locks," Leah said.

"I know, but I don't want them to try anything else to get into those rooms or the book cabinet," Beast said.

"Why can't any of us see what's in those rooms or books?" Leah asked.

"Because I said so," Beast answered sharply. "Now do you promise to not let the kids break into those places?"

"Sure, I promise," Leah said.

Robbie quickly ran down the hall and into an empty room that had a window bench before anyone noticed he had been eavesdropping. He sat in the seat and thought to himself, "I don't promise to stay out." Then, he began to google lockpicking on his phone.

A few hours later, Leah, Robbie, Alex, Skylar and Carina were the only people in the mansion, all gathered in the living room.

Leah was watching TV, Carina was sitting on her playmat, playing with some toys, Alex and Skylar were sitting at the dining room table, drawing, and Robbie was sitting in one of the armchairs scrolling through his phone.

After a long period of silence, Skylar finally spoke up. “Man, I wish we could order pizza or Chinese food from here,” he said. “But we’re practically in the middle of nowhere and if we try to give them directions, they might hang up on us.”

“We don’t even have a house phone to call delivery with,” Robbie stated. It was a very true and weird fact; there was no phone in the mansion that was actually connected to the building in any way. Because of this, all the adults and teenagers needed to own a cell phone to make any calls.

“We have a few frozen pizzas in the freezer,” Leah stated.

“Sweet! Let’s cook them!” Skylar cheered.

While Leah went to the kitchen to get the pizzas in the oven, Robbie took this as an opportunity to sneak out of the room and examine the locked doors.

He went down the hall to where Beast’s and Samuel’s studies were, which each had a single door that was locked, and on the left of the studies was a set of double-doors. Robbie didn’t know what room was behind the double-doors, so he made a mental note to check out that room first when he figured out how to get the doors open.

According to a website he looked up earlier, you need a screwdriver and something very thin to pick at the inside of the lock. Robbie knew where to get a screwdriver, but as for the small thin tool, most specifically a bobby pin, he was having trouble finding one. He searched all the bathrooms and all the bedrooms for one but he had no luck. He was starting to wonder if his grandparents had forbidden them from the house.

After a few moments of thinking, Robbie got a possibly better, but more riskier idea on how to get the doors open.

At that moment, Leah had finished putting the pizzas in the ovens and re-entered the dining/living room. “Okay, so there’s 5-cheese and pepperoni being heated up,” she stated. “And when I was looking in the freezer, I saw we have chocolate fudge brownie ice cream in there, so we’ll have some for dessert.”

“Awesome!” Skylar cheered.

“Yummy!” Alex exclaimed.

Leah looked around the room and immediately asked, “Alex, where’s your brother?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t hear him leave,” Alex stated, taking a look around the room as well.

Leah sighed in an annoyed tone and left the room. Alex looked over at Skylar and said, “Make sure the pizzas don’t burn.” before quickly following Leah.

“Okay,” Skylar replied.

Leah and Alex went down the hall to the three locked doors, but saw Robbie wasn’t present in the area.

“Maybe he’s down in the library,” Leah said, about to turn around when there was a loud bang that came from the third floor, which made Alex jump.

“Is he going into the attic?” Leah asked, going up the nearby stairway. The two girls went up to the third floor and went down a hall that led to the big empty room with the window seat to see that the retractable stairs that led up to the attic were out.

“Alex, wait down here,” Leah told the little girl.

“Okay,” Alex said, before sitting down in the window seat to look out the window as Leah went up the stairs.

Meanwhile, Robbie was digging through boxes of old tools and equipment on the far side of the attic, when he suddenly heard Leah’s voice ask, “What are you doing?”

Robbie whipped around to see the teenage girl staring at him with her hands on her hips.

“Looking for something,” he stated.

Then he spotted a narrow piece of metal and immediately grabbed it. “Here it is,” he said, holding up a metal crowbar.

“Oh no, you are not going to use a crowbar to bust open the doors,” Leah said, snatching the metal tool from his hands.

“Oh come on, Leah! You’re just as curious about those locked rooms as I am,” Robbie stated.

“Yeah, but I know to mind my own business!” Leah snapped.

“We’ve minded our own damn business long enough! The urge to know what’s in those rooms is starting to kill me!” Robbie argued. Then, he spotted something out of the corner of his eye.

He looked over to see a small clear box sitting in the corner of the attic. “What’s that box?” he asked.

Before Leah could answer, Robbie went over to it and began to examine it. Inside the box were over a dozen keys. He grabbed it and held it up, exclaiming, “Check it out! I found the keys! Now I don’t have to use the crowbar.”

He attempted to open the box, but the lid wouldn’t budge. It was at this moment that Robbie noticed the small keyhole on the box. “Aw man. So close,” he muttered.

“Beast probably has the key. There’s no way he’d leave a box of keys that would be free to open to whoever wants to,” Leah said.

Robbie looked over the box some more and asked, “What do you think this box is made of?”

“Hard to tell, but knowing Beast it’s probably something that’ll be very difficult to bre-,” Leah started guessing when Robbie suddenly threw the box down to the floor, where it immediately shattered!

“Glass,” he said.

“Good idea, Robbie. Just smash the box to the ground like the destructive moron that you are,” Leah said, rubbing her eyes.

“I try,” Robbie said as he knelt down near the pile of glass and keys and began to pick through it. “Let’s see how many keys I can get without cutting my fingertips.”

“Robbie, you’re going to get in trouble with your grandparents,” Leah warned the teenager. “Beast will know you’ve been into those rooms once he finds that the keybox has been smashed.”

“What’ll they do? Kill me?” Robbie said. “That’d be murder. Besides, we were bound to find out what’s behind those doors eventually. I just quickened the waiting period.”

After Robbie picked out the last key, he shoved them all into his hoodie pocket and said, “Now if you don’t mind, I got family secrets to dig up.”

Then, before Leah could stop him, Robbie climbed over all the boxes in the attic, making his way over to the exit.

“Robbie! Stop!” Leah shouted.

“You’re going to have to catch me first!” Robbie taunted before running down the attic stairs.

Leah rushed after him only to see that he had left the room. “Alex, where’d your brother go?” she asked the little girl looking out the window.

“I didn’t see him,” Alex said, seeming really fixated on something outside.

Leah stomped her foot and muttered, “Just great.” Then she asked, “What are you looking at?”

“There’s something in the backyard,” Alex answered.

Leah went over to the window and looked down into the backyard, expecting to see a bear or a deer or some other common forest creature, but instead saw the silhouette of a man.

“What the hell. What’s he doing here? Nobody else is supposed to know about this mansion,” she muttered before walking out of the room with Alex following close behind.

The two girls went back down to the second floor and headed back towards the kitchen, passing Robbie who was going through the keys trying to figure out which one was the one for the double doors.

Once in the dining/living room, Skylar greeted them, “Did you find Robbie? The pizzas are done.”

“We found him, but we have another problem right now,” Leah stated as she entered the kitchen. She turned off the ovens and looked out the kitchen window. Alex and Skylar joined her.

“Who’s that?” Skylar asked.

“I don’t know, but whoever he is, he shouldn’t be here,” Leah said, setting the crowbar on the counter and walked out of the kitchen, leaving the children alone.

She made her way to the bottom floor and went towards the back of the mansion where the backdoor was. Inside a case near the door was a shotgun, which was kept to use if a wild animal was too close to the mansion and needed to be scared off, which Leah grabbed and loaded.

She opened the backdoor and said to the stranger, “Hey, whoever you are, you’re on private property right now. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

The intruder didn’t seem fazed by her statement and still stood in the backyard, staring at her. Then, it began to walk closer to the mansion.

“Didn’t you hear me? I said stay back!” Leah shouted, before firing a warning shot into the air and pointed it back at the intruder. “Don’t make me shoot you. I really don’t want to hurt you!”

The stranger ignored her threat and just kept moving.

Leah then hollered, “Just so you know, I warned you!” before firing the gun at the person.

Suddenly, the being jumped twenty feet into the air, avoiding the bullet entirely and landed right in front of Leah! She screamed when she saw what the intruder looked like up close; it was tall,  had slimy-looking dark green skin, webbed fingers and toes, was donning some sort of burlap outfit and had a weird metal helmet on his head.

Leah gaped at the creature, frozen, not sure what to do next; she had no more bullets and she left the crowbar in the kitchen. She was practically defenseless!

Then, the being clenched a fist and made a punching motion towards Leah. The girl shut her eyes, bracing her impact...but it never came. She opened her eyes to see the being’s fist just stopped an inch short of her stomach.

At first, Leah was relieved, thinking the creature wasn’t going to hurt her. But suddenly, she felt something strike her abdomen, knocking the wind out of her and before she knew it, she found herself flying backwards.

Upstairs, Alex and Skylar were waiting for Leah to get back when they heard her scream. They ran into the dining/living room and were about to leave to see what happened when there was a loud crash from downstairs!

“Leah!” Alex shouted before running out of the room.

Robbie heard the noise as well, but at that moment, the key he had just put into the lock had turned with a click, indicating that it was the correct one. He’d investigate the commotion later; now was the time to figure just what his grandparents were hiding from everyone in the mansion.

Alex had bolted down the hall and went down the stairs in the entrance hall, turned left and went to the door to the backroom. She threw the door open, asking, “Leah, are you okay?”

Then, she froze; Leah was sitting on the ground with her back to the wall, her head hung over, and standing a couple of feet from her was some kind of amphibian-like monster wearing a metal helmet.

Alex stared at the weird creature, not sure what to do until it locked eyes with her. She screamed and ran out of the room.

She ran up the stairs to see Skylar and Carina coming down the hall.

“What happened?” Skylar asked.

“A monster attacked Leah!” Alex cried.

“Whoa! Good thing I brought the crowbar with me,” Skylar said, holding up the metal tool.

Then, Carina screamed, pointing down the stairs. Alex turned around to see that the monster had followed her and was now standing at the bottom of the stairs.

“Run!” Alex shouted.

The three kids started running back in the direction of the dining/living room, but the frogman leapt into the air and landed in their path, preventing them from going any further.

“Run the other way!” Alex screamed.

Skylar shoved the crowbar into Alex’s hand, hoisted Carina onto his back and the kids bolted down the hall, with the creature in hot pursuit.

Meanwhile, Robbie was searching the walls in the room he had just unlocked for a lightswitch. It was very dark in this room and the fact that it was night didn’t help, as there was no natural light coming through the windows that could help him.

Finally, he felt a switch on the wall and clicked it on.

When Robbie saw the room he was very taken aback; there were several glass cases in the room, each containing some kind of artifact, and there were a few more items hanging on the walls.

In each of the glass cases, there was a bowl shaped to look like a lotus flower; an old clay ocarina; a gold-handled switchblade; a spiked choker necklace; a tomahawk that had patterns carved into the wooden handle; a ruby ring with a gold band; a wooden statue of a wolf; a fancy pink glass bottle; a blue diamond the size of Robbie’s hand; a black pearl the size of a golfball; a ruby statue of a tiger; and a skull necklace.

On the walls hung a long-handled axe that looked like it was about Robbie’s height; a leather whip, and a silver shield.

“Man, where’d Gramps and Grandpa get all this stuff?” Robbie wondered to himself. He examined all the objects in the room, looking for anything that could signify where it came from like a label or something.

“I wonder if there’s anything in the studies that could tell me about this stuff,” Robbie thought, about to grab the door handle and leave the room.

Suddenly, he heard screams from the hall. “Robbie!” he heard Alex’s voice yell. “There’s a monster in the mansion!”

“Help us!” Skylar shouted.

Robbie heard their little feet run down the hall, followed by heavier footsteps! “Oh fuck! Something’s in the mansion!” Robbie thought. “I gotta get out there and protect Alex and the others, but I need a weapon first…”

Robbie went over to where the axe hung and lifted it off the hooks. He managed to hold onto it, but it’s weight began to take a toll on his arms so he had to drop it to the ground, where it landed with a loud crash.

He went over to the glass case containing the tomahawk. He couldn’t find a way to open the case, so he took several steps back, gripping the key he used to unlock the room and chucked it at the glass case. As soon as the small metal object made contact with the glass, it immediately shattered, allowing Robbie to retrieve the hatchet-like weapon. He then grabbed the shield off the wall and ran out of the room to search for the kids and the monster intruder.

Downstairs, in the backroom, Leah was starting to regain consciousness to the sound of Shakira blasting from her phone. She sat up straight, groaning from the pain in her back and abdomen, pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, and answered. “Hello,” she muttered.

“Leah,” Beast’s voice spoke on the other end. “My handheld alarm alert system is telling me someone got into the treasure room.”

“Sorry, Robbie went to the attic looking for a crowbar and found a box of keys. I was going to stop him, but I got distracted by something,” Leah stated.

“What was it?” Beast asked.

“There was something in the backyard, so I went to deal with it, but it attacked me and now I think it’s somewhere in the mansion,” Leah explained.

“What was it?” Beast asked again, his voice getting tense.

“I thought it was a human man, but when it got into the light, I saw it had weird slimy dark green skin,” Leah described.

“Did it also have webbed fingers and toes?” Beast asked.

“Yeah, it did,” Leah answered, surprised. “Do you know what it was?”

“I’ll explain what it is when Samuel and I get back to the mansion. In the meantime, make sure that creature doesn’t kill Robbie or the kids,” Beast told the girl.

“How do I fight it?” Leah asked. “I think it has some sort of weird telekinetic powers.”

“It’s not telekinesis, it’s something else, but I can’t talk about it right now,” Beast replied. “Just try not to get hit by any of its punches or kicks.”

Beast then hung up.

Leah staggered to her feet and, using the gun as a cane, limped out of the backroom. She tried to think about where the monster could’ve gone, but there was no sign of it in her general area.

Is it even a monster? It still looked pretty human, but also pretty amphibian. An amphibian man, an ampman…

Then, Leah froze. She’s seen that word before. She hobbled to the mansion library.

The mansion library was filled with many different kinds of books; encyclopedias, dictionaries, textbooks and a great deal of literature, but the book collection that always stood out was the one Beast and Samuel kept locked in a glass bookcase. Nobody had ever read those books, but you can see the spines on the books, which were all labelled with things that peaked everyone’s curiosity.

Leah read the labels on the books in the case: Werecat, Malopix, Alkristal, Shadow, Askarian, Ampman! She knew the world sounded familiar! This had to be how Beast knew those details about the intruder, so maybe there was information in the book about how to defeat it.

Leah grabbed the handle of the bookcase and tugged at it, but it wouldn’t budge. Robbie had all the keys, and no doubt, one of those keys was for this bookcase. How would Leah get the book if the case was locked? Then, she glanced down at the shotgun.

She stood to the side of the case, gripping the shotgun by the barrels and took a mighty swing at the glass. It shattered as soon as the handle of the gun struck it, allowing Leah to be able to retrieve the book. The girl stepped over the glass shards on the floor, careful not to injure herself, and grabbed the Ampman book. Then, she limped out of the library as fast as she could. Hopefully she’ll find Robbie and the kids before the Ampman had a chance to do anything horrible to them.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Robbie had run down the hall that went towards the back of the house, where he heard Alex, Skylar, Carina and the intruder go down. He took a right and saw the three little kids being cornered by the tall amphibian-like being, which he assumed to be the monster.

“Hey, slimy!” Robbie hollered at it. The frogman turned around to look at Robbie, and made a stance signifying that it was ready to fight.

“I should warn you; I have a tomahawk and I’m not afraid to use it!” Robbie threatened, holding up his offense weapon.

The creature looked at it and for a moment, it straightened up, it’s mouth dropping open a little, as if in surprise and seemed about to say something when a loud buzzer ran out, causing the humans to jump. At the same time, the monster’s head jolted and he quickly returned to his fighting stance.

Robbie ran forward, raising his tomahawk, ready to fight the monster when it jumped out of his path and went over him. At the same time, the creature stuck out its frog-like tongue, which latched onto the tomahawk and yanked it out of Robbie’s hand!

The being landed on the floor a few yards behind Robbie and quickly threw the axe-like weapon back at him. Robbie quickly turned around and positioned his shield to keep the projectile from hitting him. The tomahawk’s blade stuck into the metal and as Robbie worked to pull it out, the monster man began to recoil one of his fists, ready to throw a punch.

Robbie, finally getting his weapon free, saw the attack coming and put up his shield, ready to block. When the frogman rushed forward, Robbie gripped the shield handle out of tension and almost instantly, a force field formed around him and the creature’s attack was deflected, causing it to fly backward.

“Where the hell did Gramps get this!?” Robbie thought to himself, very stunned by what just happened as the magic shield around him vanished.

The intruder jumped back to his feet, a little perplexed by what had just happened as well, but quickly got focused on the fight again.

Robbie removed the shield from his arm and, gripping it like a frisbee, threw it at the frogman in the hopes of getting it in the head and knocking it out.

However, the being caught the shield in his hand easily and immediately threw it towards the window, where it shattered the glass with a loud crash and flew out into the woods.

Alex jumped and whimpered at the loud noise, while Skylar said sarcastically, “Way to go, Captain America.”

Robbie gritted his teeth, a little annoyed, but now was not the time to banter with the kid. He gripped his tomahawk and ran at the frogman.

The monster gripped his fist, ready to punch Robbie, when the teenage boy suddenly made a sharp turn around him.

“Try and catch me!” Robbie taunted it.

The creature, a little surprised by this act, just nodded and began to pursue the boy.

“What’s he doing?” Skylar asked Alex.

“I don’t know, but we got to follow them,” Alex answered.

The kids then went after the teenager and the monster, wondering what the heck Robbie was planning to do.

At that moment, Leah had finally made it up to the second floor after struggling up the stairs due to her injuries and the pain she was in.

“Gotta find the kids...gotta stop the Ampman,” she muttered to herself.

Then, she heard the sound of of glass shattering somewhere in the mansion.

“Dear god, what was that!” she asked herself.

Leah limped faster down the hall, hoping to get to the source of the sound before something else happened, when, she heard Robbie holler, “That’s right! Try to get me! Bet you can’t!”

Then, Leah saw the teenage boy run by, being chased by the Ampman. “You idiot!” she hissed.

She started to hobble farther down the hall, where she saw Alex, Skylar and Carina start running by.

“Hey!” Leah hollered, getting the three kids’ attention.

“Leah!” Alex gasped, running up to the girl and hugging her. “I thought that monster killed you.”

“Nearly,” Leah said. “Though I think I’m badly hurt. Also, that’s not just any monster; it’s called an Ampman.”

“How do you know that?” Skylar asked.

Leah held up the book and explained, “Beast called earlier and I told him about the creature. He seemed to know what he was talking about so I checked his personal library and there’s a book about them.”

“The forbidden books! How’d you get into the case without the key?” Alex asked.

“I smashed the glass,” Leah answered.

“Gramps is gonna flip,” Alex said.

Skylar, eying the book, asked, “What’s it say? Any info about how to beat it?”

“I haven’t had time to read it yet since my first priority is to find you guys first,” Leah said. “But I guess I’d better flip through it now and see what I can find.” She opened the book and began to skim the pages.

“Better read quick! I think Robbie locked himself up in the double-door room and that Ampman is very determined to get to him!” Skylar said, peering around the corner to see the Ampman banging on the doors with his fists.

Meanwhile, Robbie was in the treasure room, trying to think up a plan to deal with the frogman. He could hear the monster bang on the door and could tell that at the rate it was going, it might end up breaking it down eventually, just like in all the monster movies.

Robbie examined the room to see what else there was to use to fight against the creature; he could try the whip, but there was no guarantee that he’d be able to land a hit on it; there was a switchblade but Robbie knew that would require getting in real close to the monster and he really wanted to avoid close combat; then there was the axe, which Robbie knew he’d have trouble lifting, which would be a problem while fighting the frogman; or he could stick with the tomahawk, but that would also mean he’d have to get close to the freak.

Then, he heard the door start to break apart behind him. He was running out of time!

Back with Leah and the kids, Leah had just finished skimming the first few opening pages and said, “That’s weird. It says here that Ampman are supposed to be very peaceful. Why is this one being so violent?”

“Maybe it has a gripe against humans?” Skylar guessed. “Or something about their culture changed ever since that book was written.”

Then, Alex remembered something when Robbie showed up to confront the Ampman; it seemed very surprised to see the weapons he was holding when just a few seconds ago it had seemed very emotionless, then it looked like it was about to say something.

But then, there was that loud buzzer sound that came from the weird helmet the Ampman was wearing that caused its head to jolt, then it went back to being stoic. Which would probably mean… “What if it’s being mind-controlled?” Alex asked.

“That could explain the helmet!” Skylar said, realizing what Alex was referring to. “Maybe it’s being controlled by someone from somewhere else?”

“If that’s the case then we got to destroy that helmet,” Leah said.

Then, there was a loud crash from the direction of the double-door room.

“Oh god,” Leah gasped.

Robbie turned around to see the doors to the room start to break apart. He gripped his tomahawk, ready to fight the frogman as it punched the door again, this time causing it to practically explode into a mess of wood.

Robbie dove behind a case to avoid getting struck by the wooden shrapnel and came out to see the creature standing in the doorway.

Robbie held his weapon up and stood boldly, saying, “Come any closer and I’ll be forced to hack you up.”

The frogman was unfazed by this threat and just shot his tongue out from his mouth, wrapping it around the handle of the tomahawk. Robbie held onto the weapon with both hands, trying to prevent the enemy from taking it from him, but the tug-o-war proved pointless as the monster yanked it from his hands.

It took the weapon into its hands and examined it for a few seconds, until the loud buzz from before rang out again and his head jolted, where it then threw the tomahawk at Robbie.

The teenager dove to the ground to avoid getting impaled, where the weapon flew over him and crashed into another glass case, causing it to shatter.

Robbie, spotting the axe on the ground next to him, quickly grabbed it and jumped to his feet.

“Try and fight me now!” he taunted as the weight of the axe caused his shoulders to ache.

The creature began to approach Robbie, its fists’ tightening.

Robbie tried to stand boldly, holding the axe, but it was starting to take a toll on his arm muscles. He couldn’t drop the axe; that’ll give the monster a chance to attack and who knows? He might use the axe against him!

Leah limped towards the room, this time holding the crowbar instead of the shotgun, while Alex followed closely behind. Skylar and Carina stayed behind to see if they could hear Samuel and Beast coming.

Leah peered into the room to see Robbie and the Ampman having a bit of a standoff, the former holding a big axe and the latter facing away from the door. She slowly began to approach the Ampman from behind, tightly gripping her weapon.

Alex shook a little at the sight of the monster, worried that Leah’s plan might not work.

Robbie, not noticing the girls enter the room, was still trying to figure out how to attack the frogman with his extremely heavy weapon. Then, before he could do something to stop it, if there was even any way to prevent it, Robbie’s arms gave out and he dropped the axe to the ground with a loud bang! His arms were very sore to the point that he could barely move them.

The creature seemed to smile mockingly at Robbie’s pathetic display and proceeded to move closer to him. Then, it stopped in mid-step, looking towards the lotus bowl.

Robbie, seeing the creature’s state, asked, “What’s wrong?”

The being began to approach the case with the bowl.

“Is that what you’re here for? Why you invaded our mansion? If so, then take it and get out of here!” Robbie said.

Leah got a feeling that the Ampman was acting against his mind-control, because every few steps it took, the buzzer rang out and it’s head jolted, but it kept going towards the case.

Eventually, it was standing in front of the display, staring at the bowl, where Robbie asked, “What’s so special about that bowl?”

The creature glanced over at Robbie and for a second, the teen thought it was going to attack him, but instead it suddenly spoke in a deep voice, “This bowl...was made...in my homeland.”

“Where’s your homeland?” Robbie asked.

“Ampman country,” the monster replied.

“And where’s that?”

“...The Otherworld.”

Before Robbie had a chance to ask any more questions, Leah rushed towards the Ampman and swung the crowbar at the helmet on its head, breaking it apart on impact!

The Ampman fell to the ground, unmoving.

Robbie, Leah and Alex slowly approached the body, where Alex asked. “Is it dead?”

“Better not be,” a familiar bitter voice said.

The trio turned around to see Beast and Samuel standing in the doorway, Beast with an expression of annoyance and Samuel with one of concern.

Robbie immediately began asking questions, “What is this stuff? What is that thing? What have you been hiding from us?”

Beast, ignoring his grandson, went over to the Ampman’s fallen body and began to examine it. He put his fingers on it’s pulse and said, “It’s still alive. Just unconscious right now.”

“Should we…” Leah began to ask, holding up the crowbar, when Beast interrupted her, “No! We need to help it!”

Beast then went over to where the axe laid on the ground and knelt down to pick it up.

“Careful,” Robbie warned him. “It’s really heavy.” He didn’t want his grandpa to pull a muscle, especially at his age.

“It was?” Beast said, glancing over at Robbie with a look of surprise. He picked up the axe and lifted it up like it was a plastic baseball bat, but Robbie heard him mutter, “It’s a little heavier than when I last picked it up. Something in me must’ve changed since the last time I touched it.”

He put it back on the wall and asked, “What happened to the shield?”

“I used it against the Ampman,” Robbie answered.

“And where is it now?”

“...In the backyard somewhere?”

Beast slapped his right hand to his forehead and mumbled, “Oh for christ’s sake.” Then he looked at the two teenagers and kid and said, “Okay, everyone 18 and under leave the room. Samuel and I will take care of the Ampman and the treasure room.”

The group of three walked out of the room and went back down into the living room, where they found Skylar and Carina sitting on the sofa.

“So, what happened?” Skylar asked. “Beast sent us away when he and Samuel showed up so we couldn’t see the fight.”

“I broke the helmet,” Leah stated. “And the Ampman is unconscious right now.”

“Who do you think put that mind control helmet on it?” Alex asked.

“I don’t know,” Leah said, sitting down on the sofa. “But whoever it was, probably sent it over here to attack us for some reason.”

“But were we it’s targets? Or did we just get in the way of something else?” Robbie asked.

“Who knows. It spoke to you right? Maybe it’ll tell us when it wakes up.”

“I hope it’s okay,” Alex said. “It must hurt a lot to have someone take control of your mind.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Leah assured the little girl. Then, she leaned back in the sofa and shut her eyes. Within moments she had fallen asleep.

“Wow, she must be really tired,” Skylar pointed out.

“Can you blame her? She had to fight that thing and went around the place injured. Of course she’d be tired,” Robbie said as he felt his own body starting to lean forward and fall to the floor.

The last thing he remembered hearing before he blacked out was Alex shouting, “Robbie!”

Robbie found himself waking up on his bed, still wearing the clothes he had on yesterday, except for his shoes, which were on the floor. He sat up and winced at the sore pain in his arms and shoulders. That was going to bother him for a few hours.

He got out of bed, changed clothes and went down to the dining/living room, where Alex and Skylar were sitting at the table, eating cereal, and Leah was lying on the sofa, with a few bandage on her arms and face, eating a pop tart.

“Was anything broken?” Robbie asked.

“No, apparently. I only got a few scrapes and some bruises,” Leah stated. “Which is kind of weird since I could’ve SWORN I broke something.”

“My mom’s going to freak out when she hears about what happened last night,” Skylar said.

“Maybe you shouldn’t tell her” Robbie suggested.

“Then how am I going to explain why Leah’s all beat up and why I’m having nightmares about frog people!”

“I’m sure we’ll think of something,” Robbie said. “Where is the Ampman anyway?”

“Gramps and Grandpa won’t tell us,” Alex stated. “But I’m pretty sure it’s somewhere around here.”

“It was injured wasn’t it. I’m pretty sure I have an idea where it might be,” Robbie said before turning around and leaving the room.

Robbie went back down the hall and turned to go down the hall where he confronted the Ampman when he heard voices from behind the doors of one of his grandparents’ studies.

After careful listening, he deduced the voices were coming from the room on the right, which was supposed to be Beast’s. He pressed his ear on the door and listened carefully.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do, Samuel,” he heard Beast say. “After all these years, I never thought I’d have to interact with the Otherworld again!”

“I didn’t think so either, especially since I thought we had cut off it’s connection with our world for good,” Samuel said. “Makes me wonder who had managed to find the link again.”

“Everyone who was involved with that expedition is dead! Only someone who had survived that incident could’ve been able to work to find the Otherworld again,” Beast stated. “But after what happened that day, I’m wondering why this person would want to!”

“Whoever is doing this must have some sort of gripe against us and is perhaps using mind control, such as the one found on the Ampman, to manipulate it into finding and attacking us,” Samuel said. “We could ask the Ampman to see if it knows what’s going on.”

“But what if it doesn’t remember? For all we know, that mind control could wipe memories of the people wearing it!” Beast stated. “And another thing; what if that Ampman isn’t the only Otherworlder this person has abducted! They could have one of each race for all we know! That means there could be 14 more attackers for the next couple of weeks!”

“Beast, calm down. It’s not good for you to be this stressed out,” Samuel warned his husband.

“Can you blame me for being stressed!? The secrets of my past are starting to surface! My grandkids, not to mention all the other people in this mansion, are going to get mixed up in this!” Beast shouted. “When we hid all this from Julia, I thought we could still be able to hide them from our grandkids and take it to our graves, but NO! Some jackass decided to enact his revenge right now! And using beings from the Otherworld, no less!”

“I suppose we’ll just have to tell everyone about the Otherworld. I mean, it was only a matter of time until someone found out,” Samuel said. “Besides, the Otherworld might be in danger if someone had found a way to get there and kidnap some of their people. I bet there’s a search for this Ampman occuring as we speak.”

“I know, but I don’t want to scare my grandkids, or anyone, away,” Beast stated. “When I left the Otherworld, I was hoping to lead a new life without having to worry about anyone being out to get me, to have people I could trust and call my family around me, but now...I’m scared they might abandon me when they learn what I was involved with, or that they’ll get killed if they stay. I don’t want to lose anyone, especially not after what happened to Julia…”

At that moment, Robbie could hear his grandfather start sobbing, which surprised the teen. He has never heard Beast cry before, and to be honest, he didn’t take Beast to be the type to cry!

Samuel then said in a soothing voice, “Don’t worry, Beast. They’re strong people. I’m sure they’ll be fine. Leah and Robbie actively fought the Ampman and they survived, didn’t they? And I doubt anyone will abandon you. I feel like Robbie and little Alex won’t.”

“Maybe you’re right about that…” Beast said.

Robbie stepped away from the door and continued on his way down the hall. It was best to leave the scene before his grandparents noticed him. He wondered what secrets Beast was talking about. Something told Robbie that it was about a lot more serious than the locked treasure room and the shelf of notebooks, but what? Hopefully he’ll find the answer to that question sometime soon.

Robbie entered the hall where the Ampman had cornered Alex, Skylar and Carina the night before and stared at the door at the end. The room it led to was a big room the people of the mansion called the clinic, because in it had cabinets that contained many different kinds of medicines, bandages and some other medical stuff you could keep at home, making it look like a school nurse’s office. There were even two beds in the room where people could stay for the night if they were too ill or injured to make if back to their bedroom after being treated.

Robbie remembered being put in there for a week when he got strep throat, mainly because Beast didn’t want Carina or Alex catching it. It was one of the worst weeks of his life.

Before he approached the door, he noticed something; the window that got broken due to the Ampman throwing the shield at it was now fixed. When did that get done? “Maybe Ivan or Constantine replaced it while we were asleep?” Robbie assumed as he walked towards the clinic door.

When he reached it, he noticed that the door was slightly ajar, raising the boy’s curiosity. The boy grabbed the door handle and pushed the door completely open, looking into the room.

Meanwhile, back in the dining/living room, Beast was entering just when the kids had finished their breakfast. “How are you all doing?” he asked.

Leah was the first to answer. “Well, we survived a monster attack last night, so I think pretty good,” she said.

“Ampman aren’t monsters. They’re a very intelligent race. In fact, the most common job they have is as some sort of scientist,” Beast stated.

“Really? Wow!” Alex exclaimed.

“What’s the second most common job?” Skylar asked.

“Soldier, though most Ampman do work as both,” Beast replied.

“I wonder if the Ampman that’s here is a scientist,” Alex said.

“Well, we’ll find out once we ask him,” Beast said.

“The Ampman mentioned it was from someplace called ‘the Otherworld’. Where is that?” Leah asked.

“It’s kind of hard to explain,” Beast answered. “To put it simply, it’s basically another dimension. Ampman are just one of the races you can find there, but they’re all pretty complex to learn about.”

Leah’s jaw dropped. “Wait, you’ve actually been to the Otherworld? Is that where you got your facial scars?” she asked.

“And where you met Grandpa? Is Grandpa not human?” Alex questioned.

“And those statues you have in the backyard and the woods? Are those people from the Otherworld?” Skylar threw in.

“I’ll go into detail about my time in the Otherworld, but after you all have been educated about each of the races,” Beast said, and then muttered, “God, I can’t believe Robbie’s summer plans are going to get done.”

Then, he looked around the room and asked aloud, “Where’s Robbie?”

“I think he went looking for the Ampman,” Alex answered.

Beast let out an annoyed groan and stomped out of the room. “Can’t he wait a couple of goddamn minutes after waking up before setting out on another quest,” he grumbled.

Robbie stood in the clinic, staring at one of the beds. The blanket was a mess, showing signs that someone had slept in it the night before, and there was a faint moss smell coming from it.

“Man, where’d it go now?” Robbie wondered to himself before walking out of the room.

He went down the hall where he nearly ran into Beast. He expected his grandfather to rant at him about what happened last night, such as breaking the house rules by entering the treasure room or putting himself in danger, but instead, he just calmly asked, “Did you talk to it?”

“The Ampman wasn’t in the clinic,” Robbie stated.

Beast’s jaw dropped and he suddenly shouted, “Then where the hell is it!?”

Before Robbie could offer any answers, Beast slapped his hand to his forehead and muttered, “Wait, I think I know where it is.”

Beast turned around and went down the hall with Robbie following close behind. He went into the entrance hall and went down the stairs, where he then turned and began walking towards the back of the mansion.

At first, Robbie thought they were going to head outside, which would make some sense; the Ampman was obviously an amphibian, so it needed water to be comfortable, meaning it might be near the pool, or it found the pond in the woods and was chilling there. However, Beast made another turn and entered the mansion library.

There, the two saw the Ampman sitting at the table, reading a book, with several more books stacked around it. Robbie walked over to it and got a closer look at the covers, where he saw that most of them were on biology. “Why is this guy so interested in biology,” he wondered.

Then, he heard an unidentified voice say, “Hello.”

Robbie jumped and looked over at the Ampman, which was now looking at him. It had bright red eyes and a somewhat flat nose, traits Robbie didn’t notice about it before due the helmet it had on its head before.

“Are you unable to speak?” the Ampman asked, concerned. As it spoke, Robbie noticed that it had a bit of a Nigerian accent.

Robbie replied, “No, I can talk. Why are you reading all these biology books?”

“Well, I discovered this morning that I am no longer in my homeworld anymore, so I figured my best course of action to do was to learn about this new one,” the Ampman explained. “You are part of a species called human, yes?”

“Um...yeah,” Robbie confirmed.

“So I see. I had just finished reading a chapter in this book about human biology,” the Ampman stated. “Don’t take this the wrong way but, your anatomy, mostly your bones, muscles, and immune systems are a lot weaker than the anatomy of most races from my world.”

“Races? So there are more than just Ampman,” Robbie asked.

“Oh yes! There are 14 other races besides mine,” the Ampman explained. “Shadows, Alkristals, Werecats, Askarians, Fairies, Werewolves, all unique and powerful in their own way.”

“Wow,” Robbie said.

“Speaking of those races, I noticed a shelf of books containing information about each of these races,” the Ampman said, pointing at the forbidden shelf. “They’re done in incredibly good detail. Might I ask who the author is.”

“That would be me,” Beast answered, stepping up to the table. “I’ve been to the Otherworld before and took lots of notes on it.”

“Really? How’d you end up there?” the Ampman asked.

“It’s a very long story,” Beast explained. “I’d rather not get into it right now.”

“Very well, then you can tell it to me another time,” the Ampman replied.

“So how’d you end up in our world, the Human World I guess you can call it,” Beast asked.

“The answer to that question is very simple: I have no idea,” the Ampman admitted. “I was just going through a swamp collecting samples for an experiment I was planning to do when something hit me in the back of the head and knocked me out. When I woke up, I was in some kind of cell and I could hear screaming going on all around me! Unfortunately, before I could examine my surroundings any further, I blacked out again. When I woke up a second time, I had the helmet on me and had no control over my actions.”

Then, the Ampman’s hands flew up to his face and he gasped, “Dear god! I attacked some people! Are they alright?!”

“Leah was a little battered, but she lived,” Beast stated. “You should actually thank her. She’s part of the reason why you’re no longer under the mind control.”

“I’ll be sure to do that,” the Ampman said before turning towards Robbie. “And I should thank you too.”

“Me? For what?” Robbie asked, confused. He’s never thanked for anything major that he did, and he didn’t recall dealing with the Ampman in any big way. Well, except for trying to fight it and fleeing.

“You lead me into that room with all those Otherworld treasures and the lotus bowl snapped me out of the mind control long enough to not hurt you and let this Leah person break the helmet and free me,” the Ampman explained. “If it hadn’t been for that, I probably would’ve killed you all and still be under that horrible device’s control. So thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Robbie replied, smiling a little.

“What is your name, human?” the Ampman asked.

“Robbie Verrat-Wagner,” Robbie answered. “What’s your’s?”

“My name is Bog.”

A while later, everyone was gathered in the dining/living room; Robbie, Skylar, Leah, Zara, and Constantine were sitting at the table, Frederick, Ivan and Carina were sitting on the sofa, Beast and Samuel were sitting in their own armchairs, Alex had the ottoman, and Bog was standing in the middle of the room, all eyes on him.

Ivan was the first to speak, “I examined the mind control helmet you had on your head, well, at least the remnants of it. It has very advanced technology in it, which are also very expensive.”

“How expensive?” Robbie asked.

“Black market expensive,” Ivan stated. “Whoever built the helmets must have a lot of money and is smart enough to build it, or maybe hire someone else to build the device for them.”

“So, a rich person who is probably very skilled in technology,” Beast said. “That barely narrows it down on who it could be.”

“Would it be someone significant in our lives, like a celebrity, or someone we’ve never heard of?” Robbie asked.

“It has to be someone significant in me or Samuel’s lives, because we’re the only people who have ever been to the Otherworld, so whoever is behind this clearly meant to target us,” Beast said. “But since we weren’t around last night, they decided to go after you kids.”

“So, any ideas on who could do this?” Robbie asked his grandparents.

“Unfortunately, I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head,” Beast admitted.

“And any enemies we could’ve had are dead,” Samuel added. “So we’re not sure who could be do this.”

Alex gasped, “Your enemies are all dead?! Did you kill them?”

“I’d rather no say,” Samuel said.

Zara looked over at Bog and asked, “Are you sure that you didn’t get a glimpse of your abductor to see what they looked like?”

“Sorry, I never got a chance to,” Bog stated. “All I know is that this person is evil and I wasn’t the only one they took.”

“Have you seen any of the other abducted Otherworlders?” Beast asked.

“I never saw them, but I did hear them. A lot of them were screaming in their cells,” Bog answered. “Those poor people must’ve been terrified.”

“Since you weren’t the only one locked up in a cell, I’m guessing whoever this criminal is has another Otherworlder coming to try to kill me or Samuel again,” Beast said.

“You would guess correctly,” Bog said. “They probably had a feeling that it would take more than one try to kill you two.”

Beast groaned and muttered, “Lovely. This is exactly how I wanted to spend my summer.” Then, he spoke aloud, “Okay, if there’s another Otherworlder coming to the mansion soon, we have to be ready. For all we know, it could be coming tonight.”

Skylar quickly put up his hand and Beast looked at him and asked, “Yes, Skylar, what is it?”

“What am I going to do about my mom? Should I tell her about this?” Skylar asked.

“No, unless something happens that causes her to get mixed up in this mess,” Beast said. “Keep this a secret until then.”

“I’ll try,” Skylar said.

A little while later, Darrian came by to pick up Skylar and everyone made sure Bog were out of sight so the woman wouldn’t notice him and freak out. Also, Leah had to stay in her room to avoid Darrian seeing her new injuries and question what had happened to her. After the two left, Robbie went up to Samuel and stated, “A lot of stuff in this mansion got broken the night before. Like that window in the hall that leads to the clinic.”

“I noticed that,” Samuel replied.

“So how did it all get fixed so fast?” Robbie asked.

Samuel just stared at his grandson for a few seconds before smirking, “You really want to know.”

Robbie nodded.

Samuel picked up a vase sitting on a nearby table and suddenly threw it to the ground!

Robbie jumped and looked at his grandfather with wide eyes and agape mouth.

Samuel then knelt down near the shattered mess and touched one of the pieces, where he said, “Sarcio.” Within seconds, the pieces of the vase began pulling themselves together and soon the porcelain object was whole again.

“Whoa!” Robbie exclaimed. “What was that?!”

“Magic,” Samuel stated. “It’s a genetic ability that can allow people to manipulate the shape and state of things, not to mention the elements.”

“Genetic ability? You mean…” Robbie began asking when Samuel said, “Yes Robbie, there’s a chance you and Alex have magical powers too.”

At that moment, Robbie grinned really big, his eyes lighting up like flash grenades and he could feel his soul rising up to heaven. Finally, his life was going to have more purpose and excitement!

“Okay, I’ve never seen you make that happy face before, so I’m guessing you’re ecstatic?” Samuel assumed.

“Very,” Robbie answered.

Meanwhile, Bog was sitting in the backyard by the pool, observing the clouds above him, when Alex came outside and plopped down on the ground next to him.

“Whatcha doing?” the little girl asked the Ampman.

“I was just observing the area,” Bog answered. “Is this mansion located in a forest by any chance?”

“Yeah, but there’s a city not too far from here,” Alex stated. “That’s where my friend Skylar lives and I go to school.”

“I see. What grade are you in?” Bog asked.

“I finished pre-school, so after summer break I’m going to be in kindergarten,” Alex stated. “Do they have school where you’re from?”

“Of course! We take education pretty seriously, especially when it comes to science classes,” Bog answered. “In the Otherworld, there are classes everyone in each country must take, but some have classes that are only meant for the race in that country.”

“Cool,” Alex said. “Can I ask you another thing?”

“Sure, what do you want to know?” Bog asked.

“Why do you have a Nigerian accent?” Alex asked.

Bog looked at Alex with a bit of a confused expression and asked, “A what accent?”

“Nigerian. Nigeria is a country in Africa, and the people there speak with an accent like you do,” Alex explained.

“I was born with the accent, I guess. My father had it, my mother had it, my brother has it, all my people have it,” Bog stated. “People from outside Ampman Country have said we have an odd accent, but nobody has ever uses the word ‘Nigerian’ to describe it.”

“Gramps says the Otherworld is in another dimension. I wonder if where Ampman Country is located in your world is where Nigeria is supposed to be,” Alex said.

“It might be, but I’ll have to see a map of this world to be sure,” Bog stated.

At that moment, Carina had toddled outside, saying, “Hi Alex.”

“Hi Carina,” Alex greeted the toddler. “Wanna meet Bog?”

Carina took one look at the Ampman and her eyes became has wide as saucers and she immediately began running back into the house crying. Alex shot up to her feet and went after Carina, grabbing the little girl and carrying her back outside towards Bog.

“Come on, Carina! Bog’s nice! You’ll like him!” Alex insisted as Carina tried to squirm to get away.

Carina just began sobbing, “No! No!” she cried. “I don’t like Bog!”

Bog, trying not to look hurt from this comment, asked, “How old is she?”

“She’s 2,” Alex stated. “I think she’s still scared of you because of what happened last night.”

“I see. Let me see if I can try to cheer her up,” Bog said. He stuck his hand into the pool water and when he pulled it out, he brought out a big bubble of water with it.

“Carina! Look at the bubble!” Alex told the toddler. Carina stopped sobbing and stared at the large bubble Bog was now holding.

With a wave of his hand, Bog had used some sort of ability to allow the bubble to start floating in the air. Carina stared at it, mesmerized.

Bog moved his hand around the bubble, causing it to start changing shapes; it went from a sphere to a cube, to a pyramid, then to a frog!

“Wow! That’s so cool!” Alex exclaimed.

“Watch this next one,” Bog said. He waved his hand again, causing the frog-shaped bubble to turn back into a sphere and wiggled his fingers, causing the bubble to split up into several smaller bubbles. Then, the little bubbles morphed into butterflies and began to flutter around in the air.

Carina watched the water insects, giggling gleefully.

Then, the bubble butterflies popped, causing the water to sprinkle onto the three of them.

“How’d you do that?” Alex asked.

“It’s a power called aquakinesis,” Bog explained. “It allows me to manipulate water in liquid or gas state. It’s a common power my people have.”

“Wow,” Alex said.

“This water caused my skin to itch a little though. Is there something mixed into it?” Bog asked.

“Chlorine. It’s supposed to kill germs that are in the pool,” Alex stated.

“Water like this won’t do me any good whenever I need to be hydrated to keep my skin from going dry,” Bog said. “Is there a pond or lake close to here that I could go to instead?”

“Yeah! There’s this river that runs through a pond that’s not to far from here,” Alex said, running towards the woods. “I’ll show you!”

Bog and Carina followed and within moments, they came upon the pond. Bog took one look at the water before jumping in, nearly splashing Alex and Carina. He was underwater for a few moments before surfacing and exclaiming, “Yes, this pond is perfect! Thank you for showing it to me!”

“You’re welcome,” Alex said.

Bog climbed out of the water and sat on the island in the middle of the pond. He observed the dead tree and asked, “What is this tree doing here?”

“I don’t know,” Alex answered. “All I know is that it’s dead and Gramps and Grandpa never bothered to knock it down.”

“How sad,” Bog said. “It’s kind of disappointing to see something dead or dying in the middle of such a beautiful scene. We’ll have to do something about it.”

Bog looked over at the two children and asked, “Why don’t you two come over here?”

“I don’t want to get my clothes wet,” Alex said. “And Carina can’t swim.”

“How about I carry you two over here on my shoulders,” Bog offered. “I don’t mind getting wet.”

“That sounds great,” Alex said.

Bog got back into the water and waded over to the two kids, where he lifted them off the shore and onto each of his shoulders. He brought them back over to the island, where he set them on the small piece of land.

Alex walked around the small area and exclaimed, “So THIS is what it’s like over here! I wish Skylar had stuck around the mansion longer! He was trying to get over here the other day, but he didn’t make it. He would’ve loved to check it out.”

Alex then made a very bold pose and shouted, “I claim this land in the name of Alex Verrat-Wagner. Man, I wish I had a flag or something to mark this island.”

“You three look like you’re having fun,” Beast’s voice said.

Alex looked over to the mainland to see Beast and Frederick standing there.

“Hi Gramps!” Alex greeted.

“Hi Daddy,” Carina greeted her father.

“Carina! How’d you get over there?!” Frederick asked, his eyes wide.

“I swam her and Alex over here,” Bog explained. “They wanted to walk around this little island.”

“Well, please bring them back over here!” Frederick ordered. “I’m worried Carina might walk off the edge and fall into the water or something!”

“Okay, I will,” Bog said, slipping into the pond and hoisting the little girls onto his shoulders again, carrying them over to the two adults.

Frederick grabbed Carina and held her tightly, “Oh thank god! I thought you might fall in.”

As Frederick carried Carina back over to the mansion, Bog said, “He’s very protective of her, isn’t he?”

“Well, she is his first and maybe only child,” Beast said. “I was just as tense when Julia was that small. Samuel too.”

“What about me?” Alex asked.

“I worry about you a lot, too, Alex,” Beast stated.

“And Robbie?”

“He’s starting to grow up, I can’t worry about him all the time or he might get annoyed, as most teenagers do,” Beast said.

“Very true,” Bog agreed. “My father always fretted over my and my older brother when we were small, but by the time we were close to adulthood, he let us figure things out for ourselves, because he knew we’d be okay.”

“Your father is a smart Ampman,” Beast complimented.

“Thank you. I hope to be just as good a parent as he was one day.”

Author's Note: I'm planning on uploading two chapters every week, since in my handwritten version of the story, I'm farther ahead than I am online. So Chapter 9 will be uploaded later today.

Later that evening, Robbie was sitting in the living/dining room flipping through a book. It was a book about the kind of magic Samuel used. Robbie was very eager to learn about it so his grandfather was happy to loan it to him and Robbie had been looking at it for about an hour now.

Apparently, this magic could be used for more than repairing mere windows and vases, because it could also be used to destroy physical objects, both living and nonliving; heal people, animals and dying plants (Robbie was beginning to think that Leah’s injuries were a lot worst but Samuel healed her while she was unconscious); crafting objects with many kinds of materials, like statues and weapons; manipulating the elements; control darkness and light; and controlling death, such as bring dead people back to life!

The last one caught Robbie’s eye the most, and he began to think back to the night his and Alex’s lives changed forever, the night their mother died. He remembered being in his bedroom in the basement when he heard his parents arguing upstairs. They had been doing that a lot for two years prior to the incident, making Robbie worry that one day they’d divorce. Now, Robbie wished that’s what had happened instead of what happened next.

Ten minutes after the argument started, Robbie heard something big crashing down the stairs that startled him! He left his room to investigate the noise and saw what had caused the sound, which would be ingrained in his memories for as long as he lived.

His mother’s body was lying at the bottom of the stairs, a big mark on the side of her head where she had been struck, her neck kind of bent in a weird way and her lifeless eyes wide, as if in shock.  

Robbie remembered kneeling near her and repeatedly asking if she was okay, while tears began to stream from his face. He remembered hearing Alex’s voice upstairs asking their dad what had happened, where he heard his father yell at her to shut up and go back to her room. He remembered hearing his father storm out of the house. He remembered grabbing the phone and calling 911. He remembered the police, paramedics and child services arriving. He remembered sitting in the police station with Alex in the chair next to him, being told that his mother is dead. He remembered how the next day how their grandparents, Samuel and Beast, showed up at the station to take them home with them. He remembered being whisked from the well-populated suburbs to a mansion in the middle of nowhere. He remembered-

“Robbie?” a familiar voice spoke, snapping him out of his memories.

Robbie looked over to see Bog standing nearby, with a bit of a concerned look on his face. The Ampman pointed at the book and asked, “Is that a depressing story you’re reading?”

Robbie then realized that there were tears dripping from his eyes, which he quickly wiped away, saying, “No, I was just thinking about something from my past.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Bog asked.

“No,” Robbie answered, and then quickly changed the subject, “So there’s a kind of magic that can raise people from the dead?”

“Ah, yes, it’s a very powerful form of magic,” Bog stated. “But only one race in the Otherworld is capable of mastering it: the Malopixes.”

“Malopixes? What are they?” Robbie asked.

“They’re a race of people that use dark magic, and usually have skin and hair colors that range from shades of white, gray and black. They’re very terrifying when it comes to their power, but they’re not evil. Well. at least not all of them. There have been a few bad ones in the past.”

“And they can control death?” Robbie asked.

“Yes, but not all of them have the same power over it as others. Some can only revive dead plants; some can only do animals; others can do people but only for a short amount of time and the person is in between a state of life and death,” Bog explained.

“Zombies,” Robbie said.

“I guess,” Bog said. “But very few are capable of bringing a person back to life completely. The only Malopix I know that can do it is their General, Arsenic.”

“Arsenic? That’s a kind of deadly element in the Human World,” Robbie stated.

“Malopix names are known for being associated with kinds of poisons or death,” Bog explained. “Anyway, Arsenic got several requests from people asking him to bring their deceased loved ones back to life. But he always refused, saying that the dead person didn’t want to come back to life.”

“How’d he know that?” Robbie asked.

“Some people theorized that he could communicate with the souls of the dead, but others thought he was just saying that so they’ll leave him alone,” Bog said. “Then, one day, Arsenic’s own daughter was killed by someone. From what I heard, he was pretty devastated, and people were certain that he would bring her back to the world of the living. But, he didn’t.”

“Why?!” Robbie demanded to know. “Didn’t he want to see her again?”

“I’m sure he did, but he said what he said about all the other deceased people; she didn’t want to come back because that was her time to die,” Bog answered. “This shocked everyone, especially his grandson, the child of his dead daughter. From what I heard, his grandson threw a bit of a fit when his grandfather wouldn’t bring his mother back to life. There were even rumors that the child destroyed or nearly destroyed their house.”

“How old was the kid?” Robbie asked.

“About seven back then. He must be around your age now,” Bog guessed. “Eventually, Arsenic calmed him and got to him to understand that he can’t force a person to come back to life.”

“Oh, I get it,” Robbie said. “You need to get the dead person’s consent before your resurrect them!”

“That is a very likely theory,” Bog agreed. “And after that day, Arsenic didn’t get requests to bring people back to life as often as he used to. Though there were two incidents when the prince of Shadow Forest and the Prince of Alkristal Mountains came to him demanding that he bring back the former’s dead mother and the latter’s dead father, but he refused.”

“Whoa, he refused two people from royalty. I bet they were upset,” Robbie said.

“From what I heard, they were. The Shadow Prince was very angry, and the Alkristal Prince had a meltdown. But he got them to go back home and never ask him for a request again,” Bog said.

“I’m surprised neither of them demanded Arsenic’s head to be cut off,” Robbie said. “What with them being royalty.”

“I’m sure the Shadow Prince wanted to, but it wasn’t in his place to have it done. Arsenic was not a citizen of his country and even if he was, only the king could execute people, and I’m sure Lord Onyx wouldn’t do that,” Bog stated. “Anyhow, based on what Arsenic said about the deceased, I’m guessing some people would prefer to stay dead.”

“Even if they left a lot of people who cared about them and vice versa behind?” Robbie asked.

“Even then,” Bog said.

“I see,” Robbie said, beginning to wonder if his mother felt the same way.

Suddenly, Bog asked, “Do you have a deceased loved one?”

To Robbie’s own surprise, he answered, “Yeah, my mom. She died two years ago.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Bog said. “My father passed away some time ago as well. He was a great scientist. But his death didn’t put too much shock in us. Even he saw it coming, since for the last few months prior to it he had been kind of sickly. Also, he said he looked forward to going to the afterlife to meet with his ancestors and friends that had passed on before him.”

“So, you didn’t want to bring him back?” Robbie asked.

“Honestly, yes, but only a little, cause I knew it wouldn’t be right to do that to him,” Bog said. “Also, I don’t think I would’ve had the wits to meet General Arsenic. I heard he’s a very intimidating man. Don’t tell me, you’d like your mother to return to you too?”

“Yeah, kind of. I feel like how she died was a bit unfair,” Robbie said.

“How’d she die?” Bog asked.

“Well…” Robbie began until Alex entered the room.

“Hey, Robbie, whatcha reading?” she asked her older brother, pulling up a seat next to him.

“A book about magic,” Robbie stated, grateful that she had shown up; he really didn’t want to talk anymore about his mother. “Grandpa can use magic and he says there’s a chance that we could use magic!”

Alex gasped, “Grandpa’s a wizard!?”

“A what?” Bog asked.

“A wizard is a human word for a person that can use magic, usually assigned to a man. The female equivalent would be a witch,” Robbie stated.

“I want to use magic!” Alex exclaimed. “Gimme that book!”

She tried to reach for it, but Robbie pulled it away from her, saying, “Hold on, we don’t know which kinds of magic we’re capable of wielding. The book says we need to get tested for that and Grandpa says he’ll help us with them later.”

“Well, tell him to hurry up, because I want to be a witch like Professor McGonagall!” Alex said.

Later that evening, Samuel had retrieved the items his grandchildren would need to use to test their magical abilities and set them on the dining room table in front of them.

He was sitting in his armchair in the living side of the room, ready to observe the tests. Beast was sitting in another armchair, wanting to see what his grandkids could do, and Bog was on the sofa, curious to see what powers the young humans had.

“So, for the first test is to see if you are capable to repairing and destroying objects. For it, you have a slightly cracked cup set in front of you,” Samuel explained.

The two kids nodded and looked at the cracked clay cups sitting in front of them.

“First, put your finger on the side of the cup where the crack is and imagine either breaking the crack more or fixing it,” Samuel instructed. “Then, the reaction you imagine might occur.”

Robbie and Alex nodded and did as told. Robbie put his finger over the crack and stared at it, picturing it in his mind. He imagine the crack running farther down the side of the cup, the original crack getting wider as it went, and then-CRACK!

Robbie snapped back to reality to see his cup had split directly in half! He looked over at Alex’s to see her’s was fixed.

“Very good. I was sure you’d have that ability, since I’m able to use it,” Samuel said.

“Cool, now I can fix all the stuff I break so your won’t know that I broke it in the first place,” Alex said, grinning.

“Oh, don’t get your hopes up, Alex,” Samuel said, getting up from his chair and picking up the cup. “You see the spot where the crack was?”

He pointed at the side of the mug where the crack was, where Robbie and Alex noticed that there was a bit of a bumpy line there now, like someone took clay and used it to fill in the crack. “Lines like that will appear on broken objects repaired by beginners, so even if you do fix something, I’ll know it was once broken. The line will eventually disappear when you get more skilled.”

“Darn,” Alex muttered.

Samuel then retrieved two small pots that contained a wilting flower, a tulip, Robbie thought. He set each one in front of the kids and explained, “This next test will determine whether you’re capable of healing. Simply touch a part of the plant your finger and try to imagine it getting healthy and see if it happens.

Robbie and Alex nodded and each gently put their finger on one of the flower’s shriveled up leaves.

Alex closed her eyes and imagine the flower slowly reverting back to it’s more alive and colorful form, it’s stem turning green and standing up straighter, it’s leaves glowing green and looking more full, and the petals smoothing out and lighting up a nice bright red.

“Good job, Alex,” she heard her grandfather say. Alex opened her eyes and saw that her flower now looked how she had pictured it to look in her mind. She smiled and looked at Robbie’s to see if his had done the same, but his still looked close to death.

“Don’t worry about your flower, Robbie. Not all magic users can use healing magic,” Samuel told his grandson, who simply nodded.

Then, Samuel grabbed the potted plants and replaced them with two cups of water.

“Let me guess,” Bog said. “Now you’re testing to see if they’re able to control water?”

“Yes, but I’m not sure if they have that power,” Samuel explained. “I, along with everyone else in my family, had never been able to use water magic. But you never know.”

“If they’re able to use water magic, I could teach them if you’d like,” Bog offered.

“Yeah, water magic isn’t too different from aquakinesis right?” Alex asked.

“Yes, I suppose that is true,” Samuel agreed. “Now, stick your finger into the water and try to imagine it changing shape in any way, such as overflowing in the cup or shooting out of the cup.”

Robbie and Alex did as told. Robbie shut his eyes and tried to picture the water shooting up out of the cup similar to a fountain, but no matter how hard he pictured it, nothing happened. Then again, maybe that was a good thing; he really didn’t want to get wet.

“Aw man,” Alex grumbled, when the result was the same for her. “I wanted to learn water magic.”

“Guess you won’t need my teachings then,” Bog said, a little disappointed himself.

Then, there was a loud crash from downstairs, like the sound of glass shattering.

“What was that?” Robbie asked.

Then, there was the sound of Ivan shouting something in Russian.

“It’s just Ivan. I bet he screwed something up in his lab again,” Beast muttered.

“He sounds really pissed,” Robbie pointed out. “He’s not normally angry when he messes up a machine. He just gets really anxious to hide the evidence from you and Grandpa.”

“Well, better go see what he broke,” Samuel said, walking out of the room.

Then, there was a loud snap, similar to the sound of a whip cracking, followed by the sound of Ivan screaming in agony!

“I don’t think Ivan’s yelling was about a broken machine,” Bog said, jumping to his feet.

The group ran out of the living/dining room, down the hall, down the stairs in the entrance hall and ran into the backroom of the mansion.

There, they saw Ivan lying on the ground, with a diagonal lash wound on his chest. It kind of looked like lashes people got after being whipped, only it looked fresh.

Then, the group noticed someone new in the room; a man wearing black leather pants, a white button-up shirt that was only buttoned half the way, a long red coat, and a red, wide-brimmed hat. He was also gripping what looked like a leather whip, which explained the sound from before and Ivan’s wound.

Upon closer inspection, Robbie noticed that this man also had these futuristic-looking single-lense sunglasses which stuck out from the rest of his attire. The boy heard Beast mutter, “Shit, it’s a Playa.”

The being, called a Playa, looked at the group, smirked and said, “Hey.”

The Playa silently stared at the small group of people standing before him.

Bog stepped up and questioned, “Who are you? Do you remember your name? Why are you attacking us?”

Instead of answering Bog’s questions, the Playa said, “So you’re the Ampman that betrayed the master.”

“I betrayed no-one,” Bog stated. “That ‘master’ of yours is controlling you! He is making you harm innocent people!”

The Playa cocked his head to one side and said, “Well, some people here might be innocent, but you and one man aren’t according to him.”

“Who, aside from myself, are considered guilty of some sort of crime?” Bog asked.

The Playa scanned the humans nearby until he focused on Beast and exclaimed, “The one with the blood red hair!”

He then snapped his whip at Beast, in an attempt to strike him like he did to Ivan a few moments ago, but Samuel caught the leathery weapon in his hand, preventing his husband from getting hurt.

“Nice catch, Grandpa!” Alex congratulated.

Robbie then noticed the Playa smirked and click a small button on the side of the whip handle. Suddenly, several thin needles began poking out of the sides of the rope, stabbing Samuel’s hand and causing the man to cry out in pain and release it.

Alex screamed, mortified to see her grandfather hurt, while Beast stood there in shock.

Bog jumped in front of the humans and said, “Get somewhere safe! I’ll fight the Playa until you find weapons for yourselves.”

“Alright,” Beast said as he and Robbie helped Ivan to his feet and helped him leave the room, with Alex and Samuel following close behind.

One the way upstairs, Ivan stated, “He broke in through the backdoor. I thought it was a burglar or something so I went to confront him. I had no idea he had a whip...shit, this wound fucking stings!”

“Don’t worry,” Samuel said. “Once we get you up to your bedroom, I’ll heal the damages,” Samuel said, as he used healing magic to heal his own hand.

“Gramps, who’d you piss off?” Robbie asked Beast.

“I don’t know, Robbie!” Beast snapped. “Someone apparently! I’m under a lot of stress right now because of what that Playa said, so don’t bother me with questions right now!”

“Sorry!” Robbie yelped. “So, that Playa is another Otherworld being? What about him sets him apart from us, he seems pretty human to me.”

“Playas have stronger immune systems than we do, strong enough to resist a lot of STDs,” Beast stated.

“Wait, you mean these people can’t get stuff like HIV or AIDs?” Robbie asked.

“Yep, their white blood cells had been tested for that,” Beast stated.

“Is it possible that we could use their DNA to cure all STDs?” Robbie asked, getting excited.

“Not sure, we never had a chance to test that,” Beast admitted.

“We?” Robbie said. “You mean you and Grandpa?”

“No, some other people, but that’s not the priority right now,” Beast told his grandson.

“Grandpa, will Bog be okay?” Alex asked Samuel.

“I’m sure he can handle fighting the Playa. Ampman are very strong,” Samuel assured his granddaughter.

Downstairs, Bog and the Playa stood a few yards apart from each other, not sure who should make the first move.

Bog decided to make an attempt to snap the Playa out of the mind control. “Focus Playa, try to fight against your slaver’s control. I managed to, so I know you can as well,” he said.

The Playa just responded, “You were just lucky. You’re very intelligent, but this Playa is kind of the opposite. He doesn’t have much willpower to use like you did.”

The Playa then whipped at the Ampman, who jumped out of the way just in the nick of time.

“I suppose you leave me no other choice, Playa,” Bog said. “I just want to said this ahead of time; if I seriously harm you in any way, I’m sorry.”

Then, the Otherworlder clenched one of his fists and threw a punch in the Playa’s direction. Within seconds, the impact of the attack collided with the Playa’s upper body, causing him to fly back and crash into a wall, leaving a pretty big dent.

Bog muttered, “Sorry Mr. Wagner. I might have to cause some damage to your house.”

The Playa staggered to his feet and glared at Bog, saying, “Looks like Ampman aren’t just all-brains after all. This is going to be fun.”

The Playa cracked his whip at Bog, wrapping it around his arm and yanked the Ampman towards him. As soon as Bog got close enough, the man punched him in the face.

Bog uppercutted his enemy in return, stunning the Playa long enough to free himself from the whip and jump back to a safe distance.

The Playa, rubbing his jaw, stared at Bog and said, “This is going to be harder than I thought.”

Meanwhile, on the third floor, the group had just gotten Ivan to his and Frederick’s bedroom. Before either of them had a chance to knock, Frederick threw open the door and asked, “Beast! What’s that noise going on downstairs-OH GOD! IVAN! WHAT HAPPENED?!?!”

“Calm down, Fred. I’ll explain in a moment,” Beast told the Brit.

After Beast and Robbie had laid Ivan down on the bed and Samuel began healing him, Beast explained to Frederick about the Playa intruder.

“And now Bog’s fighting him,” Beast finished.

“Do you think Bog can win?” Frederick asked, shaking a little.

“I’m not sure. When it comes to strength for Playas, it tends to vary. Bog might need our help just in case,” Beast stated. Then he turned towards Robbie and said, “Robbie, come with me.”

“Okay,” Robbie complied.

The two walked out of the room and made their way to the window seat room, where Beast opened the attic door and walked up, with Robbie following close behind. Beast went over to a stack of old boxes and began to dig through them.

“What are we looking for, Gramps?” Robbie asked.

“Weapons,” Beast answered.

“Why can’t we use the ones in the treasure room, like the whip or the axe?” Robbie asked.

“Because I don’t want to. Also I don’t want to risk losing them or getting them damaged, like what ALMOST happened to the shield,” Beast explained, glaring at his grandson.

Robbie nervously shuffled his feet and said, “That wasn’t really my fault. At least not entirely.”

Then, Robbie remembers Bog’s reaction to seeing the weapons he had the night before and how he almost snapped out of the mind control, and completely snapped out of it when he saw the lotus bowl.

“What if when we showed one of the Otherworld items to the Playa and it snaps him out of the mind control?” he suggested. “Like the whip! That’s from Playa Country isn’t it?”

“Actually, they’re homeland is called Playa City. It’s kind of more modern than the rest of the Otherworld,” Beast stated. “And while that plan could work, I don’t want to risk losing any of that stuff. It’s too valuable.”

Beast then pulled out something that looked like a vest out of a cardboard box. It had all these sheaths for blades sewn into it. He put it on and then opened another box, revealing to contain several kinds of knives.

“Whoa,” Robbie said, looking at the weapons in awe. “You fight with knives?”

“Yes, I either throw them or straight up stab people with them, but I try to refrain from causing any serious harm with them,” Beast explained as he picked up each knife and put it in it’s respected sheath.

When he finished, he picked up a long rectangular suitcase and popped it open, revealing an iron longsword.

“Whoa! That’s the coolest sword I’ve ever seen!” Robbie exclaimed.

“It’s your other grandfather’s. He said he made it himself,” Beast stated. “Using magic no doubt.”

“Oh man, I hope he teaches me how to do that. Then I can be like the warriors in Skyrim,” Robbie said, grinning brightly.

“You want to be like a warrior?” Beast asked his grandson, who nodded wildly.

Beast pointed at another box and said, “Look in there.”

Robbie went over to the box and opened it, where he saw a shortsword and a small shield.

“I can really use these?” Robbie asked, taking the weapons into his hands.

“Yes, but don’t try to do any crazy attacks with this, I don’t want you to hurt yourself,” Beast warned. “This is reality, not a video game.”

“Why do you have these?” Robbie asked.

“That sword and shield were intended as a gift for your mother from a friend of ours,” Beast stated. “But Samuel thought she wouldn’t need to learn to use them since we thought we’d live normal lives forever. Now since we’ve been proven wrong and she’s not here to use them, might as well let you have them.”

Robbie stared at the weapons in his hands. These were really going to be his mom’s? He couldn’t believe it.

“Come on,” Beast said, walking down the attic stairs. “I’m sure Samuel is done healing Ivan by now.”

Robbie nodded and followed him.

As they walked back to Ivan and Frederick’s room, they came across Leah, who asked, “What’s going on downstairs?”

“It’s another mind-controlled Otherworlder. This time a Playa,” Beast stated.

“Is there anything you need me to do?” Leah asked.

“Yes; stay in your room. You’re still in recovery and it’ll be too dangerous for you to hang around,” Beast told the girl.

“Fine,” Leah said stomping back to her bedroom.

“She looked pissed,” Robbie pointed out.

“She’ll get over it,” Beast said as the two went on their way. They found Samuel and Alex standing outside the bedroom, now accompanied by Constantine.

“All set?” Beast asked, handing his husband his longsword.

“Yes,” Samuel confirmed. “Ivan is healed but it’ll probably be better if he stayed in his room.”

Constantine then stated, “I heard the noise and wanted to help. Is there anything I can do during all this?”

“You can help by making sure the Playa doesn’t get to the third floor. I don’t want anyone else in the mansion to get hurt,” Beast stated.

“Got it, I’ll go grab the crowbar from the attic,” Constantine said, running down the hall.

“What about me?” Alex asked.

“You’re staying up here, too,” Beast told his granddaughter.

“But I want to watch!” Alex whined.

“Alex it’s too dangerous for you!” Beast argued.

Robbie took his shield off his arm and said, “Gramps, if you’re worried about Alex getting hurt, give her something to protect herself with.” The teenager then handed his shield to the little girl, who squealed excitedly.

Beast was about to protest, but Samuel interrupted, “We need to get back to Bog. I’m sure he needs our help at this point.

Back downstairs, Bog and the Playa were standing several feet apart from each other. Bog has a few lashes on his arms and upper body, but wasn’t fazed by the wounds.

The Playa had a few marks on his face and body as well, but like Bog, he wasn’t bothered by them either.

“Had enough?” he asked the Ampman.

“I was going to ask you that,” Bog stated.

“I’m kind of impressed. I expected you to be on the ground begging for mercy after the first few lashes,” the Playa admitted.

“We Ampman are tougher than we look,” Bog claimed. “And I believe I should say the same to you, Playa.”

“So, what happened to those human friends of yours?” the Playa asked.

“They went to retrieve some weapons to aid themselves in the fight against you,” Bog answered. “I’m sure they’ll be back shortly.”

“You poor guy. Can’t tell when you’ve been abandoned can you?” the Playa taunted.

“They would never abandon me,” Bog stated. “I know they’re good people. They will be back to help me.”

“Well, you better pray that they get here soon, because in a couple of minutes, you’re going to be one dead frog,” the Playa said before running at Bog.

Bog threw another punch at his enemy, but the Playa jumped out of the way, causing the impact to strike the wall behind him. Then, before Bog knew it, the Playa was standing right in front of him. He gave the Ampman a smug look before quickly wrapping his whip around the Otherworlder’s neck and tugging at it.

Bog felt his throat get crushed shut and suddenly, he was unable to breathe! The Ampman fell to his knees and began tugging at the rope with his hands, in a feeble attempt to rip it off his neck, but the whip was made of a very strong leather, so this act soon proved pointless.

At that moment, Samuel, Beast, Robbie, and Alex had made it back to the backroom where they saw what was happening to Bog.

“The Playa’s choking him!” Robbie shouted.

“I can see that,” Beast said, before withdrawing one of his knives and shouting at the Playa, “Keep that up and you’ll end up as a living dart board!”

“Oh, like a couple of knives will stop me,” the Playa taunted. “Besides, I thought you would’ve wanted to take me alive. Also, try to make a move and your friend here dies!”

“Dammit,” Beast muttered, gripping his knife tightly.

Alex looked at Bog, where she saw that he seemed to be on the verge of either passing out or dying, and became scared. What could they do to save the Ampman from being strangled to death?!

Then, she remembered something from the night before. Alex shouted at Bog, “Bog! Use your tongue to hit the Playa!”

“O...kay,” Bog managed to utter out before shooting his tongue from his mouth which latched onto the Playa’s face.

The Playa stopped tugging at his whip, and just stood there, frozen, before suddenly jumping away from Bog, freeing him from his bindings in the process, and began having some sort of massive freakout!

Robbie couldn’t tell what he was saying, since he was shouting in another language, most likely Spanish, but this is what he heard: “Oh Dios mío! ¿¡Acabas de lamer mi maldita cara !? ¡Eso es jodidamente desagradable! Sé que algunos Playas están interesados ​​en ese tipo de cosas, pero yo no soy uno de ellos! Quiero decir, dios!”

Then, the Playa froze again and looked at his surroundings, where he asked in English, “Where am I?”

Before anyone had the chance to answer, a familiar buzz rang out and the Playa’s head jolted. Then, he seemed to recompose himself and said, “Damn, I nearly lost control of this guy.”

“Seems like licking his face almost snapped him out of the mind control, Bog,” Samuel stated.

“Yeah, get him again!” Robbie suggested.

“I’ll try,” Bog said, shooting his tongue out at the Playa again.

Unfortunately, this time, the enemy saw it coming and caught Bog’s tongue in his hand, where he yanked on it, causing Bog to gag a little. Then, he released the tongue, where it quickly snapped back into Bog’s mouth, almost causing him to fall backwards.

“You okay, Bog?” Alex asked the Ampman.

“Yeah, my tongue hurts a little, but besides that issue, I’m fine,” he answered.

“Guess we’ll have to fight the Playa and pull the mind control off of him the old-fashioned way,” Beast said, before running at the Playa, gripping on of his knives.

The Playa jumped out of the way to avoid getting stabbed, causing Beast’s knife to sink into the wall behind where it once was.

“Damn! I missed!” Beast shouted.

Robbie ran towards the Playa, brandishing his new sword, with the plan to try swinging it at him, but the Playa snapped his whip at the teenager, where the rope wrapped around one of his legs.

Robbie stopped in his steps, worried that the Playa would press the button on the handle that would trigger the small spikes to poke out of the rope and tear up his leg. However, the Playa just gave his weapon a hard yank, causing Robbie to fall onto his back and drop his sword, which slid a few feet away from him.

The Playa then began to pull Robbie closer to him, prompting Robbie to begin clawing at the floor in a desperate attempt to try to reach his sword and keep away from the Otherworlder.

Samuel rushed forward and used his longsword to cut the whip from Robbie’s leg.

“Hey! You just destroyed my whip!” the Otherworlder shouted, looking at the remains of his leather weapon.

“That was the plan,” Samuel said as he helped Robbie stand up.

The Playa threw the whip handle down on the ground and glared at the humans silently. Then, a fiendish smile formed on his face and he suddenly ran towards Alex!

The little girl held up her shield in an attempt to block whatever attack the Playa was planning to do, but instead, the intruder just jumped over her and ran straight out of the room.

“Where’s he going?” Alex asked.

“To hide somewhere,” Beast assumed as he pulled his knife from the wall and put it back in its sheath.

“Come on, we got to stop him!” Robbie exclaimed, grabbing his sword and running out of the room.

Alex went up to her grandfathers and asked, “How is the Playa being mind-controlled? He didn’t have a helmet like Bog did.”

“I think it’s the sunglasses,” Beast theorized. “They don’t look like shades you’d find in the Otherworld.”

“But why does the Playa get sunglasses and Bog had to wear a big helmet?” Alex asked.

“Probably has to do with intelligence,” Samuel guessed. “Ampman are a very intelligent race so I’d imagine they’d be very hard to control. Playa’s on the other hand, no offense to them, aren’t really known for having high IQs. I’m not saying they’re stupid, but scientist isn’t exactly on their list of five most common jobs in Playa City.”

“What are the five most common jobs in Playa City?” Alex asked.

“Soldier, sex-ed teacher and clothing retailer,” Beast stated. “I’ll tell you the other two when you’re Robbie’s age.”

“But that’s so long from now,” Alex complained. “I want to know at the age I am.”

“When you’re older,” Beast insisted.

“Aww.”

Beast sighed and asked, “Bog, what do you think is our best approach to fight the Playa?”

When he didn’t hear a response, he turned around to ask him again but saw that the Ampman was gone.

“Dammit, where’d he go?” Beast asked, looking around the room.

“He must’ve gone after Robbie,” Samuel assumed just when his cell phone began to ring. He answered and heard Ivan’s voice on the speaker.

“Samuel, what’s going on downstairs right now?” Ivan asked.

“Not much; I just destroyed the Playa’s whip and he ran off. Now Robbie and Bog are chasing him,” Samuel answered. “Currently, we don’t know where in the mansion they are.”

“Oh no, that’s not good,” Ivan said.

“I’m sure they’ll be fine. The Playa doesn’t have a weapon to fight with so they might be able to take him down,” Samuel stated.

“That’s what you think,” Ivan replied. “There was something I found on Bog’s helmet that you need to know about.”

“What was it?” Beast asked.

“It was a small camera,” Ivan explained. “I think whoever was mind-controlling Bog was using the camera to see what Bog saw so he could navigate around the mansion.”

“Bog only saw the backroom and a fourth of the second floor,” Beast stated. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Didn’t Bog go into the treasure room?” Ivan asked.

“Yeah, he followed Robbie in the-,” Beast began saying until he realized what Ivan was trying to tell him. “Shit! He’s going after the whip I got from Playa city!”

Meanwhile, Bog and Robbie had followed the Playa upstairs and were chasing him down the hall.

“Running won’t do him any good,” Bog stated. “He’ll come across a dead end eventually.”

“Yeah, why did he even run up here? Why not go outside?” Robbie asked.

Then, the Playa turned around the left corner and not even a moment later, there was a loud bang!

Robbie and Bog went around the corner to see that the Playa had kicked open the doors to the treasure room.

“What is he doing in there?” Robbie wondered out loud.

“Are there any other objects in that room, besides the lotus bowl?” Bog asked.

“Yeah, there’s an axe, but it’s really heavy, well for me it was, a tomahawk, a shield, a whi-,” Robbie began explaining before he suddenly shouted, “Oh god, he’s after the whip!”

Bog and Robbie ran towards the treasure room and were about to enter it when something snapped an inch away from Robbie’s nose and left a huge mark on the wall!

The duo looked into the room to see the Playa gripping the whip, giving them a very smug grin. “I remembered seeing this whip in this room when I was controlling the frogman. Very fortunate to have it handy when my original weapon got cut up by the old man,” he explained.

The Playa then suddenly cracked his new whip at Robbie, which resulted in the boy being forced back into a wall and slumping down to the floor. Robbie looked down at his upper body to see that the whip had tore through his shirt and there was now a huge bleeding lash mark on his chest, which stung like hell.

Robbie tried to move, but the wound began to hurt even more. Now he knew how Ivan felt after he got whipped by the Playa!

“Robbie, how bad is the pain?” Bog asked the teenager.

“A complete 10,” Robbie answered.

“Is that bad?”

“Very bad.”

The Playa laughed maniacally and sneered, “If you like that, wait’ll you see what I do to the Ampman!”

He was about to snap his whip at Bog, but then a familiar voice shouted from down the nearby stairwell.

“Beast! Bog! Robbie! What’s going on down there?” It was Leah!

“Is that the young girl I punched into a wall the other night?” the Playa asked, getting an intrigued look on his face.

Robbie, seeing the Otherworlder’s expression and getting a horrible feeling from it, shouted at the top of his lungs, “LEAH! RUN!”

The Playa looked back at Robbie and Bog and said, “On second thought, I’ll destroy you two later. I kind of want have a little fun for a few moments.”

Then, he roundhoused Bog in the head, knocking the Ampman to the ground and made a run for the stairs.

“Run? Why should I run?” Leah asked from the third floor.

“Cause the Playa is about to go after you!” Robbie hollered.

The Playa then stood at the bottom of the stairs where he and Leah could see each other, where the latter muttered, “Oh shit!” and began to run away.

“Ooh, this one’s a runner,” the Playa said before heading up the stairs.

Robbie looked over at Bog to see that the Ampman was unconscious, where he grabbed his shoulder and began to shaking him, shouting, “Bog! Wake up!”

Upstairs on the third floor, Leah had gotten into the window seat room and began to try jumping to reach for the string that was connected to the ceiling door that led up to the attic, but due to her still-healing injuries from the night before, it was now a pretty difficult task.

If she could just get into the attic, she might be able to avoid the Playa!

The Playa walked into the room and saw what Leah was doing, where he stated, “Running is pointless. Giving up is a lot easier.”

“Like hell!” Leah shouted, making another attempt to grab the cord, where she finally succeeded. She was about to pull it down when the Playa snapped his whip at her hand, causing her to cry out in pain and let go.

“Now since you’re way of escape is no longer an option, what say we settle down and have some fun,” the Playa said, licking his lips.

Then, the Playa felt something hit the back of his head, causing him to stumble forward a bit. He turned around to see Constantine standing behind him, gripping the crowbar.

“Don’t you even THINK about going near my daughter!” the Cuban snapped.

“Great, the overprotective father type. I hate these,” the Playa groaned.

Constantine swung the crowbar at the Otherworld being again, but this time, the Playa moved his head out of the way to avoid being hit.

When Constantine tried to hit him again, the Playa caught the crowbar in his hand, and punched the Cuban man in the face, causing him to release the crowbar and stumble back a little.

Then, the Playa struck Constantine on the head with the crowbar, knocking him unconscious and flat to the ground.

Leah had backed herself into a corner, horrified by what she had just seen and then tried to make a mad dash to the exit of the room.

Unfortunately, the Playa saw her trying to get away and snapped his whip to wrap around one of her legs, causing her to fall to the floor. He then began to pull her closer to him, saying, “Now  come on, don’t be like that. You might have fun.”

“HELL NO!” Leah screamed.

Meanwhile, back on the second floor, Bog had finally regained consciousness, where Robbie told him, “The Playa is going after Leah!”

“Dear god, I hope he doesn’t hurt her in any way,” Bog said as he stumbled to his feet.

“The way his tone changed when he saw her, I’m scared that he might try to rape her or something,” Robbie stated.

“Don’t worry, Robbie; rape is considered a crime in the Otherworld, especially Playa City, so I doubt he’d do that,” Bog stated.

“Bog, the Playa is being mind-controlled by someone!” Robbie shouted. “And considering that the Playa can talk, I bet the controller is speaking through him so I don’t think the real Playa has any say in what he’s doing right now!”

Upon saying that, Robbie noticed that Bog’s dark green skin turned to a slightly lighter shade and soon, he was running up to the third floor.

At that moment, Beast, Samuel and Alex had found Robbie on the floor, where Samuel immediately began healing his grandson.

“Robbie, what happened?” Beast asked. “Where’s Bog and the Playa?”

“The Playa went after Leah,” Robbie stated. “And Bog is now going after the Playa. I just hope he gets to him in time before he does anything terrible to Leah.”

Back on the third floor, Leah was lying on the ground in front of the Playa, who was looking down at her with the creepiest of grins on his face.

“Now, I believe it’s time for you to give in, don’t you think?” he said.

“Listen, whoever you really are, Playa, please snap out of it! You don’t want to do this!” Leah shouted.

“The Playa may not want to do it, but there’s nothing he can do to stop me, so I can use his body any way that I want!” the Playa stated sadistically.

As the Playa started to lean down to grab Leah, she let out a loud scream! The Playa froze, possibly from shock caused by the noise and then he looked at his hand and then at Leah with her scared expression.

He gasped and straightened up, saying, “Oh, dear god, I’m sorry! That shouldn’t have happened! This shouldn’t be happening!”

Then, a loud buzzer rang out and the Playa reverted back to his mind-controlled personality. “Ignore him. He doesn’t know how to have fun,” he claimed.

Then, his head jolted and the real Playa’s personality took control again and said, “What you’re trying to do right now isn’t fun! It’s wrong!”

Then the buzzer rang out again.

“If you don’t like it, then stay out of it!” the evil voice snapped.

“I can’t stay out of it cause you’re using my body to do it!” the real Playa shouted back.

BZZZ!

“It’s not like I’ll let her live afterward! I’ll kill her when I’m done so she won’t have to live with the trauma.”

“That’s even worse!”

BZZZ!

“Okay, I’ll let her stay alive! Happy?”

“I’d be happier if you didn’t rape her!”

BZZZ!

“You’re not easy to please, are you?”

“I don’t approve of you raping anyone!”

BZZZ!

“Just look at this girl! She’s very tempting and is practically asking for it!”

“How a person looks shouldn’t determine whether or not they deserve to be raped! It’s bad no matter what the circumstances are!”

BZZZ!

“Oh fuck off, why don’t you?!”

“No! YOU fuck off!”

Leah just sat there on the floor, watching what was happening before her in stunned silence.

“I can’t believe this is actually happening; he’s arguing with his mind controller,” she thought to herself.

At that moment, Constantine began to regain consciousness and saw the Playa yelling at himself, where he asked Leah, “What the HELL is going on?!”

“The mind-controller tried to make the Playa do something he didn’t like, so now they’re arguing with each other,” Leah explained.

Then, the Playa grabbed the sunglasses he was wearing and began trying to pull them off.

The buzzer rang out several times, trying to regain control of the Playa, but it didn’t seem to have any effect on him, and he just kept pulling at the lenses.

“Dammit! How do I get these off?!” he shouted.

“Need a little help with those?” a familiar voice asked.

The Playa looked over to see Bog running at him, where the Ampman punched him dead in the face, shattering the sunglasses off his face. The Otherworld being fell to the ground unconscious almost immediately.

“Don’t you think that was a bit much?” Leah asked.

“You hit me with a crowbar,” Bog stated.

“Fair enough.”

Constantine staggered to his feet and helped Leah up while saying, “Well, I think it’s safe to say that whoever is mind-controlling these Otherworlders is a man, because I’m pretty sure a woman wouldn’t control someone into raping a girl.”

“Good theory, you might want to inform Beast of that,” Bog said as he lifted the Playa onto his shoulders and began to carry him out of the room. “I’m very sorry that you almost got assaulted, Leah. But I’m sure the Playa might feel worse about it when he wakes up.”

“Why’s that?” Leah asked.

“Rape is considered a horrible crime in the Otherworld, to the point where if someone commits the act, they are immediately put to death,” Bog stated.

“Wow, the Otherworld handles rape crimes a lot better than the Human World does,” Leah stated. “Makes me want to live there.”

“What do you mean?” Bog asked.

“Well, when a woman is raped and reports it, a majority of the time the rapist either gets a light sentence, like only a few months in jail, or they get off scot-free somehow,” Leah explained. “And the woman is usually accused of lying about the rape, especially if the criminal is a famous person. Or they try to blame the rape on her because of what she wore when it happened and stuff like that.”

“What if a man gets raped by a woman?” Bog asked, curious.

“He usually gets mocked for it, especially by other men, who tell him that he should’ve enjoyed it cause ‘he got laid’,” Leah answered.

Bog’s skin turned to a lighter shade and he said, “That sounds horrible. I’m debating whether or not to tell the Playa this when he wakes up.”

“How do you think he’ll react?” Leah asked.

“Anger and horror maybe,” Bog guessed.

“Why a death sentence, though?” Constantine asked.

“If a person raped someone once, they might do it again,” Bog answered simply. “Don’t want to risk let them go free.”

“Makes sense to me,” Leah agreed as she picked up the remnants of the mind-control shades. “If we ever meet this mind-controller guy, I’m going to kick his ass for trying to manipulate that Playa into assaulting me.”

“I’m sure the Playa will gladly help you do that,” Bog said as he walked out of the room.

Downstairs, Samuel had just finished healing Robbie’s wound when Bog came downstairs carrying the Playa.

“Sweet, you got him,” Robbie said.

“He snapped out of his mind-control when the controller tried to use his body to rape Leah,” Bog explained. “Then they argued with each other until I punched the glasses off of him.”

“Thank god,” Beast said. “It would have been devastating if that bastard had succeeded.”

“Constantine thinks the mind-controller is a man because of this act,” Bog stated.

“He might be right about that,” Beast agreed. “Put the Playa in the clinic where you were. We’ll worry about him later.”

“And where will I stay?” Bog asked.

“We have a lot of spare bedrooms in this mansion,” Samuel stated. “We’ll give you the key to one of them and that’ll be your room until we return you to the Otherworld.”

“Thank you. I appreciate that,” Bog replied.

A little while later, after the Playa had been put in the clinic to rest and Bog had gotten himself situated in one of the spare bedrooms, everyone began gathering in the living/dining room for dinner.

Robbie and Alex had noticed the objects used for their magic tests were still sitting on the table, where Alex told Samuel frantically, “Grandpa, we never finished our magic tests!”

“I know, but don’t worry, we’ll finish them tomorrow,” Samuel replied as he collected the objects and put them in a box to set aside. “Assuming, of course, that there are no interruptions.”

“But I want to finish them now,” Alex stated.

“I know, but you’ve gone through a lot earlier and I don’t want you two to exhaust your energy,” Samuel said. “Especially Robbie, since he got injured. I want to give him time to recover before using his magic again.”

“Okay,” Alex replied, but still seemed pretty unhappy.

At that moment, Beast entered the room, holding the remnants of the Playa’s whip and laid the pieces out on the table. “I put my whip back in the treasure room,” he stated. “Samuel, do you think you can repair the Playa’s old whip?”

“Of course,” Samuel said, before putting one of his fingers on one of the leather pieces and said, “Sarcio.”

Just like with the vase, the pieces of the whip began pulling towards each other, and within seconds, the whip was fully repaired.

“What language is that you’re speaking in when you use the spells anyway?” Robbie asked his grandfather.

“Latin. It’s a very ancient language, so it’s attached to magic the most,” Samuel answered.

“So I’ll have to learn Latin if I want to use magic?” Robbie asked.

“It would seem so,” Samuel said. “But don’t worry; Latin isn’t too difficult of a language to learn. A lot of English words come from Latin.”

“So not only will I have my school classes to worry about, I have to learn magic spells in Latin,” Robbie said. “It’s going to be a hell of a school year once summer vacation is over.”

“Speaking of school, I asked Alex what grade she was going to be in when summer was over, so I believe I need to ask you the same question, Robbie,” Bog stated. “What grade are you going to study next?”

“I’m going to be in 10th grade,” Robbie stated.

“What do you learn in 10th grade?” Bog asked.

“Well, in human school, we don’t learn the same thing in each grade; we pick our classes and levels we want to study,” Robbie explained. “In my case, I’m taking World History part 2, P.E, Algebra 2, English 10 Honors, Guitar, Spanish, though I might have to change that to Latin now, and Biology.”

“Biology! That’s great!” Bog exclaimed. “Perhaps I can help you study.”

“I’d prefer it if you did my homework for me,” Robbie stated.

Bog frowned and asked, “Homework? What’s that?”

Robbie froze and slowly looked over at the Ampman, where he explained, “It’s work teachers assign students to do at home. And for some reason, they all seem to assign a lot of stuff for us to do at the same time, and because of the workload we get really stressed out from it to the point where a lot of us have school-related anxiety, it takes a long time to finish so we barely have any free time, we’re exhausted by the time we’re done and some of us want to take our own lives because of said stress.”

“Robbie,” Samuel said.

“Hey, I’m not exactly wrong,” Robbie stated.

“He’s not wrong, Samuel,” Leah said.

“That sounds awful,” Bog stated. “We have schoolwork and if we don’t finish that in classes, we finish it at home, and I guess that’s our homework, but that only happens to a few students in a class. As for assigning work for the purpose of doing at it at home, we don’t really do that. Well, Ampman schools don’t; I can’t really speak for the rest of the Otherworld.”

Robbie’s jaw dropped open. Then he shot up from his seat and stomped out of the room, muttering, “I don’t believe this.”

“Where’s he going?” Bog asked.

“No idea,” Leah said. “So yeah, the educational system is kind of fucked up with how they expect us to complete homework for four or more classes.”

“First, rapists barely get punished for their crimes, and now the educational system is a little out of place, is there anything in the Human World that isn’t messed up?” Bog asked.

Everyone in the room went silent, trying to think of a good answer. There were some people that opened their mouths for a brief second but then immediately shut it, and some just looked down, biting their lip.

Bog shook his head, “You humans have a strange and scary world to live in, and you have my pity.”

At that moment, there was a loud scream from outside, where Beast ran into the kitchen, threw open the kitchen window and shouted outside, “ROBBIE! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!”

“SCREAMING OUT OF FRUSTRATION BECAUSE OTHERWORLD SCHOOL STUDENTS DON’T HAVE TO DEAL WITH HOMEWORK!!!” Robbie yelled.

“WELL CUT IT OUT!” Beast demanded.

“WHY?! IT’S NOT LIKE WE HAVE NEIGHBORS MY SCREAMS WILL UPSET!” Robbie screamed.

“YES WE DO HAVE NEIGHBORS! THE BIRDS, SQUIRRELS, DEER AND MOTHER NATURE HERSELF!” Beast shouted before slamming the window shut.

Robbie was about to re-enter the mansion until he looked back up at the second-story windows; for a moment, he could’ve sworn he saw someone looking out the clinic window, where the Playa was supposed to be staying. Did his screams wake the Playa?

Robbie went back into the mansion and went up to the dining room, where he asked Bog, “Was the Playa completely out when you got him to the clinic?”

“He seemed so,” the Ampman answered. “Why do you ask?”

“I think he was looking out the window into the backyard when I was screaming,” Robbie stated.

“Well, I’m not surprised. You screamed louder than a howler monkey,” Beast replied. “I would’ve been more surprised if your voice didn’t wake the Playa.”

“Well, shouldn’t we go down to the clinic to check on him?” Robbie asked.

“Yeah! I want to meet him,” Alex agreed.

“As much as I’m glad to hear that you’re concerned for and eager to meet our new guest, I think we should let him be for the night,” Samuel stated. “If he did just wake up, I don’t want us to overwhelm him with the fact that he’s no longer in his homeworld anymore.”

“Okay,” Robbie and Alex replied.

After dinner, Robbie went up to the third floor to go to his bedroom where he looked down the hall where all the spare bedrooms were. He had no idea why his grandfathers had so many rooms in the house, especially bedrooms, which there were at least 20 of, not counting the bedrooms that were taken. It seemed a little excessive in his opinion.

Robbie examined the hall, where he noticed the door to the room closest to him was open and he walked over to peer in.

In the room, he saw Bog looking through a stack of books he had set on an old-fashioned wooden dresser. Robbie knocked on the open door, prompting the Ampman to look over at him and smile. “Robbie, what brings you here?” he asked.

“Wondering what you’re doing,” Robbie answered.

“I was just getting situated in my new room. I had brought some books from the library up here for me to read,” Bog explained. “This room is a little plain in my opinion, but it has all the necessities a person could need to be comfortable.”

Robbie looked around the room. Aside from the dresser, there wasn’t much furniture in the room; a bed with plain white covers pushed into the center of the wall, a wooden nightstand that had an old lamp sitting on it; and an old desk and chair. The walls were painted a crimson red, like the walls in the rest of the mansion, and the floor was brown and wooden. There was also a window that looked out into the backyard, but it lacked curtains, and a closet built into a wall. Bog was right; this room was pretty plain.

“Yeah, it’s a little dull,” Robbie agreed. “But I’m sure if you ask my grandparents, they might let you redecorate it a little.”

“I hope so. I kind of wanted to paint the walls a shade of green, like moss,” Bog stated. “And maybe get a different shade of green for the covers on the bed and curtains. But most of all, I’d like my own bookshelf.”

“For your biology books that you plan to read?” Robbie guessed.

“Exactly,” Bog confirmed.

“There’s some old furniture in the basement and attic,” Robbie offered. “I think I saw an old shelf in one of those places. I’ll show it to you tomorrow.”

“Thank you, Robbie. I appreciate that,” Bog said.

“I wonder how a Playa would decorate his room once Gramps gives him one,” Robbie said.

“I don’t know for certain, but I feel like it would be very flashy,” Bog theorized. “They’re very proud when it comes to things like aesthetic.”

Robbie nodded and thought back to when he saw the silhouette in the clinic window.

“What do you think the Playa is thinking right now?” he asked.

“Well, when I became conscious, my first thoughts were ‘Where am I’ and ‘How did I get here’,” Bog stated. “No doubt the Playa is thinking close to the same thing.”

“How do you think he’ll react when he learns he might be stuck here, in the Human World, for a while?” Robbie asked.

“I don’t know. I know I don’t mind, since this world is pretty interesting, despite its flaws,” Bog answered. “For the Playa, he might be okay with it, but he might not be. We’ll find out when we tell him.”

“Hopefully he won’t freak out about it, like how he straight-up panicked when you licked his face,” Robbie said, snickering. “Do you think he remembers that?”

“Like I said before, we’ll find out,” Bog said. “Hopefully he’ll forgive me for it.”

The next morning, Robbie woke up and started getting dressed for the day...when he noticed he had a scar on his chest. He knew it was from when the Playa whipped him the night before, but he didn’t expect it to leave a mark like that.

He grabbed a shirt and went down to the dining/living room, where several people were already seated.

He pointed at the scar and asked, “Is this permanent?”

“Well,” Samuel began answering. “Considering how deep the wound was and how long it took me to heal using my healing magic, I think it might be.”

Robbie stared at the mark for a few moments before asking, “Can we go to the public pool or beach sometime this summer?”

“Why?” Beast asked.

“So I can show my new scar off,” Robbie stated. “Maybe I’ll impress someone enough they’ll go on a date with me because I look like a tough guy.” Upon saying that, Robbie began to flex his arms.

“With your scrawny frame? I doubt it,” Leah said.

Robbie threw his arms down and said, “Someone might think I’m attractive!”

“A walking stick maybe,” Leah said, prompting Alex to laugh.

Before Robbie had a chance to argue with the older girl, Beast said, “Robbie, if you’re going to show that scar to people, I would come up with a story on how you got the scar first. A fictional story. I don’t want anyone to know about the Otherworld other than us.”

“I was thinking a wolf attack,” Robbie said.

“Wolves don’t typically scratch people,” Beast stated.

“A mountain lion then?” Robbie suggested.

“Mountain lions, or any form of wildcat don’t live close to here,” Beast replied.

“Sasquatch?” Robbie said.

“That doesn’t even exist!” Beast shouted.

“Well, amphibious-like monsters don’t exist,” Robbie said before pointing at Bog. “And yet here we are!”

“Ampman are not monsters,” Beast said. “They have intelligence and emotion. Anything with any form of intelligence and emotion is not a monster.”

“So monsters are stupid and emotionless?” Alex asked.

“Yes,” Beast confirmed.

“Like...Nazis?” Alex suggested.

“A wonderful example!”

Robbie pulled on his t-shirt and asked, “Can we go check on the Playa now?”

“Might as well,” Beast answered, grabbing his coffee cup and standing up. “It’s almost time for breakfast and I’m assuming he’s hungry now.”

“Yay!” Alex cheered, hopping out of her chair and running out of the room.

“I’m going to meet him too,” Leah said, getting up from her seat. “I’m sure he wants to apologize for what happened last night.”

“I shall come too,” Bog said. “I’m sure he’ll be more at ease if he sees there’s another Otherworlder around.”

The small group went down to the clinic, where Beast knocked on the door, asking, “You awake, Playa?”

A voice from the other side of the door replied, “Yes.”

Beast opened the door and the group looked into the room. The Playa was sitting upright on the clinic bed, staring at the people.

He was no longer wearing his wide-brimmed hat and long coat, which were set on a nearby table, the coat folded and the hat sitting on top, or shoes, which were on the floor next to the cot.

Without his hat and the mind-control sunglasses, Robbie had a better look of his appearance; he had tan skin, black hair that looked like it used to be completely slicked back but was now sticking up in some places, a light mustache, and dark green eyes.

“How are you feeling?” Beast asked the Otherworlder.

“Better, now since those sunglasses are off me, but I’m kind of confused about where I am,” the Playa admitted.

“Well, for starters, you’re not in Playa City or the Otherworld anymore,” Beast told the Playa. “You’re in a dimension called the Human World.”

“The Human World?” the Playa asked. “What’s a human?”

“They’re humans,” Bog answered, pointing at Beast, Alex, Leah and Robbie.

The Playa looked over at the Ampman and his jaw dropped open, where he immediately shouted, “Holy shit! You’re an Ampman!”

“Yes, and like you, I was wrenched from the Otherworld and was mind-controlled by some mysterious person,” Bog stated. “My name is Bog. Who are you?”

“José,” the Playa answered.

“José? Why do you have a Spanish name?” Leah asked.

“Spanish? What’s that?” José asked.

“It’s a human language,” Robbie stated. “You actually spoke it once when Bog licked your face and snapped you out of the mind-control for a moment.”

José cringed and rubbed his face. “I hate having my face licked. It’s an immediate turn-off for me, whether it’s a person or an animal,” he stated. “But yeah, I know what you mean. I do kind of remember that happening.”

“I’m sorry for licking you and causing you to freak out,” Bog apologized.

“No problem, no serious harm done,” José said. “After my freakout, I blacked out again.”

“At least until whoever was controlling you tried to use your body to rape me,” Leah stated.

José cringed again and said, “I’m very sorry you had to go through that. It’s a good thing I fended that creep off long enough for Bog to free me.”

“Yeah, it’s a very good thing he did,” Beast said. Then he slapped a hand to his forehead and said, “Oh shit, I forgot to get your whip to give it back to you. My husband, Samuel, fixed it for you. Just give me a moment and I’ll get it.”

Beast then exited the room, where Alex asked José, “How old are you?”

“Twenty-one,” José answered. “Why do you ask?”

“I just wanted to know,” Alex stated. “Wait, Bog, I never asked how old you were. How old are you?”

“Twenty-six,” Bog stated.

“Really?” Leah asked. “With how you talk, you seem like you’re older than that.”

“So I’m told,” Bog said. “A lot of people say I act very mature for my age.”

Alex then said to José, “My Grandpa told me that three common jobs in Playa City are soldier, sex-ed teacher, and clothing retailer. Is that true?”

“Mostly,” José confirmed. “Except for clothing retailer, it’s really more-so a lingerie retailer.”

Upon saying that, Leah and Robbie’s eyes grew very wide.

“What’s a lingerie?” Alex asked.

“It’s a special outfit an adult wears for someone they really love romantically,” José explained.

When the Playa said that, Leah and Robbie’s eyes got even wider.

“There are also two other common jobs in Playa City, but Gramps and Grandpa won’t tell me what they are. Can you tell me?” Alex asked.

“Sure; the other two common jobs are prostitute and pole dancer,” José stated.

As soon as he said that, Leah and Robbie’s eyes got so wide they looked like they were about to pop out of their skulls.

Seeing their expressions, José asked, “What’s with you two?”

Leah cleared her throat and said, “Sorry, it’s just that you’re giving Alex information you really shouldn’t give to a 6-year-old.”

“What’s wrong with that? She was asking, so I answered,” José said. “She would’ve found out at some point in her life.”

“True, but I think it would’ve been better if you had told her when she was, I don’t know, a teenager,” Robbie said. “Cause god knows what she’ll do with this knowledge when she’s little.”

“Telling kids this isn’t that odd where I come from,” José stated. “I guess Playas and humans really are different from each other.”

Leah nodded and then asked, “So, you said two common jobs in your homeland are prostitute and pole dancer?”

“Yeah, are those jobs uncommon in the human world?” José asked.

“Well, no, not really, but they’re seen as the last kind of job a person would want to have,” Leah explained. “And people who take those jobs are shamed for it, especially if they’re women.”

“Really? Wow,” José replied. “That kind of sucks. If a person chooses to do sex work for a living, whether temporary or permanent, I say let them.”

“What if a person is forced to do sex work by someone else, like in sex trafficking,” Robbie asked.

“In that case, it’s bad,” José stated. “People should never be forced to do something they don’t want to do. Consent is very important where I’m from.”

“Which is why rape is considered a crime in your world,” Leah said.

“Exactly,” José confirmed. “Wait, is that not true in this world?”

“Um....” Leah said, not sure how to explain the issue of rape in the Human World to the Playa without causing him to have a massive freakout.

Robbie then changed the subject and asked, “So, what job did you have?”

“I was studying to be a sex-ed teacher and I was close to graduating,” José stated proudly. “But to pay my tuition I had to pole-dance.”

Robbie’s eyes widened again. He was talking to a real pole-dancer. Could his life get any weirder? And would José still pursue that job in the Human World?! He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know.

At that moment, Beast re-entered the room, holding José whip. “Good as new,” he said, handing it to the Playa.

“Gracias,” José thanked. “I was worried that I’d have to get a new one somehow.”

Alex then went up to Beast and said, “Gramps, you love Grandpa romantically right?”

“Of course I do. Why else would I marry him?” Beast said, and began to take a sip of his coffee.

“Did you ever wear a lingerie for him?” Alex asked.

Beast nearly choked on his drink and snapped, “Okay, what the HELL have you been talking about after I left?!”

“Alex mentioned that you told her that a common job in Playa City is a clothes retailer, but it’s actually a lingerie retailer more specifically,” José explained.

“See what happens when you give Alex info she’s not ready to know about,” Robbie told the Playa, holding back snickers.

Beast rolled his eyes and rubbed his forehead, muttering, “Jesus Christ.”

Leah slowly stepped up to him and asked, “So...did you wear one?”

Beast glared at the girl and Robbie, who was still holding back laughter, where he said, “You each have ten seconds to live.”

The two teenagers ran out of the room, with Beast and Alex walking after them.

Bog chuckled and said, “These humans are very amusing sometimes. I feel like you may enjoy it here.”

“I think you might be right about that, Bog,” José agreed.

Later that day, José, wearing his coat and hat again, was sitting in one of the armchairs, while everyone else in the mansion were sitting elsewhere, looking at him.

Beast was the first to speak, “So how’d you end up getting taken?”

José stared up at the ceiling for a moment before looking at Beast and saying, “I was walking through Playa City, minding my own business, when i noticed someone standing alone in a forest area near the border of the city. I called to him, asking him what he was doing, but he stepped back further into the forest. I followed him, still repeating my question, but he kept going deeper into the woods. Eventually I lost track of where he was...and where I was.”

“He got you alone?” Samuel asked.

“I guess so,” José said. “Anyway, I was trying to figure out which direction led back to the city when I felt something hit the back of my head and I blacked out. When I came to, I found myself in some sort of cell, and I heard a lot of people screaming and crying around me, but I didn’t see them. I started screaming too, mostly demanding to know where I was. Then, I heard a hissing noise and I felt dizzy and passed out again. When I came to again, I found myself in your mansion. I think you all know the rest.”

Zara then asked, “Did you see your abductor at all?”

“Not really, but I’m pretty sure it was a man who was older than I was,” José answered. “I didn’t see any specific characteristics though.”

“So, an adult male,” Beast said. “That barely narrows it down.”

“Sorry I’m not much help to your problem,” José apologized.

“Don’t worry, you were plenty of help,” Samuel assured the Playa.

Robbie stepped up and asked, “Do you think anyone you know will notice that you’ve gone missing?”

“My sister, Serena, and my dad will definitely notice, and maybe a few of my friends, so I imagine there’ll be a search party for me,” José said. “So, when will you get me home?”

Samuel bit his lip and admitted, “We don’t know. It may take awhile to construct a machine that’ll allow people to safely travel to other dimensions, and even longer to find the one you’re from.”

“What! You mean I might be stuck here forever!?” José asked, standing up quickly.

“You might be here for some time, but not necessarily forever,” Samuel stated.

José sat back down in the chair, not looking very satisfied with this answer.

Robbie decided to attempt to cheer him up about his predicament by saying, “Hey, it’s not so bad in the Human World. This is a good opportunity to explore a place that’s completely different from your own!”

“Yes, I know I’m excited about being here,” Bog added, smiling. “You’ll even get your own bedroom in the mansion, which I believe Beast and Samuel will allow you to redecorate to suit your tastes.”

José just sighed, “Si, bueno.”

A short while later, José was lying face down on his bed in the bedroom Beast and Samuel had assigned him, which was right next to Bog’s. He heard a knock on the door, where he lifted up his head and said, “Entras.”

“What?” he heard Robbie’s voice on the other side say.

“He said ‘enter’ in Spanish,” Leah’s voice stated. “I thought you were taking Spanish?”

“Yeah, but I’m still figuring it out, and this school year I’m going to have to change it to Latin so I can figure out the magic spells,” Robbie replied.

After a moment, Robbie, Leah and Bog entered the room and stood around José’s bed, looking down at the Playa, where Leah said, “Wow, you look miserable.”

“Am I that obvious?” José asked, flipping over to look at his three guests.

“Yeah, what happened to that outgoing and happy attitude you had in the clinic a few hours ago?” Robbie asked.

“I didn’t realize I was going to be stuck here back then,” José stated.

“What’s at home that you’re really eager to get back to? Your job?” Leah asked.

“You’re education to become a sex-ed teacher?” Bog guessed. “I noticed some books on sex-ed in the library when I first got here. Perhaps you can use those to catch up with your studies.”

“No, it’s not my job or school; like I said before, I was close to graduating so there was nothing left to study, and I was planning on leaving my job to become a teacher since I was graduated,” José stated. “It’s just that…” Then, the Playa went silent.

“Just what?” Robbie asked, curious about what was bothering the Otherworlder.

José glanced at Bog and asked, “Do you have any family back in Ampman Country?”

“Yes, my older brother, Swamp. He cares a great deal about me, so I’m guessing he’s worried about where I am right now,” Bog answered. “You mentioned you had a sister and father who might be looking for you. Is it them that you’re worried about?”

José nodded and said, “I don’t know how long I’ve been captured by this mind-controller guy, but I imagine it wasn’t for a short time. Papi and Serena are probably losing their minds trying to find me. What if they stressed themselves out looking for me? What if they make themselves sick from being up all night searching? What if they gave up on trying to find me and are holding my funeral as we speak?!”

At this point, tears began to stream from José’s eyes. “I don’t want my family to worry about me like that. I want to head home to show them that I’m okay and they can relax. They can’t relax if they don’t know if I’m okay or not!” The Playa clenched his mouth shut to avoid letting out sobs, but the tears kept coming.

Robbie looked down at the floor. He knew what it was like to be torn away people he cared about. He didn’t have a chance to say goodbye to his friends in his old town before his grandparents took him and Alex away to the mansion, so for a while he was upset that he didn’t tell them what was going on and make plans to communicate or even see them again. It was because of this that Robbie was so hesitant to make new friends, cause he didn’t want to replace his old ones.

Bog stepped up to José, pulled a piece of cloth out of his pocket and handed it to the Playa. “Don’t worry. I’m sure your family is worried about you, but I’m sure they’re well. And I’m sure they haven’t given up on you coming home either. We’ll find a way to get back to the Otherworld before you know it.”

Leah scratched her head and then asked, “Say, the Otherworld is in a different dimension than ours, right?”

“Yeah, that’s what Gramps said,” Robbie confirmed.

“And this mind-controller freak, as far as we can tell, he’s abducting these Otherworlders personally, right?” Leah added.

“Yeah, when he got me and José. What are you implying, Leah?” Bog asked.

“Well, if this guy is going into the Otherworld to abduct people, then he must have some sort of machine that’ll allow him to do it, like a dimensional portal or something!” Leah exclaimed.

“Yeah, that’s true!” Robbie agreed, but then he frowned. “But how do we know that he’s not using magic or something to make a portal to do this?”

“If this guy had magic, he would’ve used it to destroy Beast and the rest of us himself,” Leah stated. “Or he would’ve used to to catch Bog and José, but he didn’t; he just used a blunt object to knock them out. Clearly, this guy is a coward who is too scared to deal with Beast himself so he kidnapped a bunch of Otherworlders and is mind-controlling them to do it for him.”

“That’s a very possible theory!” Bog praised. “He must have this machine in the same building where he worked and kept us all locked up, so if we find the building where his base is, we might get the to machine and use it to get home.”

“But we don’t know where this bastard is,” José said as he rubbed the tears off his face with the handkerchief Bog gave him. Then, he got a disgusted expression on his face and stated, “No offense, Bog, but this thing smells like pond water.”

“Sorry, it must’ve been in my pocket when I swam in a pond near here yesterday,” Bog said.

“Well, if we’re going to find this guy, we’ll need another mind-control device,” Leah stated. “But it’ll have to be more intact than the last two. Intact enough that Ivan will be able to track where the mind control signal is coming from.”

“What makes you think that there’ll be another mind-controlled Otherworlder coming soon?” José asked.

“You said it yourself; when you woke up in a cell, you heard the sound of several other people freaking out. They must be this villain’s backup assassins that he plans to use to kill Beast, and maybe the rest of us,” Leah said. “We’ll have more chances to get their helmets and sunglasses to analyze them to find this guy and stop him for good.”

“Yes, and if another Otherworlder is coming, they might attack at some point today,” Bog said. “José, you attacked the day immediately after I did, so this person might be sending another one because you failed.”

“I guess that’s true,” José said. “But what kind of Otherworlder will it be? It might be something harmless like a Weakling, or something dangerous like a Malopix. There’s no guarantee that we’ll be able to beat it.”

“We’ll have to try,” Robbie said. “I mean, Leah got Bog in a single hit and she survived one of his punches, and me getting whipped in the chest didn’t do anything severe. It just left a scar.”

“Oh shit, sorry about that,” José apologized.

“It’s fine.”

“What Robbie’s trying to say is,” Bog said. “We’ll find a way to defeat the next Otherworlder. And we know you’ll be a big help in doing that.”

José was silent for a few moments, as if thinking it over, before saying, “If you’re that confident that we’ll succeed, I guess it might work.”

“Good, then we’re all in agreement that we can do this,” Leah said, then asked, “So, before now, have either of you two interacted with a person from any of the other races in the Otherworld?”

“Nope, but my father has. He left Ampman Country for a time and met a couple of people, including respected people like rulers and generals,” Bog answered.

“Yeah, I never knew anyone outside of Playa City, but my dad had left at one point and made some friends just like Bog’s old man did,” José stated. “I wonder if our dads met each other at one point.

“My father has passed on, so I can’t ask him,” Bog said.

“I can ask mine when we get back to the Otherworld,” José said.

“Well, now since we got your sense of hope back up a couple of notches, I guess now we have to prepare for the next Otherworld attack,” Leah said.

“After what happened last night, I doubt Constantine will allow you to help this time,” Bog said.

“Damn, you’re right,” Leah muttered.

“And I’d better get downstairs so me and Alex can finish Grandpa’s magic tests,” Robbie said. “The sooner we finish them, the sooner Grandpa will teach us magic, and the sooner we learn magic, the sooner we’ll be able to use it to fight!”

Later that afternoon, Robbie and Alex were in the dining/living room again, with a lit candle set in front of each of them. Samuel was sitting on his armchair, observing them, and said, “So, this test is going to determine if either of you can manipulate fire. Put your hands near the flame, but don’t touch it; I don’t want either of you to burn yourselves. Then, focus your magic on the little flame and see if you can do anything to change its shape or size.”

“Is this safe?” Alex asked.

“You two are only beginning to develop your powers. I’m sure you won’t do anything disastrous, like burn the house down,” Samuel said. Then, the old man knocked on a wooden table three times.

Robbie took a deep breath and moved his hand close to the fire. Then, he pictured the flame in his mind and imagined it getting bigger until it could form into the shape of a ball. When he looked at the candlefire in reality, and saw that it had formed in a similar way.

“Looks like you’re able to manipulate fire, Robbie,” Samuel said.

“Aw, mine didn’t do anything,” Alex whined.

“Maybe another element, Alex,” Samuel assured his granddaughter.

Robbie looked at his flaming orb and exclaimed, smiling, “I’m a firebender!”

Apparently, Robbie’s emotions, most notably his excitement, can affect his powers in some way, because as soon as he exclaimed that, the fireball made a weird shade and set part of his hoodie sleeve on fire!

Before Samuel could stop him, if there was a way to stop him, Robbie began to run around the room, shouting, “OH GOD! I’M ON FIRE!!!!” while Alex screamed.

“Robbie! Stay calm! Just stop, drop and roll!” Samuel shouted at his grandson.

Robbie didn’t hear him and just kept freaking out.

At that moment, Beast stormed into the room, questioning, “What the hell is going on here?!”

Then he saw Robbie with his flaming sleeve and said, “Oh...well, that’s not good.”

“YEAH, NO SHIT!” Robbie shouted, before pulling his hoodie off and throwing it to the ground. He then proceeded to stamp on the flame faster than any Irish Riverdancer, until the small fire went out.

When he was done, his hoodie was a smoking, charred mess. “I think I need a new hoodie,” he said.

“You sure? That one still looks good as new,” Beast sneered, rolling his eyes.

At that moment, José and Bog ran into the room, the former asking, “What happened? We heard someone screaming.”

Then, the Playa’s face scrunched up and his hands flew up to his face, covering his mouth and nose, and asked, “Dios mio, what is that smell?”

“Burnt hoodie,” Robbie stated.

Bog breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Oh good. I was worried that the next Otherworlder had arrived to attack us.”

“Robbie, why the hell did you set yourself on fire?” Beast asked his grandson.

“The fire wasn’t intentional, Beast,” Samuel explained to his husband. “Robbie was just testing his fire magic and he got a little excited.”

Robbie looked at Beast, frowning, “Honestly, Gramps, do you think I just wake up in the morning and decide, ‘I’m going to set my hoodie on fire while wearing it today!’?”

“Well, considering that it was your generation that started the Tide Pod challenge, I worry that you’ll do stupid shit every day,” Beast said.

“What’s the Tide Pod challenge?” José asked.

“It’s a challenge where people eat something called a Tide Pod, which is a small packet full of powder and soap used to clean clothing, and try to survive,” Beast said. “A lot of people, mostly teenagers, got hospitalized or killed because of it.”

“That’s awful,” Bog said.

“And that’s just ONE challenge young people did to ‘test their strength’ or something,” Beast stated.

“Let’s carry on with the tests now,” Samuel said, not wanting to discuss the topic anymore.

Robbie returned to his spot behind the table and Samuel put out the candle lights and replaced them with two small rocks.

“Now for this test, you need to touch the rock and hold your hand close to it, and focus your magic to try to make the rock float,” Samuel explained. “This is to test your earth magic.”

Robbie and Alex nodded and poked at the rocks as told and held their hands close to them.

Alex watched her carefully, to see if it would do anything. Within seconds, the rock began to wiggle a little and soon, it was rising into the air!

“I did it!” she exclaimed.

She looked over at Robbie to see that he had accomplished the same thing and was spinning his rock in the air.

“Excellent, you can both manipulate earth like I can,” Samuel said, smiling.

José’s eyes went wide and he exclaimed, “So humans have magic too? That’s awesome!”

Then he looked over at Beast and Samuel and asked, “What powers do you two have? And the other people in this mansion?”

“Not all humans have magic. Only a small percent of them do,” Samuel stated. “I am part of that small percentage.”

“And I’m part of the large percentage,” Beast added. “Same for the other humans that live here.”

“Really? That’s weird. Magic is very common in the Otherworld,” José stated. “I never thought it’d be rare anywhere else.”

“Well, magic users used to be very common, but due to an incident hundreds of years ago, that’s no longer true,” Samuel explained. “But that story is very long.”

“Can you tell us it sometime, Grandpa?” Alex asked.

“Maybe when you’re older,” Samuel said as he retrieved the rocks and replaced them with balloons.

Robbie picked his up, tossed it to the air and watched it gently float back down onto the tabletop. “Balloons. Nice,” he said. “What does this test?”

“In the old days, magic users were tested on whether or not they’ll be able to use air-related magic by standing outside when it’s really windy out,” Samuel explained. “But, no such weather is occurring and the weather forecast says there won’t be anything like that this week. Rather than put it off until there is a very windy day, I decided to go with this more simple method.”

“So, what do we do with these balloons?” Alex asked as she bounced hers on the table.

“Well, you basically have to focus your magic on the balloons to alter the air in them. You can either make the balloon float up or make it expand in size,” Samuel explained.

Robbie nodded and held his hand close to the balloon, where he began to focus his magic on it. After a few moments, the balloon began to grow a little.

He looked at Alex to see how she was doing and saw that she had managed to get hers to float into the air. It was getting very close to the ceiling and she had a huge smile on her face, happy about her work, prompting Robbie to smile as well.

Unfortunately, this happiness was short-lived, because Robbie had failed to realize that his balloon was still expanding, and before anyone had a chance to warn him, the rubber orb popped!

Alex’s smile immediately vanished and she screamed, covering her ears.

Bog and José winced at the girl’s high-pitched shrieks as Beast went over to her and began trying to calm her down. “Nice one, Robbie,” he muttered as he picked his granddaughter up and carried her out of the room.

After they had gone, Robbie apologized, “I’m sorry! That was an accident! I didn’t mean to make it pop!”

“I know, Robbie,” Samuel said as he went over to the table and picked up the remnants of his balloon.

José then asked, “So are all human children sensitive to loud noises or what?”

“No, not all of them,” Samuel explained. “Alex seems to get more startled by loud noises than most children, whether it’s popping balloons or loud explosions.”

“I remember she started having this problem when she was three, and Mom wanted to take her to a doctor or someone, but we never got around to doing it,” Robbie stated.

“Perhaps we can put that on our list of what to do this summer,” Samuel said.

“Is Alex sensitive to music?” Bog asked.

“Only if it’s played insanely loud, but if it’s at a low volume, she’s fine,” Robbie answered.

“Well, if Alex’s ears ache easily from loud music, then she probably shouldn’t be around when we fight a Nymph or Goth,” Bog said.

“What are they?” Robbie asked.

“Nymphs and Goths are two races in the Otherworld that are known for using supersonic instruments as weapons,” Bog stated.

“Instruments? As in musical instruments?” Robbie asked.

“Correct. Nymphs specialize in every instrument in almost every genre of music,”Bog explained. “Goths on the other hand, are more limited. They only have a good handful of instruments to choose from and a few genres.”

“Wow, that sounds really cool,” Robbie said. “But you’re probably right. Alex probably wouldn’t stand being around one when they’re playing.”

Then, there was a strange noise coming from behind the mansion, which sounded like someone tuning a guitar that was attached to a speaker.

Upon hearing it, Bog said, “Everyone cover your ears.”

The four did as told and within seconds, the house began to shake! Though it was kind of muffled, Robbie could make out the sound of an electric guitar riff being played, which soon was followed by the sound of every window in the house shattering!

Once the music stopped, everyone uncovered their ears and ran into the kitchen to look out the window that looked down into the backyard.

Standing in the backyard was a tall dark-skinned woman with long curly blonde hair, gripping a pink and white electric guitar. She was wearing a short-sleeved white blouse with a pink flower pattern on it, black capris and sandals. She glanced up at the window, where Robbie saw that she was wearing sunglasses similar to the ones José had the night before, and stared at the group.

Author's Note: The reason I'm uploading another chapter today was because the fact that after I uploaded two chapters every week it ended on an odd number, and I'd much rather have it end on an even number. Also, I've been thinking about uploading more of the story each weekend, like four chapters, starting this Saturday, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to manage it yet. I guess we'll wait and see.

The four guys looked down at the young woman in silence, not sure what to do.

Finally, Robbie pointed out, “This one’s a girl.”

“Yes, we can see that,” José said.

Samuel walked away from the window and out of the room, where the other three followed him and Bog asked, “What should we do?”

“What we did the last two times; get that mind control device off of her,” Samuel stated.

“Will we have to fight her?” José asked.

“If she makes any actions to harm us, then yes, I’m afraid we might,” Samuel said. “That guitar riff was pretty much her announcing that she’s here for a challenge.”

“Is that a good idea?” José asked. “I mean, what if we hurt her? I don’t want to hurt her.”

“We’ll try to restrain from inflicting any serious harm to her, and if she does get injured, I’ll heal her once the mind control is removed,” Samuel said.

José looked down at the ground and bit his lip, not seeming to be completely okay with that response.

“What Otherworlder was that? A Nymph or a Goth? She had a supersonic instrument,” Robbie asked.

“A Nymph. It’s very easy to distinguish between the two races,” Samuel answered. “Nymphs wear brightly colored clothing, while Goths wear, well, the opposite.”

“Just like Goths in the Human World,” Robbie said.

At that moment, Beast ran into the room, asking, “Okay, what the hell just happened? That noise upset Alex even more.”

“The mind-controller sent a Nymph at us this time,” Samuel stated.

“And it’s a girl,” Robbie added.

“Well, at least this controller doesn’t discriminate between genders,” Beast said. “We’ll have to move everyone else in the mansion to the basement.”

“Why the basement?” Robbie asked.

“It’s the only place where they won’t be able to hear the Nymph’s supersonic instrument,” Beast said. “That music has been known to burst people’s eardrums and I don’t want Alex to get frightened by the volume.”

“What about OUR eardrums?!” Robbie asked.

“We’ll just have to be extremely careful,” Beast said. “Such as don’t be in front of her when she’s playing her instrument.”

Bog stepped up and said, “While you three retrieve your weapons, José and I shall confront the Nymph and keep her busy until you come out to help.”

“Are you sure you can handle it?” Samuel asked the Ampman.

“Yes, we just have to avoid getting hit by the supersonic sound waves to prevent damage to our ears and heads,” Bog said. “Who knows, maybe we’ll have subdued her and removed the sunglasses before you get outside.”

“Hopefully without making a scratch on her,” José added.

“I doubt it’ll be that easy, but you’re free to do that,” Beast said to the two Otherworlders. Then he turned towards Samuel and Robbie and said, “Let’s go get our weapons and get everyone to the basement. I already told Alex to go down there, so she’s probably waiting for everyone else.”

The group went down the hall and split in two; Beast, Samuel and Robbie proceeding down the hall to find any of the human residents that need to be warned, and Bog and José heading down to the entrance hall and going out through the backroom door.

The Nymph was still standing there, as if waiting for them to arrive. Now since they were closer to her, Bog got a better look at her. She was definitely taller than him and José, but she didn’t seem to have much muscle, so she couldn’t be very strong physically. However, as long as she had that electric guitar, she might still pose as a threat to them.

José gripped his whip, sweat dripping down his face. He was not comfortable fighting a woman, especially since he knew how much damage her could do with his whip based on Robbie’s wound. He made a plan to only use it to latch onto her arms and legs to restrain her or knock her off her feet. That wouldn’t be too bad. 

He looked at the weird sunglasses on her face. So all he and Bog had to do was find a way to get them off, but how would they manage that as long as she had her weapon?

The Nymph gripped her guitar and strummed a note towards the two. José and Bog quickly covered their ears to avoid being deafened or stunned by the noise. Then, she held the neck of the guitar and, now wielding it like some kind of big club, ran towards the two.

First, she swung her guitar at Bog, who leapt out of the way, avoiding the strike, and then she tried to hit José, who dropped to the ground to dodge it. Then, she raised her guitar above her head, ready to slam the instrument down on José’s body while he was still on the ground.

Bog shot his tongue out, which wrapped around the body of the guitar, keeping her from using her weapon. The Nymph glanced back at Bog and began tugging at her guitar to try to break it free from the Ampman tongue’s grasp.

While she was distracted, José jumped to his feet and wrapped his arms around her to keep her from moving.

“Quick Bog! Get the glasses of her so we can end this without trouble!” José hollered to the Ampman.

Bog hopped forward to do that, but at that moment, the Nymph used the heel of her shoe to stamp on José foot, causing the Playa to yelp out in pain and accidently release her.

The Nymph then swung her guitar at Bog, since he was now closer to her, and struck him in the head, causing his tongue to release the instrument.

The Nymph positioned her guitar and strummed a note at the Ampman, sending a soundwave at him and forcing him away several feet.

Bog’s ears began to ring and his head started to ache, due to the physical and auditory blow from the guitar.

The Nymph then swung her guitar at José, knocking him into the side of the mansion.

As he slumped down to the ground, he thought to himself, “This is going to be a lot harder than I thought.”

Meanwhile, in the mansion, Samuel, Beast and Robbie had just gotten everyone down in the basement and retrieved their weapons, and were currently making their way to the backroom.

They heard another roar of electric guitar, where Samuel said, “Sounds like she’s doing a number to Bog and José.”

“You’d think with two Otherworlders teamed up against one, they’d have defeated her by now,” Robbie said. “Then again, José did seem pretty hesitant to fight the Nymph. Maybe he’s holding back to avoid hurting her.”

“In Playa City, and a few other countries in the Otherworld, there’s a law that makes it illegal to strike a woman, unless it’s a case of self defense,” Beast explained. “That’s why José is so hesitant to fight.”

“But this Nymph is trying to kill us!” Robbie exclaimed. “Fighting her would be self-defense!”

“True, but remember; this Nymph isn’t acting on her own free will,” Beast stated. “She probably doesn’t want to hurt anyone and José doesn’t want to hurt her for it.”

Robbie then nodded and when another blast of music came from outside, he cringed and asked, “Are you sure Alex won’t hear this from the basement?”

“Positive. Samuel designed the basement to keep out sound,” Beast answered. “She’ll be fine down there.”

Down in the basement, Alex, along with the other humans in the mansion, were sitting there to keep their eardrums safe from the Nymphs supersonic music.

Well, almost everyone knew the reason they were there. Alex didn’t. All she knew was that after there was a loud blast of music that frightened her into crying again, Beast told her to go to the basement and wait for everyone else.
Alex ran down to the first floor and went into the den of the mansion. The den was where the mansion’s fireplace was, along with a big rug on the floor and a red lounge chair. Usually, it was used by people who want peace and quiet when the library wasn’t an option. It was also a good place to warm up after being in the snow or chilling rain. Samuel always had the fireplace lit on those days.

Also, in the den, was a door that led down to the basement, where practical things like the water heater, the washer/dryer, and the powerbox was located. There was also a bunch of boxes of old stuff or food preserves which were rarely used.

Alex didn’t really want to go in the basement. Not because it was scary to be in, but because she wanted to see what was going on upstairs. Was it another Otherworlder?

Meanwhile, the adults talked amongst themselves, and she decided to listen in.

“What Otherworld being is it this time?” Frederick asked.

“Beast said it was a Nymph,” Zara stated.

“A Nymph? As in the kind of pixie?” Ivan asked.

“No, these Nymphs are associated with music, and they used music as a weapon,” Zara explained, remembering what Beast told her.

“What kind of music?” Constantine asked. “And how do they use it as a weapon?”

“I could run up to the library and grab the notebook on Nymphs so we can find out,” Leah offered, ready to bolt up the basement stairs.

“No Leah, it’s too dangerous,” Zara told her daughter. “I don’t want to see you hurt again.”

“I’ll be careful,” Leah insisted.

Alex began to wonder about this so-called Nymph. “An Otherworld being that can use music as a weapon? That sounds cool! I wonder what they’re like.”

She looked up at the door and thought to herself, “I was able to see the fights with Bog and José, why can’t I watch the Nymph one? I want to see it!”

Author's Note: Chapter 18 will be up later tonight, and chapters 19 and 20 will be up tomorrow.

Back outside, José was a little unsteady on his feet. His ears were ringing and his head was aching a lot from the Nymph’s supersonic attacks, and he was starting to get tired of trying to dodge them.

Bog was lying on the ground, a few feet away, holding his head. An Ampman’s sense of hearing was more sensitive than almost any other Otherworlder, so the auditory blows were a lot worse for him. He had a feeling that this was probably similar to how Alex felt whenever she heard loud noises.

At that moment, Beast, Samuel and Robbie had run outside, where Beast asked, “How’s everything going?”

“Take a guess,” Bog groaned, as his eardrums throbbed.

Samuel ran over to the Ampman and began using a spell that would tone down the pain in Bog’s ears and head.

“How do we fight her?” Robbie asked.

The Nymph gripped her guitar and was getting ready to strum more notes at her opponents, when Beast shouted, “Spread out!”

José, Beast and Robbie spread out across the yard, prompting the Nymph to pause her attack and observe where they went. She seemed unsure about who to attack for a couple of moments, until she noticed Bog and Samuel. She turned to face them, gripping her guitar.

Robbie, seeing this, thought, “Oh crap! She’s going after Grandpa and Bog! I got to distract her before she hurts them!”

Robbie then spotted a small rock on the ground and threw it at the back of the Nymph’s head, shouting, “Hey lady! Over here!”

The Nymph whipped her head around to look at the teenage boy. Had it not been for the sunglasses covering her eyes, she probably would’ve been glaring at him, making Robbie think that this method was probably not a good idea.

Before he could do anything to save himself, the Nymph strummed her guitar in his direction, forcing the boy into the fence behind him. His ears rang as he stumbled back to his feet, and he could’ve sworn he heard Beast say sarcastically, “Good move, kid.”

Beast ran at the Nymph, brandishing one of his knives, aiming like he was going to stab her, where the woman used the body of her guitar to block the attack.

The blade pierced into the exterior and Beast tried to yank it out, but it seemed to be stuck in the instrument. He was about to grab another knife, but then the Nymph swung her guitar at him, striking him in the abdomen and sending him into the side of the mansion.

The Nymph flipped over her guitar and pulled the knife out with ease, which she then threw at José, who quickly dropped to the ground to avoid getting stabbed.

Samuel and Bog, who was healed for now, then snuck up behind the woman in attempt to restrain her before she risked hurting anyone else and hopefully remove the lenses.

Unfortunately, she heard them approaching from behind and immediately turned around and strummed a series of notes at them, sending several soundwaves that forced them both to fly backwards into the ground.

Robbie brandished his shortsword and ran up to the Nymph, swinging his blade at her. The woman used her guitar to block him.

Robbie then attempted to swing his sword at her side, but the Nymph managed to block him again. Either she was either a really skilled fighter or Robbie was horrible with a sword. He was thinking it was a combination of both.

Inside the mansion, down in the basement, everyone was starting to wonder how the fight was going.

“Do you hear anything going on?” Constantine asked. “It’s been kind of quiet up there for a few moments.”

Leah pressed her ear against the basement door and replied, “Nope. Does that mean they beat the Nymph.”

“Beast said he’d come get us once they defeated the Nymph. If they won, they would’ve gotten us by now,” Frederick stated. “Do you think something...happened?”

“What do you mean?” Zara asked.

“What if the Nymph...killed them?” Frederick asked. “Or is close to doing that at least. They might need our help.”

Alex, hearing this, asked, “Gramps, Grandpa and Robbie need help?!”

“No, no, not necessarily! They might be okay!” Frederick said quickly, not wanting the little girl to freak out.

“Shouldn’t one of us head up there to see if they’re doing okay just in case,” Leah asked.

“No! It’s too dangerous!” Frederick shouted. “Besides, what if the Nymph sees you and follows you back here! We’ll all be killed!”

“Frederick, you’re overreacting,” Zara told the British man. “Also, keep your voice down, you might upset the children.”

“Isn’t this mind controller just after Beast, though?” Leah asked, as she walked back down the steps.

“Yeah, but he might get rid of us because we’re associated with him,” Frederick said. “Do you remember what Bog did and what José almost did to you under the mind control.”

“That’s probably cause I got in his way,” Leah suggested. “I’m sure the Nymph won’t try to attack me unless I try to interfere with the fight.”

While the adults spoke, Alex began thinking about what Frederick said a moment ago. If her grandparents and brother WERE in trouble, she needed to get out of the basement to go save them! She had magic powers like Samuel and Robbie, so why couldn’t she help? What if they needed healing and Samuel wasn’t able to do it because he was also injured! Alex just couldn’t sit by and let her family die, especially since they were all she had left!

Alex crept up the basement steps without anyone noticing and opened the basement door carefully so it wouldn’t make a noise to alert her exit. She was about to walk out when she heard Zara’s voice ask, “Alex? Where are you going?”

Alex turned around to see all the adults looked up at her, and she answered, “Gramps, Grandpa and Robbie might be in trouble. They might need my help.”

“I’m sure they’re fine,” Zara assured the girl. “Just shut the door and come down here. I’m sure they’ll be here in a few moments.”

“But what if they’re badly hurt? What if José and Bog are hurt too? What if the Nymph kills them all! I can’t let it do that to them,” Alex argued. “Maybe that’s why we haven’t heard from any of them yet.”

“They’re probably just taking a while,” Leah said. “Don’t worry. They’re tough. They’ll be fine.”

“But are you SURE of that?” Alex asked.

Everyone went silent, not sure how to respond.

Alex just took a deep breath and said, “I don’t care what any of you say. I’m going to go and save my family!”

The little girl then bolted through the door and ran out of the den.

“Alex! Wait!” Leah shouted, running up the stairs after her, with Zara following close behind.

Constantine looked at Frederick and said, “See what happens when you voice your concerns: they become someone else’s concerns and they do something stupid.”

“Sorry,” Frederick muttered.

As Alex ran towards the backroom, she thought to herself, “Don’t worry everyone! I won’t let the Nymph hurt you! I’ll save your lives! Just hang in there!”

Outside, Robbie’s sword blade was now broken in half, but he still kept a firm grip on it and was still standing, even though he felt like he was about to pass out.

The Nymph swung her guitar at him again, though Robbie was too slow to dodge it this time and he ended up getting knocked in the side. The teenager fell to the ground and just laid there.

The Nymph stood over his fallen body and raised her guitar over her head, ready to strike him in the neck.

José, seeing the Nymph about to kill Robbie, got to his feet and used his whip to latch onto her guitar to prevent her from swinging it down onto the teenager.

The Nymph turned around and looked at the Playa, where she then ran at him and kicked him in the stomach, causing him to drop his whip and double-over in pain. She then kneed him in face and pushed him down to the ground.

She unwrapped his whip from her guitar, tossed it aside and looked down at José, who just laid on the ground, one hand on his abdomen and the other on his now-bleeding nose, groaning a little due to the pain.

The Nymph raised her guitar over her head, ready to beat him with it, when a little voice shouted, “Robbie! Gramps! Grandpa! I’m here! Do you need help?”

Everyone looked at the backdoor to see Alex standing outside, her eyes wide, seeing what was going on.

Robbie immediately shouted, “Alex! What are you doing out here?”

Beast, who was still sitting on the ground with his back against the mansion wall, then yelled at her, “I told you to stay in the basement, young lady! Now go back inside!”

“But you’re all hurt!” Alex exclaimed.

“Doesn’t matter! Get inside,” Beast commanded.

At that moment, Leah and Zara had made it outside, where Leah commented, “Whoa, you guys are a mess.

“Thanks for noticing,” Robbie muttered.

Zara looked over at Beast and apologized, “Sorry Beast, she got out.” She then went up to Alex and said, “Alex, we need to get back in the house.”

“No! Not while everyone’s hurt!” Alex shouted, before running off. “I’ll go back in once everyone’s healed.”

The little girl began to run over to Samuel, saying, “Grandpa! I’ll heal you first! Just tell me the spell and I’ll try to do it.”

“Alex! It’s too dangerous for you outside! Please return to the mansion!” Samuel told his granddaughter.

Before Alex reached her grandfather, the Nymph stepped into her path, looking down at her.

Alex looked up at the woman and said, “So you’re the Nymph? Wow, you’re really pretty!”

The Nymph, unfazed by Alex’s compliment, raised her guitar in the air, ready to strike the small child with it, causing Alex to yelp.

Robbie, seeing the Nymph threatening harm to his little sister, staggered to his feet as quickly as he could. He grabbed another rock and shouted, “Stay away from my little sister, you bitch!” He threw the rock at the woman, which struck the side of her head.

The Nymph turned her head to look at the teenage boy, where she then turned her body to fully face him and began to position her guitar to play it in his direction.

Samuel, seeing this action, immediately shouted, “Alex! Cover your ears!”

Before Alex had a chance to do so, the Nymph began strumming her guitar madly, sending so many soundwaves at Robbie that he was forced back into the fence again, which in turn caused the wooden structure to crack to the point that it might nearly break.

The loud noise crashed down on Alex’s eardrums, putting her in a brief state of terror and she immediately began screaming.

The Nymph stopped playing and quickly looked over at the crying little girl, seeming surprised by her reaction. Alex ran back towards the mansion and immediately clung to Zara’s hand, still sobbing from the shock of the sound.

The Nymph suddenly dropped her guitar and began to walk over to the upset child.

Robbie shouted at the woman, “Hey! Leave her alone! You’ve caused her enough agony already!”

The Nymph ignored him and stood near Alex before kneeling down and asking in a soft voice, “Are you okay?”

Alex whimpered, “No.”

“What’s wrong?” the woman asked.

“I hate loud noises. They make my ears hurt and they scare me, like your guitar did just now.”

The Nymph looked down at the ground and said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know loud noises upset you that easily.”

Alex looked over at the woman and, seeing that she was genuinely sorry about what she did, replied, “It’s okay. I’m fine now.”

Boy then pointed out to Samuel, “Alex’s crying snapped the Nymph out of her mind control. I wonder why.”

José, seeing the Nymph was distracted, jumped to his feet, ran over to her, and grabbed the woman around the back. He then used one of his hands to grab the mind-control sunglasses and began to pull them off.

“Whoa! What are you doing!?” the Nymph screamed.

“Hold still!” José ordered.

Within seconds, José had managed to yank the frames off the Nymph’s face and released her. The woman fell to the ground unconscious almost immediately.

The Playa handed the glasses to Leah, saying, “Give those to Ivan.”

Samuel stumbled to his feet and went over to Beast, where he began checking his injuries.

“Shouldn’t you worry about yourself first?” Beast asked his husband.

“You’re a priority to me,” Samuel said. “Also, I’m not that badly hurt.”

“Don’t mind me! I just got thrown into a fence!” Robbie shouted from where he laid on the ground.

“Heal your grandson. I don’t want him to whine the whole time you’re healing me,” Beast told the magician, who walked over to the teenager as told.

Beast then looked over at Alex and said, “Alex, come over here.”

Alex approached her grandfather, a little scared that he was about to scold her harshly for what happened.

Beast asked, “Why did you disobey my order?”

“Cause...you guys were taking too long and I thought you were in trouble, like you were hurt and might need my help,” Alex explained softly.

“Why do you think I wanted you to hide in the basement?” Beast asked.

“Because...you didn’t want my help?” Alex guessed, tears welling up in her eyes.

“No, that wasn’t the reason,” Beast stated, prompting Alex to widen her eyes in surprise.

“The reason was because Nymphs use instruments that emit extremely loud noises as weapons,” Beast explained. “I knew that if you were around to watch the fight, you would’ve gotten extremely upset by the loud music because of your hypersensitive ears, and I didn’t want to put you through that agony. Maybe I should’ve mentioned that.”

Alex looked at her grandpa, not sure if she should believe what he was saying.

Beast noticed the doubt in her expression and went on, “The point is, I didn’t want to put you in a situation that I knew you wouldn’t be able to handle, especially when you’re so little. I wanted you to be somewhere safe and happy until we took care of things out here. Alex, your grandfather and I love and care about you a lot, and we do whatever we can to look after you and keep you safe. You’re all that’s left of your mother and I’m sure she wouldn’t want her little girl to get hurt. Right?”

Alex nodded, “Right.”

Beast then put his arms out, allowing Alex to hug him.

José went over to Bog and helped him to his feet, where the Ampman said, “That fight with the Nymph was a lot more difficult than my fight with you.”

“Well, she had a stronger weapon than I did,” José stated. “I just have a spiky whip. She has what could be considered a club that can shoot supersonic sound.”

Samuel then helped a now-healed Robbie to his feet and the teen walked up to the two Otherworlders and said, “If a Nymph was that tricky, I wonder what fighting a Goth will be like.”

“I heard their music is much more powerful than Nymphs,” Bog stated. “This Nymph only caused minor damage to us, but Goths tend to be more...violent.”

“Grandpa mentioned earlier that Goths tend to wear darker clothing than Nymphs. I wonder if their musical style center more around alternative rock, like metal and punk,” Robbie said.

“What’s metal and punk music?” José asked.

“They’re very wild genres of music,” Robbie stated. “I’ll play some for you guys when my headache goes away and my ears stop ringing.”

“Good idea,” Bog said, rubbing his head. “I think I’ve heard enough music for now.”

As Samuel healed Beast, he said, “Bog, carry the Nymph to the clinic. José, get her guitar and put it in the treasure room where’ll it’ll be safe.”

“Okay,” Bog said as he walked over to the woman and carefully picked her up in his arms and went inside.

José grabbed her electric guitar and walked back inside as well.

“I’ll tell everyone that the Nymph is defeated and it’s safe to come out now,” Zara said, before entering the house as well.

Inside, on the way upstairs, José said to Bog, “It’s a good think we didn’t hurt her. I was worried that we might have to in order to get the mind control off her.”

“Yes, it is very fortunate that we didn’t have to rely on violent action,” Bog agreed. “I wonder why Alex’s crying snapped her out of her mind-controlled state for a moment.”

“Maybe she has a kid or younger sibling,” José suggested. “Or she works with little kids as a teacher or a daycare worker.”

“The teacher or daycare worker make more sense” Bog stated. “She seems a little young to have a child Alex’s age and a little old to have a siblings that young.”

José examined the back of the Nymph’s guitar, saying, “I hope the mark Beast made on the guitar with his knife is fixable.”

“It was only one stab into the exterior. I’m sure Samuel can fix it,” Bog said.

José nodded and kept looking at the instrument, until he noticed something on the side of the body of the guitar. “Hey, there’s a metal plate screwed in on this side,” he stated.

Bog looked over at the Playa and asked, “Is there anything printed on it?”

“Yeah, I think it says her name and what genre of music and instrument she specializes in,” José stated.

“What does it say?” Bog asked.

“Jane-Rock n Roll Nymph-Electric Guitar Mode.”

A short while later, while the Nymph recovered from her mind-control, almost everyone else was gathered in the dining/living room, talking about the Otherworlder.

“So, her name’s Jane?” Beast said.

“That’s what the plate said,” José stated.

“I’ve been wondering how she got caught by the mind controller,” Bog said. “Nymphs don’t typically stray too far away from their homeland, at least not alone.”

“Maybe he lured her away somehow, like he did with José,” Robbie suggested.

“Regardless of how this creep caught her, we have to find out if she got a better look at him than Bog and José did,” Beast stated. “It’s very important that we find out who this man is.”

“Well, we’re probably going to have to wait until tomorrow morning, so we might as well kill time until then,” Robbie said.

At that moment, Alex walked into the room carrying one of Beast’s notebook, saying, “I found the book on Nymphs.”

“Let me see that,” Robbie said, taking book from his sister. He opened it up and began flipping through pages until he stopped at one and said, “What’s with this list of music genres?”

“It’s a list of all the genres a Nymph could have,” Beast stated. “The next page has the list of musical instruments and what genres they fall under.”

Robbie skimmed the list and read some of the genres aloud, “Rock n roll, jazz, country, R&B...POLKA! What the heck!”

“What’s wrong with polka?” Samuel asked his grandson.

“It’s lame,” Robbie stated.

“Says the boy who listens to music by the Weird Al guy,” Leah muttered.

“Weird Al Yankovic is different! He’s awesome!” Robbie insisted, before he continued looking over the list.

When he was done, he said, “Metal, punk, Goth, and any other kind of alternative rock aren’t on here.”

“Those genres belong to the Goths,” Beast said.

“Did Goths use to be Nymphs until they decided to defect from them and create their own country and become their own race or something?” Leah asked.

“Actually, yes,” Bog confirmed. “It’s happened a few thousand years ago, but I’m not educated on all the details regarding that point in history.”

“But Nymphs and Goths don’t get along too well,” Beast said. “Well, actually the Goths get really annoyed by the Nymphs. The Nymphs can tolerate their presence.”

“Just like Goths and conformists in our world,” Robbie pointed out. Then his eyes lit up and he said, “Since I’m sure all our heads no longer ache, I can show the Otherworlders punk and metal music.”

Robbie pulled out his cell phone and began scrolling through his music app. “I’ll play a metal song first,” he said before clicking one.

Soon, “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne began to play on his phone.

“Who is this artist?” Bog asked.

“Ozzy Osbourne. He’s a metal singer and part of a band called Black Sabbath, or at least he was...I think,” Robbie stated. “I don’t really keep up with his music much so I’m not sure. I only know a few of his songs.”

“Didn’t that guy bite the head off a live bat once?” Leah asked.

“He did,” Constantine confirmed. “But it was meant to be a fake bat. But someone either made an extreme mistake or someone wanted to play a sick prank on him and it ended up being real.”

“Poor bat,” Alex said.

“You’re an Ozzy Osbourne fan?” Robbie asked.

“Yeah, but I only went to one of his concerts and it was VERY disappointing,” Constantine stated.

“What happened?” Zara asked.

“Well, the show started, Ozzy appeared from a circle of flames. He belted out three words from a song he was about to sing...and then he passed out onstage. Three words, concert over,” Constantine explained.

“It’s a miracle that man is still alive now. He was like, 98% drugs back in the day,” Beast stated.

“He sounds like an interesting man,” Bog commented.

“Do you have drugs in the Otherworld?” Robbie asked curiously.

“Which kind?” José asked. “The kind that are used as medicine to get rid of sickness or the kind that make you high as a kite, cause we have both.”

“Nice!” Robbie exclaimed.

“What, you want us to send you some when we get back home?” José asked.

“If it’s not too much trouble,” Robbie said.

“Robbie!” Beast snarled.

“Relax, Gramps,” Robbie said. “I’ll only use them when I’m very stressed out, probably because of school finals.”

“I’d prefer it if you didn’t use any at all!” Beast snapped.

While Beast scolded Robbie, Zara’s phone began to ring. The woman answered it, “Hello? Oh, Skylar, hi. Do you want to talk to Alex? Okay, I’ll give her my phone.”

Zara handed her cell to the little girl and said, “It’s Skylar.”

Alex answered, “Hi Skylar. What’s going on?” After a few seconds, she shouted, “OH NO!”

Everyone went silent and Beast asked, “What happened?”

“It’s Skylar! He accidentally slipped up and told Darrian about Bog,” Alex stated.

“Put him on speakerphone now!” Beast ordered.

Alex did as told and set the phone on the table so everyone could hear Skylar. “Sorry, guys. I mentioned it without thinking,” the little boy’s voice said.

“What exactly happened that led to you telling her?” Samuel asked.

“Well, my mom was reading an article in some magazine about how someone claimed to have spotted a swamp monster somewhere in the Mississippi, and she said something along the lines of swamp monsters aren’t real...and I may have said that they were and I was nearly killed by one a few nights ago,” Skylar explained.

“What was her reaction?” Beast asked.

“I...didn’t really look. I just bolted out of there and ran away from home,” Skylar stated.

“Ran away! Skylar, where are you?” Leah asked.

“Well, after I packed my stuff and left my house, I went to the park. There, I called my uncle to come and get me and now I’m at his house,” Skylar explained. “Don’t worry, he’s not listening to this. I’m in a guest room with his dog, Queenie. We can trust her. Say hi, Queenie.”

When Robbie hears of a pet named Queenie, specifically a dog, he usually imagines it to be some kind of lap dog, like a Yorkie, Pomeranian, or a pug, and he expected to hear a small, yappy bark on the phone. Instead, he heard a loud powerful bark that caused everyone to jump.

“She’s a Rottweiler. Don’t worry, she’s a sweetheart,” Skylar stated. “I’m scared that mom is telling the presses about Bog as we speak!”

“Skylar, you’re a little 8-year-old. I’m sure your mother thought that you were just making up the Ampman thing,” Robbie said.

Skylar then went silent for a moment before saying, “Well now since you mention that...I think I did hear her laugh after I slipped up. Dang, she must’ve thought I was kidding!”

“And now she’s probably freaking out about where you are cause you ran out of the house all of a sudden,” Leah said.

Then, Zara’s phone began to receive another call. “It’s your mother,” she stated.

“Okay, I guess I’ll go now,” Skylar said, before hanging up.

Zara picked up her phone, turned off speakerphone and answered the call, “Hello Darrian...yes, we did get in contact with Skylar. He’s at his uncle’s house right now...he said he told you about the Ampman...I’ll explain, but you’ll have to be here in person to believe me...okay, we’ll expect you and Skylar to swing by tomorrow.”

Zara then hung up and said, “Darrian and Skylar are coming tomorrow.”

“Yay! Now Skylar can meet José and Jane!” Alex cheered. “And I can show him my awesome magic skills!”

“You mean magic skills you barely have,” Robbie said.

“Oh, go set yourself on fire again,” Alex snapped.

“You think I did that on purpose!?”

“If you were skilled in magic, that wouldn’t have happened!”

“I’m just a beginner!”

“Well, so am I, so don’t tease me!”

“I’m your brother, it’s my job to tease you!”

“Shut up!”

“You shut up!”

“How about you both shut up!” Beast shouted at his grandkids.

As the two siblings kept arguing and Beast was trying to get them to stop, Carina decided to take this as an opportunity to leave the room and be by herself for a couple of moments.

She rarely got to be alone, due to the fact that one of the adults, mostly her fathers, hung around her to make sure she didn’t hurt herself.

She toddled down the hall until she came across a tall woman.

Carina didn’t recognize her, but she was taller than Zara and Leah, and she had springy yellow hair and brown skin. So, Carina did the only thing any two-year-old would do when they met a new person: Walk up and say hi.

Carina walked up to the woman, who was looking around the mansion and chirped, “Hello.”

The woman looked down at the toddler, smiled and greeted, “Hello there. Well, aren’t you a precious little thing.”

The woman knelt near the small child and asked, “Do you live here?”

Carina nodded.

“Well, can you take me to the owner of this big house?” she asked.

Carina nodded and began leading the woman back to the living room.

When they got there, Beast was still scolding his grandkids, though at this point he was kind of yelling at them, while Alex looked close to tears and Robbie looked like he had seen war. Samuel was nearby, trying to calm him but it didn’t seem to have any sort of effect.

The tall woman said, “Hello? Excuse me?”

Nobody seemed to notice her, too focused on what was going on.

Carina looked around the room before taking a big breath and screaming, “Tikho!”

Everyone went silent and looked over at the little girl, and then their attention went to the new woman in the room.

She looked down at Carina and said, “Thank you, little one.” and then looked at the big group and asked, “Okay, now since I have your undivided attention, can someone please tell me where I am?”

Nobody answered, they all just stared at the Nymph, really surprised by how quickly she recovered.

Finally, Beast answered, “You’re in the Human World. You’re not in the Otherworld anymore.”

“Really? Wow, I’m a long way from home, aren’t I?” the Nymph said.

“Your name’s Jane, right?” Leah asked.

“Yeah, how’d you know that?” Jane confirmed.

“It was printed on a metal plate screwed into your guitar,” José stated.

“Oh right. I should’ve known that was how,” Jane said. “And I see I’m not the only Otherworlder that’s stuck here.”

“I’m Bog,” Bog introduced himself.

“And I’m José,” José added.

“Nice to meet you guys,” Jane said. “Sorry if I nearly deafened you earlier.”

“Eh, we only got small headaches,” José claimed.

“I wouldn’t call them small,” Beast muttered, then he said aloud, “Well, since you’re conscious, I suppose now is as good a time as any to ask what happened to you that led you here. If you don’t mind talking about it right now.”

“No, I’m okay with talking about it,” Jane said as she took a seat at the dining table.

“What were you doing before you got caught?” Beast asked.

“I had gone to the woods near my home and was picking flowers for the daycare I work at so I could show the kids how to make flower crowns,” Jane answered.

“Were you alone?” Samuel asked.

“Yeah, pretty much. I didn’t think it was a bad idea since I wasn’t exactly too far away from my own house,” Jane explained. “Anyway, I was in the middle of gathering some daisies when I felt someone grab my arm.”

“Probably the same villain that took me and Bog,” José guessed.

“Most likely, but at first, I thought it was my brother or a friend of mine,” Jane stated. “So I looked over to see who grabbed me, where I saw that the person’s hand had a very fair skin tone. Nobody I’m close to has a skin color like that, so I was confused about who it was. I was about to look up to get a look at their face, but then something hit my head and I blacked out.”

“Did you wake up in a cell?” Bog asked.

Jane nodded, “Yeah, I had no idea how long I was out, but I remember waking up in a cold, metal cell and hearing several people screaming around me. I began screaming too, mainly because I was so scared! Then, I heard a weird hissing sound and soon, I began to feel dizzy. Then, before I knew it, I was out again.”

“And you didn’t wake up again until recently,” Beast concluded.

“Yeah, but I did become conscious for a few moments after hearing the sound of a little kid crying. Who was that by the way?” Jane asked.

“It was Alex,” Robbie said, pointing at his little sister. “You strummed your supersonic guitar when she was around and the music upset her ears. She has hypersensitive hearing.”

“Oh no! I’m very sorry about that, Alex,” Jane apologized.

“It’s okay. I’m fine now,” Alex replied.

“So, who exactly are you all?” Jane asked the other humans.

“Well, you know my granddaughter, Alex. The teenager is Robbie, my grandson,” Beast stated. “I’m Beast Wagner, but you can call me Beast. The gray-haired man is my husband, Samuel Verrat. The black-haired woman is Zara, he tan-skinned man is her husband, Constantine, and the tan girl is their daughter, Leah. The black-haired man is Ivan, the brown-haired man is Frederick, and the toddler that told all of us to shut up in Russian was their daughter, Carina.”

“It’s very nice to meet you all,” Jane said. “So, why did the mind controller send me to attack you guys? You seem nice.”

“At the moment, we have no idea, but whoever it is, has some sort of gripe against me,” Beast stated.

“Well, that’s definitely worrying,” Jane said. “And I’m guessing everyone else here is guilty by association?”

Everyone else in the room nodded as Frederick said, “I wish we weren’t, though. I don’t want to be killed for something Beast did.”

Zara then stated, “Whoever is behind the mind-controlling is obviously trying to eliminate survivors who might try to stop him from killing Beast or avenge him if he manages to succeed. So our method for dealing with the problem now is: if you can fight, fight; if you can’t fight, hide.”

“And if you can’t hide, die,” Leah added.

“Leah…” Zara sighed.

“What, it’s true,” Leah said.

“But how long can that method work?” Jane asked. “There are races in the Otherworld that are known for tracking people down, like Werewolves, Werecats and Shadows. And who knows when one of those will show up.”

“True, but for now, I suppose we’ll have to go with Zara’s plan,” Bog said. “So, do you think you can fight alongside us until we stop this villain for good and get ourselves home?”

Jane smirked, “I can fight really well. My mother taught my how to defend myself since I was little. I’m sure I can handle mind-controlled Otherworlders.”

“Speaking of mind-control, you’re the second person to be up and about a few hours after having it removed,” Robbie pointed out. “The first person was José. When Bog got his helmet off, he didn’t become conscious until the next morning.”

“Well, Jane and José only had sunglasses. Bog had a huge helmet on,” Leah stated. “Maybe the size of the mind control affects the recovery time of the person wearing it.”

“But what does the size of the mind control mean for the person wearing it?” Samuel asked.

“Maybe it has to do with how smart the person is,” Alex suggested. “Bog is really smart so he has to wear the big helmet.”

“Are you saying that we’re stupid?” José asked, pointing at himself and Jane.

“Well...no. I’m sure you’re smart too, but maybe you’re both average. Bog seems to be above average,” Alex said.

“That’s actually a good theory,” Beast agreed. “Ivan, try and look into that.”

“Yes sir,” Ivan said.

“Hey, what’s that mess of burnt cloth on the floor?” Jane asked, pointing at Robbie’s burnt hoodie.

“Oh, that’s my hoodie. I accidentally set it on fire earlier,” Robbie explained, picking it up. “I almost forgot about it.”

“Well, you better throw it out before you forget about it again. It’s no good anymore,” Beast said.

“I was thinking about putting it through the wash so I can see if it can get all the ashy and burnt parts out,” Robbie admitted.

“Oh no, there’s no way you’re doing that! The ashes will definitely fuck up the washer!” Beast snapped.

A little while later, Jane was walking down the hall on the third floor when she came across an open door. She looked in to see Alex going about her bedroom, which had toys, picture books and crayons littered on the floor.

“Wow, messy,” Jane commented.

Alex jumped upon hearing her voice and turned around to look at the Nymph.

“Hi Jane,” she greeted. “Yeah, my room is pretty messy. Don’t make me clean it, cause I don’t want to.”

“Relax, I’m cool with it. My room isn’t exactly spic and span itself,” Jane said. “My brother hates it and always tries to get me to do something about it. He’s very serious when it comes to cleanliness and organization. I bet he’s broken in and did it himself by now now since I’m gone.”

“Does he have OCPD?” Alex asked.

“What’s that?” Jane asked.

“I forgot what it stands for, but it’s basically a disorder where someone prefers everything a particular way, like it has to be clean and organized,” Alex stated. “My grandpa told me about it. He tells me a lot of interesting things.”

Then, the little girl’s eyes widened and she shouted, “Carina! Don’t touch those!”

Jane turned around to see that little Carina had walked into the room and was messing with a big pile of plush bunnies.

Alex ran over and grabbed her, moving her away from the toys. “Don’t touch, not yours!” she scolded, prompting Carina to start crying.

“Alex, didn’t anyone ever teach you how to share?” Jane asked.

“Yeah, but sharing is when someone asks if they can play with your toys, but Carina never asks and straight up steals them from me!” Alex stated angrily.

“That’s probably cause nobody ever taught her to,” Jane said, kneeling near Carina. She said to the toddler, “Carina, if you ask Alex if you can play with her toys, she might let you.”

Carina didn’t seem to hear the Nymph; she just kept on crying.

Alex finally huffed, “Fine!” She grabbed a plush bunny from her pile and handed it to Carina, who’s mood quickly changed to one of content.

“Gramps is always saying Frederick and Ivan might spoil Carina too much, but I always thought he was exaggerating!” Alex stated.

“Are the bunnies your favorite toys?” Jane asked.

“Yes and no,” Alex answered. “I love them with all my heart, but none of them are my number one favorite.”

“Then what is your favorite toy?” Jane asked.

Alex ran over to her bed where she grabbed a plush white lion that was sitting near her pillows. She went back over to Jane to show it to her, “This one’s my favorite. He was a gift from my mommy. I named him Snow King.”

“Aw, what a cute lion,” Jane said. “And what a strong name for him.”

Alex then went back over to her bed, where she pulled out a pink caboodle box and brought it over to Jane. “And this used to be my mom’s,” she stated, opening it.

Inside the tackle box were three compartments. In the big compartment on the bottom, there was an old diary with a heart-shaped lock and a small music box; in the small compartment on the left was two little keys, possibly for the diary lock, and a gold heart-shaped locket; and in the compartment on the right were a few photos, the top one depicting a woman with ginger-orange hair, purple eyes and a bright smile.

“Is that a picture of your mom? She’s pretty,” Jane complimented.

“Yep, I take after her a lot,” Alex said. “Robbie, not so much.”

“So, where’s your mom now? Does she just drop you off at your grandparents for the summer? Or is she away on a trip for a while? Cause when she gets back, I’m sure she’s going to be in for a very big surprise when she sees all us Otherworlders walking around,” Jane said.

Alex slowly closed the box, looked down at the ground and muttered, “My mom’s not around anymore, and she’s never coming back.”

Jane got a sad frown on her face and she looked down at the ground before saying, “I’m sorry for your loss. I know what it’s like to lose a parent too.”

“It’s okay. It’s not like we have no other family,” Alex said. “I have my brother and my grandparents, and you still go your brother, right?”

Jane smiled and nodded, “Right.”

Alex then smiled and said, “But if Mom was still around, she would probably be as excited about the Otherworlders being here like me and Robbie are.”

The next day, Alex and Robbie were sitting in the entrance hall, waiting for Darrian and Skylar to arrive.

“I can’t wait to introduce Skylar to José and Jane,” Alex said. “He’ll be very excited to know that there are people of color in the Otherworld.”

“I’m just wondering how Darrian will react when she meets Bog,” Robbie said. “I’m pretty sure it’s not going to be a calm reaction.”

“Yeah, Skylar told me once that she’s prone to fainting. Hopefully that doesn’t happen,” Alex said. “And hopefully because of the chaos, she won’t prevent Skylar from hanging out with us anymore!”

“I’m sure she won’t do that,” Robbie said. “But if she does, Skylar will find another way to get here. He might get his aunt or uncle to drive him over here instead. Say, which one is related to Darrian?”

“The uncle, Clayton,” Alex answered. “But Skylar calls him Uncle Clay.”

Then, there was a rapid knock at the door and Alex quickly opened it to see Skylar and Darrian standing on the doorsteps.

“Welcome back,” Alex greeted.

“It’s only been two days,” Skylar stated.

“Yeah, but a lot has happened since you were here last, so it feels like longer,” Alex said.

“So, where are the Otherworlders?” Skylar asked.

“In the backyard. I told them to wait there for you,” Alex answered before leading him to the backroom.

Darrian began making her way up the stairs, where Robbie asked, “Aren’t you going to go meet them too?”

“In a few moments. I need to hear Zara’s explanation for what exactly is going on first before seeing them with my own eyes,” Darrian stated. “Say, what happened to your hoodie? You almost always have it on.”

“I ruined it,” Robbie stated.

“Oh no. With what? Soda? Bleach? Grass stains?”

“Fire.”

Darrian’s eyes widened and she opened her mouth, but then she shook her head and said, “It’d probably be wiser to not ask.”

“Yeah, probably,” Robbie agreed, not wanting to talk about his screw-up yesterday.

In the backyard, Jane was standing near the pool, while Bog was sitting out in the grass and José was in one of the outdoor chairs, when Alex and Skylar ran outside.

“Skylar’s here!” the former announced.

“Skylar, it’s nice to see you again,” Bog greeted the human boy.

“Nice to see you too, Bog,” Skylar replied, high-fiving the Ampman.

“So you’re Alex’s friend? I’m Jane,” Jane greeted the child.

“And I’m José,” José added, tipping his hat to the kid.

“Nice to meet you two. I’m Skylar Jones, but you can either call me Skylar or Sky,” Skylar stated. “So, what makes you two Otherworlders...otherworldly, I guess?”

“Playas have stronger immune systems than humans,” Alex stated, remembering what he grandfather told her. “They can resist most STDs!”

“Wow! Where were your people when we had the AIDs crisis? Maybe a transfusion of your white blood cells or something would’ve cured it,” Skylar said.

“What’s AIDs?” José asked.

“It’s a very serious STD. Back when it first showed up, it was very bad! It mostly infected LGBT people, mostly people of color. Politicians denied its existence for years, cause they were kind of homophobic, and racist, and when they finally admitted that it existed, a lot of people had already died,” Skylar stated.

“Whoa, that’s pretty devastating,” José said.

“Yeah, it was. If it weren’t for that, there might be a way to live with it without worry by now, like with HIV,” Skylar said. “Or even a cure! Now, what’s a Nymph?”

“A Nymph is a being that uses a supersonic instrument as a weapon, whether it’s playing it or hitting people with it,” Alex stated.

“Supersonic? I hope you weren’t around when Jane was playing, because I know how hypersensitive your ears are,” Skylar said.

“Unfortunately, I was, but Jane said she was sorry,” Alex said.

“Oh good,” Skylar said. “We have a lot of impressive music artists in the human world, though their music isn’t powerful enough to physically hurt people. Which might be a good thing, because who knows what Mariah Carey’s voice could do!”

“Who’s Mariah Carey?” Jane asked.

“She’s a popular singer. I’ll play some of her music for you later,” Skylar stated. “You know, after meeting Bog, I thought all Otherworlders would be animal-like in appearance, but you two look human; José looks like a normal Hispanic man and Jane looks like a normal black woman.”

José and Jane looked at each other, confused, and José asked, “What were those words you used to describe me and Jane?”

“What words? Normal?” Skylar asked.

“No, the second ones. Hispanic and black?” Jane stated.

“Those are terms for races in the Human World,” Skylar explained. “Hispanic is the word used to describe people who usually have dark-colored hair and tan or brown skin and come from a Spanish-speaking country.”

“Oh yeah, Spanish. The name of the language that I can apparently speak, according to Robbie,” José said.

“And black is the word used for people with dark skin like mine and Jane’s,” Skylar stated.

“But why the word black? Our skin colors aren’t really black, more like a dark shade of brown,” Jane said.

“Yeah, I don’t understand it much either, but we’ve used those words for a long while, so we’re kind of sticking with them,” Skylar said.

“Well, when we hear the word ‘black person’, we don’t think of people with my skin color, we think of a race of people called Shadows,” Jane stated.

“What are Shadows?” Alex asked.

“They’re a race of people that all have black hair and skin,” Jane stated.

“And when you say black, you mean black as in shadow black?” Skylar asked.

“Exactly,” Jane confirmed.

“Whoa, they sound spooky,” Skylar said.

“Yeah, they look like they would be evil, but they’re actually pretty cool,” Jane said. “I’ve never met one, but my dad had and he says they’re pretty nice.”

Then Bog asked, “Are black and Hispanic the only races in the Human World?”

“No, there are a few others; there’s White or Caucasian as some people call it, Asian, Middle Eastern, Indigenous, Pacific Islander, and...okay that’s pretty much it,” Skylar stated.

“Only seven races in this whole dimension? In the Otherworld, there are fifteen,” Jane stated.

“Fifteen!” Skylar exclaimed, his eyes widening. “Wow! That’s a lot!”

“Yes, and each race is unique in their own way,” Bog stated. “Perhaps if you ask Beast he’ll let you read some of his notebooks about each on.”

“I’ll be sure to do that,” Skylar said. Then the kid got a serious expression on his face and he asked, “Okay, so now for the serious topics. Is there racism or any form of discrimination in the Otherworld?”

“Well, I wouldn’t necessarily call it racism, but there are some races in the Otherworld that think they’re better than others or are very competitive with each other,” Jane explained.

“Like the Werewolves and the Werecats,” José said. “They’re always like ‘We’re the better hunters!’ and ‘No, we are!’. It gets very annoying after a while.”

“Then there are the Nymphs and Goths, where the Nymphs try to be peaceful with them but the Goths are very hostile to them,” Bog added.

“That’s not really racism, that’s more like competition between nations,” Skylar replied. “I’m talking about stuff like ‘we don’t like you cause you’re different, so we’re going to treat you poorly or kill you’.”

“There is a race called Weaklings that everyone likes to make fun of, because they’re inferior in almost everything, like strength, confidence, and intelligence, but they don’t treat them horribly or kill them for it,” Jane stated.

“Also, the king of the Werecats has some sort of gripe against Malopixes, like he believes them to be psychotic killers but nobody knows why,” José added. “He’s literally the only Werecat that’s like that. Every other Werecat is cool with the Malopixes.”

“Well, I guess that’s as close to discrimination as we’re going to get,” Skylar said.

“Actually,” Bog said. “Now that I think about it, a long time ago, there were a race called the Star People. They thought very highly of themselves and looked down on everyone. They attacked the Otherworld countries for their own enjoyment and stole food, riches and even people from them.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot about those guys,” José said. “Didn’t they enslave the people they abducted?”

“Yes, whether it was to slave away in their mines, work as servants, or be used for sexual pleasure,” Bog stated.

“Just replace Star People with Europeans, and you pretty much have a third, if not half, of human world history,” Skylar said. “Wait, you said ‘were’. Do Star People not exist anymore?”

“Yes, they were wiped out a thousand years ago,” Bog stated.

“What happened?” Skylar asked, his eyes getting wide again.

“All the other races in the Otherworld found out that they weren’t the only races being bullied by the Star people, so they arranged for each leader of each race to meet and organize a plan to put an end to the oppression once and for all,” Bog stated. “They brought their armies together and sent them to the Star People’s country, where they committed a massive attack on the race. Every single Star Person was killed, all the slaves were freed and the riches were claimed.”

“Wow! So you got rid of your oppressors by banding together and destroying them?” Alex exclaimed. “WE should try that in the Human World!”

“No, Alex,” Skylar said. “We’d be fighting hate with hate. MLK wouldn’t like that idea.”

“Who’s MLK?” Jane asked.

“MLK, more commonly known as Martin Luther King, was one of the greatest people in black history,” Skylar stated. “He was one of the people who helped black people in America get their civil rights, like the right to vote.”

“Did black people not have civil rights before?” Jane asked, confused.

“Yeah, but that’s not just it. There was also segregation, meaning they had separate facilities for black and white people, but the black people’s facilities were very poor in quality, like the drinking fountains were rusty and the water from them wasn’t safe to drink,” Skylar explained. “But with the work of people like King, that stuff was put to an end!”

“Wow! That’s incredible,” Jane said. “Where’s MLK now?”

Skylar got a sad frown on his face and looked down at the ground, saying, “That’s the sad part of his story. Not long after he succeeded in his work, someone shot and killed him. If he hadn’t been killed back then, he’d probably be in his 80s by now.”

“But he succeeded in what he was doing before that, right? So it wasn’t like he died failing in his movement,” Jane said.

“Yeah, segregation is gone, and black people can vote now, but things are still pretty bad for us,” Skylar said as he sat down on the ground. “Today, there are STILL people who don’t think we deserve human rights, who want to reverse what MLK had done decades ago, who want us all dead or out of this country at least. Mom says it’s not as horrible as it was back then, but I’ve seen the news, and I’ve read almost all the history books, and I’m seeing too many parallels, so I know it’s just as bad as before!”

Everyone then stood or sat around silently, except for Skylar, who had begun crying. Jane kneeled on the ground near the little boy and pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket, which she held out to Skylar.

“Sounds like the Human World has a lot of problems,” she said.

“Yeah, it does,” Skylar said, taking the small piece of cloth. “And anti-black racism is just one of the problems we have here.”

“Well, for every problem, there’s bound to be a solution,” Jane said. “I’m sure you and your people will figure out what to do to make sure this racism issue is put to an end for good. I’m sure MLK would want you to do that.”

Skylar wiped his eyes and said, “Yeah, I guess you do have a point. Thanks.”

“No problem,” Jane replied.

Alex then suggested, “How about we stop talking about this serious topic and listen to music? Sky, Jane has never heard human songs before! Play something on your phone for her.”

“Yeah, listening to music helps my mood a little,” Skylar said as he got out his phone and began to scroll through his song list.

At that moment, Robbie and Darrian had walked outside, where Darrian said, “All this Otherworld stuff is a little hard to wrap my head around.”

“Yeah, it’s a little crazy, but it’s interesting to learn about,” Robbie said. “This situation might make for a fun summer.”

“Just don’t write about it in your ‘What I Did During Summer’ back to school report,” Darrian told the boy until she spotted Bog sitting outside. She immediately screamed, causing everyone to jump up and José to fall out of his chair.

“Mom! Relax! It’s just Bog!” Skylar shouted.

“Sorry,” Darrian said, taking a breath. “I just didn’t expect an Ampman to look like...that.”

Bog sighed, “Yeah, we’re often told we’re pretty scary to look at.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean any offense,” Darrian apologized. Then she looked over at Jane and José, who was climbing back into his seat. “So, I guess you two are José and Jane,” she said.

“That’s right, and I’m guessing you’re Skylar’s mother?” Jane confirmed.

“Yes. I’m Darrian Jones,” Darrian stated. Then she looked at Skylar and asked, “Skylar, are you okay? Your eyes are a little red.”

“I’m fine, mom. I was just telling these guys about black history and I got a little emotional,” Skylar stated.

“He was talking about MLK,” Jane explained.

“I figured he’d talk about him first. Skylar practically worships him,” Darrian said as Skylar finally selected a song on his phone.

Soon, a jazzy sounding music began to play on his phone, which soon became accompanied by a woman singing.

“Who’s that artist?” Jane asked.

“That’s the jazz singer, Bessie Smith. She was very iconic in the 1920s,” Skylar stated. “She led the way for black female singers and had the voice of an angel.”

“She has a very lovely voice,” Jane complimented. “Is she still alive?”

“No, she died in a car crash when she was forty-three. But even if she had survived, she would have probably died of old age,” Skylar stated.

“Does she have other songs?” Jane asked.

“Quite a few. I’ll lend you a CD I have of her music next time I’m here,” Skylar said.

Throughout the afternoon, Skylar told Bog, Jane and José about the races in the human world, and in return, the Otherworlders told him and Alex as much about their own races as they could, plus a few other races. At the same time, Darrian was asking Samuel and Beast about the Otherworld races and whether or not they’d be dangerous to hang out with. They did their best to put her at ease, but they’re not sure if they did a good job, especially when they told her about Shadows, Malopixes and Werewolves.

Finally, it started to get really dark outside and Darrian and Skylar began to get ready to leave for the night.

“Well, we better get out of here before the next Otherworlder shows up and tries to kill you all,” Darrian said.

“Call us and tell us about the new person tomorrow morning, so I’ll know about them the next time we visit,” Skylar said.

“We will,” Alex promised.

After the two left through the front doors, everyone began to head upstairs to prepare for the next Otherworlder attack, when they heard a scream from outside.

Beast and Robbie threw open the front doors, Beast shouting, “Darrian! Was that scream you? What happened?”

Darrian, who was kneeling next to her car tires, looked at the two with horrified eyes and stated, “Someone slashed my car tires!”

Beast and Robbie ran over to Darrian’s car and looked at her tires. Like she said, there were slash marks in the rubber of all four of them.

“Who could’ve done this?” Darrian asked.

“The Otherworlder?” Skylar asked.

“A likely theory,” Beast agreed. “Which could only mean that they’re somewhere in the area. They probably slashed up your tires to prevent you and Skylar, or anyone from leaving.”

“Do you have a car that you could drive us home in? I really don’t want to be around when the Otherworlder tries to fight us,” Darrian said, her hands shaking.

Robbie ran to the garage that was located near the mansion, where he noticed the door was slightly ajar. He opened the door and clicked the light on, where he looked around the room.

The first thing he noticed was that Samuel and Beast’s car’s tires were torn up. Then, he looked at the other vehicles in the garage; Zara and Constantine’s car, Frederick’s car, Ivan’s motorcycle, Leah’s moped, all their tires were sliced up.

Beast entered the garage and saw the state of all the vehicles, where he muttered, “Shit.”

He and Robbie went back outside, where Beast told Darrian, “All of our cars had their tires slashed too. You and Skylar might have to stay here the night.”

Darrian threw her head back and groaned, “Oh god.”

Skylar, who wasn’t upset by this predicament, exclaimed, “Sweet! That means we’ll see the next Otherworlder!”

“Don’t get too excited; people have gotten hurt from fighting these Otherworlders,” Beast warned the boy. “You’re at risk of getting injured too.”

“I’ll be careful,” Skylar said.

Then, there was a deep rumble from up above, prompting Beast to glare up at the sky and mutter, “I swear to god if this Otherworlder tries to make us fight him in the rain, I will lose my mind.”

“Like you hadn’t already lost it a long time ago,” Robbie joked as he, Darrian and Skylar walked back up the mansion steps. Beast rolled his eyes and followed them.

On the way in, Robbie could’ve sworn for a second that he felt something move past him and saw some sort of brown blur out of the corner of his eye go into the den. He looked into the room to see if anyone was there, but he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. His eyes must have been playing tricks on him.

Later that evening, after dinner, everyone was sitting in the dining/living room, waiting for the next Otherworlder to show up.

Alex and Skylar were staring out the window, watching as it began to pour rain outside.

“Maybe there won’t be one because it’s raining,” Alex suggested.

“If this guy really wants to kill me, I don’t think he’ll let a little rainstorm stop him from sending an Otherworlder over here,” Beast said.

There was then a loud crash of thunder and lightning that caused everyone to jump and scared Carina into bursting into tears.

“Not even if there’s thunder and lightning involved?” Alex whimpered, shaking a little.

“It’s kind of hard to tell,” Samuel said, looking out the window. “For all we know, the Otherworlder could be waiting outside for someone to come across it somewhere.”

“Well, it’s going to catch pneumonia,” Leah said, peering out another window. “The rain is pounding the earth out there.”

“If he’s out there in the rain, he’s bound to get sick and tired. Maybe the next morning, the Otherworlder will be too weak to fight,” Robbie said. “And who knows, maybe the rain will cause the mind control to malfunction and shut itself off, then the Otherworlder will be free when we find it.”

“I hope it’ll be that easy,” Darrian said. “I don’t want to be in any sort of danger.”

Alex went up to Samuel and asked, “Are there any more magic tests me and Robbie need to do. I was hoping I could show off my powers to Skylar.”

“Actually, there is one more test you two need to do,” Samuel said, leaving the room.

After a few moments, the magician returned holding two crystal orbs. He handed one to Robbie and one to Alex.

“This test is very simple; you just need to focus your magic on the crystal ball and see if you can either make it glow, make it become dark inside, or nothing at all,” Samuel explained.

“Let me guess, this tests whether we have light or dark magic?” Robbie asked.

“Precisely,” Samuel confirmed.

“Cool,” Alex said, before she began to focus her magic energy on the orb. Soon, it gradually began to glow a bright white light.

“Whoa! That’s awesome!” Skylar exclaimed.

“Very nice, Alex,” Samuel complimented.

Robbie focused on his orb but there was no light forming inside it. It wasn’t turning dark either, so he had no light or dark powers.

“Looks like you got neither,” Skylar pointed out. “I kind of wanted to see what dark powers looked like in there.”

“Don’t worry, Robbie. Not everyone can master darkness or light,” Samuel said, taking the orb from his grandson.

Then there was another crash of thunder and lightning and the lights in the room flickered a little.

“If the power goes out, I swear to god I’ll-,” Beast began saying until there was a loud boom of thunder from outside and the lights went out. “OH GOD DAMMIT!!!” he shouted.

“Good thing I can make this orb glow,” Alex said. “Otherwise we’d be in the dark by now.”

“True, but you can’t use your magic powers the whole evening. You might exhaust yourself because you’re new at this,” Samuel stated. “We’ll have to go down to the basement and retrieve the lamps and flashlights.”

Samuel focused his own magic energy into the crystal ball, making it glow, and said to Robbie and Constantine, “You two come with me.”

The three walked out of the room and began making their way down the hall. Robbie was still eying the crystal orb, still a little bummed out that he didn’t have control over one of the two most well-known elements in magic. Now since the tests were over, Robbie knew he had these powers: To repair and break things using his magic, and manipulate earth, air and fire.

Fire! Robbie could control fire! He could make his own light! The teenager began to rub his hands together, imagining his hands were two wooden sticks trying to start a flame.

Samuel looked over at his grandson and was about to ask what he was doing when the boy opened up his hands and a small flaming orb was now floating in his palms.

“Very good use of your elemental powers, Robbie,” Samuel praised him. “Just be careful not to set anything on fire.”

“Like us for instance,” Constantine said, taking a few steps back.

The three continued on their way until they came across the entrance hall. They were about to go down the stairs until Samuel said, “Hold it. I hear something.”

Everyone stopped in their steps and listened. Sure enough, there was a rapid tapping noise.

“What’s that?” Constantine asked.

Robbie listened to the sound and realized it was coming from the entrance hall down below. He shone his flame over the area, where he saw a brown blur zooming around on the floor.

“What’s that moving around?” he asked.

“What’s what?” Constantine asked, looking too. “I don’t see anything!”

Samuel’s eyes widened and Robbie heard him mutter, “A Loaner.” Then, he said, “You two get back!”

Before Robbie could step back, the brown blur suddenly bolted up the stairs and soon, there was someone standing in front of him.

It was a young adult male with dark brown skin and short coily black hair. He wore blue denim pants that were stained with dirt on the cuffs, a brown trenchcoat, a brown bandana tied around his neck and sunglasses similar to the ones José and Jane wore.

Then, the new intruder roundhoused Robbie in the abdomen, sending him flying backwards.

Meanwhile, in the living room, everyone was still waiting for Samuel, Constantine and Robbie to return with the electric lights. Alex was still making her crystal ball glow, so it wasn’t too dark in the room.

Then, Leah stated, “You know, we’ve had worse storms than this.”

“Yeah so?” Skylar asked.

“But the power has never gone out because of them. This is the first time it’s gone out because of a thunderstorm, and the weather isn’t even that crazy out there,” Leah explained.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Ivan said. “I was planning on heading down to the basement when Samuel got back with the lights so I can look at the powerbox.”

“Couldn’t you have gone with them when they were leaving?” Frederick asked his husband.

“Da, but I didn’t think about doing it at the time,” Ivan said.

Skylar then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small flashlight, which he clicked on, and said, “You could use this and catch up to them.”

“Thanks Skylar, but I’d prefer to use one of the flashlight headbands,” Ivan said. “That way, both of my hands will be free when I’m working.”

“What’s a flashlight headband?” Jane asked.

“It’s like a headband but there’s a flashlight connected to the front. They’re very fun to wear,” Ivan said.

Then, there was a loud crash from down the hall.

“What was that?” Leah asked.

Then, everyone heard Samuel yell, “Beast! The Otherworlder snuck into the mansion! It’s a Loaner!”

“A Loaner?!” Beast shouted. “Quick, close the doors before it-!”

But before Beast could finish his sentence, a brown blur sped in and a man stood in the center of the room for everyone to see.

Skylar shone his little flashlight on the Loaner to get a good look at him, where he saw what he looked like. “He’s black, like Jane,” he muttered.

Then, the Loaner looked at Alex and kicked the crystal ball out of her hands, causing the room to mostly go dark. Then, he looked at where Beast was and ran over to him, withdrawing something silver from his pocket.

José, seeing the object, shouted, “He has a gun!

Then, six gunshots rang out in the room, causing everyone to scream!

Alex retrieved her crystal ball and made it glow again, so everyone could see if Beast had been shot and killed or not.

Beast had caught the Loaner’s arm before the gun could be aimed at his forehead, saving himself from being shot.

“You’re going to have to be quicker than that if you want to kill me,” he told the new intruder.

The Loaner gritted his teeth and reached into his other pocket, pulling out a switchblade, which he clicked open and then attempted to cut Beast with it. However, the old man caught his other arm and then threw him into a wall.

“Whoa!” Skylar exclaimed.

“Loaners are supposed to be the fastest race in the Otherworld,” Bog stated. “How did Beast stop one from shooting him?”

The Loaner scrambled to his feet and seemed to glare at Beast, where he was about to run at him and try to attack him again. But then José grabbed his arm and said, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

The Loaner glanced back at the Playa before suddenly bolting out of the room, with the Playa still latched to his arm.

“OH SHIIIIIIT!!!” José shouted as they zoomed down the hall.

Beast slapped a hand to his forehead and muttered, “I can’t believe he thought just grabbing the Loaner’s arm would keep him from going anywhere.”

“A Loaner? That’s what that guy was?” Darrian asked.

“Yes, and they’re known for three things: their superspeed, their lockpicking skills, and their greed,” Beast stated.

“Well, aren’t we going to go after them?” Jane asked.

“Not yet, not until Samuel, Constantine and Robbie come back with the lights,” Beast said. “You might need the flashlight headbands when you fight that Loaner, because let’s face it, you have no chance against him in the dark.”

Meanwhile, Robbie was sitting on the floor, one hand on his abdomen and the other on the back of his head. That Loaner could certainly pack a punch, er, kick.

Samuel gently put his hand on Robbie’s head for a moment and said, “Surprisingly you don’t have any damage to your skull, though it will ache for a while.”

“Thank god,” Robbie replied.

“That guy sure was fast,” Constantine commented. “You called it a Loaner?”

“Yes, they’re a race of Otherworlders that can run at the speed of sound, if not faster,” Samuel stated. “They are also extremely skilled with firearms, using small knives in combat, and lockpicking.”

“Lock picking? Why lock picking?” Robbie asked.

“Loaners use their skill in lock picking to sneak into rival Loaner’s houses and steal their riches to make themselves richer and the rival poorer,” Samuel explained.

Robbie’s eyes widened, “Is Loaner Country a crime-based society?”

“Actually, their land is called Loaner Valley,” Samuel stated. “And to answer your question, yes and no. You see Loaners-.”

However, before Samuel could finish speaking, the sound of gunshots rang out!

“Oh my god!” Robbie shouted.

“Do you think they’re okay?” Constantine asked Samuel.

“They’re all fine. If anyone died, I would’ve sensed it,” Samuel stated.

“Is that a magic power?” Robbie asked.

“Yes, I’m able to sense the well-being of anyone I’m closely associated with, whether it’s my family or good friends,” Samuel explained.

“Is that how you knew about what happened to mom?” Robbie asked.

Samuel looked down at the floor and bit his lip before saying, “Yes. It was a very painful feeling.”

Then, there was the sound of rapid footsteps coming down the hallway, accompanied by someone screaming in Spanish.

“¡Ve más despacio! ¡Estoy perdiendo el control sobre tu brazo! ¡Estoy empezando a enloquecer!”

Samuel, Robbie and Constantine flattened themselves against the wall as two blurs of color, one brown and the other red, zoomed past them.

Once they were gone, Robbie said, “That was José wasn’t it?”

“Most likely,” Samuel agreed.

“Why do Playa’s speak Spanish anyway? Isn’t that a human language?” Constantine asked.

“The Otherworld has languages that are very similar to our own, and Spanish is only one language that is commonly used there. In Playa City, the people are also able to speak French and Italian,” Samuel stated.

Robbie thought over this info for a moment before saying, “Romance languages.”

Samuel stared at his grandson and replied, “Yes.”

Meanwhile, José was still holding onto the Loaner’s arm, trying to hold on because he didn’t want to find out what would happen if he let go! He could feel the skin on his face start to burn and began to wonder if it was because he was moving at a speed his body wasn’t used to.

Finally, the Loaner came to a stop, grabbed José and threw him across the room they had arrived in. José groaned in pain as he stood up. “Did you really have to throw me like that?” he asked.

Then, he looked around the room they were in and saw that it was the window seat room.

“Weird place to fight, but I can handle doing it here,” José said.

The Loaner just remained silent.

“Not saying anything, huh? Weird, since you could talk through my body just fine, mind-controller,” José pointed out. “So, which one of us is going to make a move first?”

Then, there was a flash of lightning outside, lighting up the room for a minute, showing the Loaner was several feet away from the Playa.

Then, the room went dark for a few seconds until the lightning flashed again, but this time, the Loaner was in a different spot in the room. Then, the room went dark again and soon there was another flash of light, and the Loaner had moved to somewhere else.

Dark. Light. Loaner Moved somewhere. Dark. Light. Loaner moved. Dark. Light. Loaner moved. That’s what the pattern was for a few moments and everytime the Loaner moved, José noticed that he was gradually getting closer to him.

When the lightning flashed again, the Loaner was standing directly in front of the Playa, staring him dead in the face.

José blunk a few times, and asked, “Could you not change your position in the room every time it gets dark? That was honestly a little creepy.”

The Loaner didn’t respond; he just punched José in the face, sending him into a wall!

José staggered to his feet, looked at the Loaner and said, “So you want to play rough, huh?”

He got out his whip and cracked it in the Loaner’s direction. “Then by all means, let’s play rough!” he shouted.

Meanwhile, Samuel, Robbie and Constantine had finally gotten to the basement, where they were just starting to collect as many alternative sources of light that they would need.

Robbie asked Samuel, “Do you think José can handle fighting a Loaner? Even in the dark?”

“I’m sure he’ll have some sort of method to protect himself from the Loaner’s attacks,” Samuel said as he picked up a box of lanterns.

Constantine found the flashlights, where he grabbed a big one and clicked it on. He shone it around the room until he stopped on something and said, “Samuel, you might want to look at this.”

Samuel and Robbie looked at where Constantine aimed his flashlight, where they saw that it was the power box; someone had flipped all the switches to off and then used some sort of blade to stab into it, to prevent anyone from turning the switches back on.

“Okay, that’s not good,” Robbie said.

“I had a feeling the power outage wasn’t normal,” Samuel said. “We need to get Ivan down here so he can fix it and get the lights back on. I’m sure the Loaner was behind this.”

“How’d he not electrocute himself?” Robbie asked.

“The handle of his knife is probably made of leather,” Samuel suggested.

The trio grabbed the boxes of lights and made their way back upstairs and soon hurried back to the dining/living room.

Once there, Beast asked, “Did you see the Loaner and José?”

“Yeah, they went past us in the hall. José was flipping out,” Robbie answered.

“Figures,” Beast said.

“The Loaner was the one who shut off the power. He destroyed the powerbox after doing so,” Samuel stated.

“Oh for Christ’s sake!” Beast shouted.

“Guess that means I better get down to the basement and fix it,” Ivan said. “Give me one of the flashlight headbands.”

Constantine looked through a box and pulled out something that looked like a sweatband, but it had this plastic box on the front. Ivan slipped it on his head, clicked a switch on the box, and soon a bright LED light was glowing from it.

“Got any more of those?” Bog asked. “We might need them to fight the Loaner.”

Constantine pulled out three more and handed them to the Ampman.

Bog and Jane slipped theirs on, where Jane clicked the switch and said, “Nifty.”

“Very,” Bog agreed before the two quickly left the room to search for José and the Loaner.

“What do we do?” Alex asked.

“We wait here until they’re done,” Beast said as he took her crystal ball and replaced it with an electric lantern. “Loaners are incredibly fast and I don’t think you’re fast enough to catch up with his movements.”

“Says the man who caught the Loaner’s arms to keep himself from getting shot and cut,” Skylar said.

“I have a special reason for being able to do that,” Beast stated. “Which I’ll explain some other time.”

Upstairs, José was cracking his whip in many different directions, trying to see if he could strike the Loaner and at the same time, keep the Otherworlder away from him.

The Loaner moved out of the way each time, trying to avoid getting lashed. He was trying to get close enough to José to grab and stab him, but with how the Playa was flailing his weapon around, it was not an easy task.

José arm was starting to get tired, but he knew that if he stopped for just one second, it would give the Loaner a chance to hurt him, maybe even kill him!

Then, his whip struck the Loaner’s shoulder, causing the intruder to holler out in pain.

José stopped snapping his whip and there was another flash of lightning from the window, where he saw the gash on the Loaner’s shoulder.

He winced and apologized, “Shit, sorry, I didn’t think I’d actually get you.”

The Loaner glared at the Playa for a few seconds before rushing towards him, pulling out his switchblade. He forced José against the wall with his arm and raised his other arm that held the knife, ready to stab him.

“Hey! I said I was sorry!” José shouted. Then, two bright lights appeared behind the Loaner, nearly blinding José.

“Hey Loaner, leave the Playa alone,” José heard Jane’s voice order.

Bog shot out his tongue at the Loaner, which latched onto his knife-holding arm and yanked him away from José.

The Loaner pulled out his gun and immediately fired it a few times at Bog, but the Ampman hopped into the air, avoiding the shots and ended up behind the attacker.

He made a punching motion at the Loaner’s back and within seconds, the Loaner felt the impact of the attack and was forced into a wall, leaving a bit of a imprint in it.

Jane went over to José and handed him the third flashlight headband and asked, “You okay? Put this on, it’ll give you some light to see with.”

“Yeah, I’m still breathing, so that’s a good sign,” José said, as he slipped the headgear on and clicked the switch. “Hopefully the headband doesn’t mess up my hair.”

The Loaner was staggering to his feet, a little dazed from Bog’s punch, and then shot his gun in Jane and José direction. The two Otherworlders jumped back, causing the bullet to hit the wall.

“Damn, that was close,” Jane muttered. She stood on her feet and positioned her guitar to aim at the Loaner. “You’re not the only one with a range weapon,” the Nymph stated.

Bog and José covered their ears and Jane quickly began strumming. The soundwaves struck the Loaner, forcing him back into the wall.

Downstairs, Alex was covering her ears and whimpering from the loud noise.

Skylar looked up at the ceiling and said, “I can’t believe it; there’s a fight going on in this house and I’m missing it!”

“You should be glad you are,” Beast said. “Soundwaves from a Nymph instrument can really ache your eardrums.”

“Also, the Loaner might try to attack you,” Samuel added. “The last three Otherworlders attacked bystanders or tried to attack bystanders, so I imagine the pattern will continue.”

“When should we step in?” Robbie asked.

“When we hear rapid footsteps coming towards this room,” Beast answered.

Upstairs, Jane had finished her guitar riff and the Loaner had slumped down to the floor, seeming to be unconscious.

The Nymph stepped closer to him and reached her hand towards his mind-control sunglasses so she could pull them off, but when her hand was an inch away from his face, the Loaner’s head jolted up and he attempted to cut her with his knife!

Jane jumped back, shouting, “Oh god! He’s still conscious!”

The Loaner quickly stood up, whipped out his gun and aimed it at the Nymph. But before he could pull the trigger, Bog shot out his tongue and snatched the weapon from the Loaner’s hand.

“Try killing us without your gun,” the Ampman taunted.

The Loaner gritted his teeth and immediately rushed towards Bog, who threw up his fists, ready to punch him away. However, the Loaner went around the Ampman instead, and kept circling around him.

Bog watched the Loaner, trying to figure out what he was doing. He kept shifting his head to turn left and then right, trying to keep up with where the Loaner was, and soon, he began to feel dizzy. Then, he felt someone punch him in the side of the face, knocking him down to the ground.

The Loaner retrieved his gun from the Ampman and aimed it at him, ready to pull the trigger. However, before he had a chance to shoot again, José cracked his whip to wrap around the Loaner’s arm and pulled it so the gun wouldn’t point at Bog.

The enemy looked over at the Playa, who glared at him, gritting his teeth and said, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, amigo.”

Back downstairs, Robbie asked Samuel, “When I asked you if Loaner Valley a crime-based society, you said, ‘yes and no’. What did you mean by that?”

Samuel scratched his beard for a moment before answering, “Well, actually it’s more of a wealth-based society, but there is a lot of criminal activity that goes on which is how people get their money. They can have jobs that range from stealing from other Loaners, assassins, or drug dealing. However, some Loaners do have honest and good jobs, like miners, jewelry makers and sellers, weapon manufacturers and dealers, and messengers.”

“You mentioned something about Loaners stealing from their rivals. Do you mean people who have more than they do?” Robbie asked.

“Exactly. You see Loaners have this caste system, where people are sorted into it based on how much money they have,” Samuel explained. “The rich have the most power in society and the poor have barely any.”

“Like capitalism,” Leah commented.

“Yes, like capitalism,” Samuel confirmed and them began to explain, “There are four castes in Loaner Valley, and there’s a term for a person that is in each caste: White-hearts are the richest, having a net worth of a billion or more; Black-Legs are second richest, having net worth between a million and less than a billion; Gray-Backs are sort of the middle-class, who have wealth between the thousands and a million; and Brown-Necks are the poorest caste, and have the highest population. They usually have a net worth or a few thousand or less, sometimes even nothing.”

“Why are the caste names associated with colors?” Robbie asked.

“Because that’s the color the Loaner wears to signify their caste level,” Beast answered. “White-hearts wear white, Black-Legs wear black, Gray-Backs wear gray, and Brown-Necks wear brown.”

“The Loaner that’s attacking us right now was wearing a lot of brown. He must be a Brown-Neck,” Skylar pointed out.

“Yes, I noticed that, and it makes sense for the mind controller to take one of them and not someone from one of the higher castes,” Beast stated.

“Why’s that?” Alex asked.

“Nobody in Loaner Valley would care if a Brown-Neck went missing. If it was a Gray-Back or a Black-Leg, that would raise some concern. If it was a White-Heart, there’d be absolute panic,” Beast explained. “Nobody would bat their eye at a missing Brown-neck, mainly because they probably wouldn’t notice one was missing because of how many there were. The only people that would care would be the Brown-Neck’s close friend and family, assuming they have any.”

Leah frowned, “That’s kind of fucked up.”

Zara nodded in agreement, and said, “It reminds me of how when someone of privilege goes missing or gets killed, there’s a lot of public outcry. But if, what say, an unprivileged person goes missing or gets killed, almost nobody cares.”

“That is a very good comparison,” Samuel said. “It’s countries like Loaner Valley that remind me that the Otherworld is not a perfect place and has flaws, just like our own world.”

“Are Brown-Necks discriminated against that badly?” Skylar asked.

“Yes, they are seen as inferior by the other castes and are constantly harassed by them, whether it was simple mockery, stealing what little they had, or straight up killing them for fun,” Samuel stated. “They were looked down on for being the caste to steal the least and were thought to be lazy, but the truth is, Brown-Necks have been victims of theft so much that they would feel guilty for taking something from someone else. They usually try to get their money by mining, but the upper castes go out of their way to steal their jewels from them.”

Skylar sat there in shock, processing what Samuel had just told him. After a few moments of stunned silence, he said, “Brown-Neck Loaners are treated horribly just like a bunch of minorities in the human world!”

“Good observation,” Beast commented.

“Maybe I can use my experience as an unprivileged person to show the Loaner that we’re not so different from each other and make it snap out of the mind-control,” Skylar stated, getting to his feet.

“What!” Everyone shouted, Beast, Darrian and Robbie being the loudest.

“Skylar, while I praise you for wanting to help out an oppressed group in the Otherworld, trying to talk to the Loaner is honestly a little crazy, especially since he’s not even acting on his own free will right now,” Beast stated.

“But I have to try. Maybe when he hears what I have to say, he’ll snap out of it,” Skylar said. “Alex said Jane snapped out of hers when she heard her crying, and José snapped out of it when he heard you scream.”

Then, the boy bolted out of the room, gripping his little flashlight.

“Get back here, you crazy kid!” Beast shouted, going after him.

“Skylar! Stop! You’ll get hurt!” Darrian hollered, following Beast.

Robbie and Alex looked at each other before following the old man and the young woman out of the room.

Not long after they left, a gunshot rang out from upstairs!

José collapsed to the ground, clutching his bleeding side. The Loaner had shot his gun at him before he had a chance to click on the spikes in his whip and stun him with the pain. Clearly, the Otherworlder saw it coming and could act faster than the Playa.

“Oh god,” Jane muttered as her light shone down on the red liquid dripping from José’s wound.

José looked at the Nymph and shouted, “Jane, get out of here! Go get help!”

Jane began to run out of the room, but the Loaner had just unwrapped José whip from his arm and aimed his gun at her, ready to fire again. Fortunately, Jane was able to strum her guitar at him again, knocking him into a wall, stunning him long enough for her to escape.

The Loaner staggered to his feet and dusted himself off before quickly walking out of the window seat room and trying to see where the Nymph went. He saw a small light at the end of the hall, but it was too short to be Jane. He walked closer to it and saw that it was Skylar.

“Be at ease, brother. I mean no harm,” the kid said, gripping his flashlight. “I just wanted to talk to you.”

The Loaner crossed his arms and looked down at the boy, ready to hear what he had to say.

“Okay, I’m not sure if you realize this, but we’re not that different from each other,” Skylar said. “And I’m not just talking about our skin color here. I’m talking about how our societies see us and treat us.”

The Loaner continued to stare down at the boy.

“You’re a Brown-Neck Loaner, a member of the lowest caste in Loaner Valley. The caste that gets picked on and looked down on by all the other castes, despite the fact that you’re all the same race,” Skylar stated. “I’m a black person. A race of humans in this world that are known for having dark skin. People with lighter skin tones dislike us for our different skin color, see us as inferior to them and treat us like we’re lower than trash, despite the fact that we’re the same species.”

At that moment, Beast, Darrian, Robbie and Alex had gotten to the third floor and were listening to what Skylar was say.

“What’s he doing?” Robbie asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Beast said. “He’s using his knowledge of racism and discrimination in the human world to show the Loaner that there are people here that are treated just as lowly as he is.”

“Black people have gone through just as much hell as you Brown-Neck Loaners have; we’ve been ripped from out homeland, Africa, enslaved by Europeans in the New World and had been brutally tortured or even killed for making one small mistake,” Skylar went on. “Slavery was eventually made illegal, but the discrimination didn’t stop: we’ve been sorted into transportation and facilities that were in terrible condition while white people got the new and cleaner ones, and we’ve been paid smaller salaries for our work than white people because employers saw us as cheap labor.”

The Loaner stared at Skylar, still not responding to what the boy was saying so it was hard to tell if he was even listening to him.

“However, one day, a man named Martin Luther King, along with several other activists like him, wanted to change that. They wanted future generations of black people to go to the same schools and facilities as other races, to have the right to vote, to be paid the same amount as everyone, they wanted every race to be seen as equal,” Skylar continued. “It started with boycotting transportation, then led to sit-ins at public places, like diners, where black people weren’t allowed, then they enrolled their children into white schools, and soon it led into full-fledged marches on the street full of people like MLK who wanted what he wanted: Equal rights for everyone!”

The Loaner tilted his head. Now it was clear he could hear what Skylar was saying!

“Soon, MLK made a speech in the US capital, about how he had a dream that one day, we’ll live in a world where people love each other instead of hate each other, a world where there would be peace rather than conflict, a world where all skin colors would be seen as equal!” Skylar exclaimed. “Because of that speech, MLK succeeded in his work and civil rights were given to black people in America!”

The Loaner seemed to smirk a little, amused by what the kid was talking about.

“However, MLK’s work was far from over. Today, there are still people, like Nazis and the KKK, who hate us for existing, who want to reverse what he had done decades ago, but there are still people out there, fighting to make sure that doesn’t happen, to make sure MLK’s dream does come true one day,” Skylar stated. “Whether we’re still a long way off or we’re getting closer, it’s hard to say, but with our dedication, we know it can be done.”

The Loaner then asked, “What’s that got to do with me?”

Skylar, not at all stunned by the Otherworlder speaking to him, said, “If we can make that much change in the human world, I’m sure we can do the same for Loaner Valley. I have the knowledge of almost every activist that has ever existed; MLK, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, the list goes on! With their methods, I’m sure we’ll find a way to tear down the caste system in your homeland and make it a country where all Loaners are seen as equal, no matter how wealthy they are. Heck, maybe we can make programs to help Loaners that don’t have any money live better.”

Skylar stuck out his hands towards the Loaner and said, “So what do you say, Loaner? Do you want my guidance to help you put an end to your country’s caste system?”

The Loaner stared at Skylar’s hand for a moment before smiling and reaching out to grab it, saying, “I think we got a deal. Maybe I’ll help your world with your racism problem too.”

However, before the Otherworlder could grab Skylar’s hand, a familiar buzzer sound went off. The Loaner’s smile vanished and he pulled his hand back, then began to reach for his gun.

Then, Jane ran out from a hall she had been hiding in and punched the Brown-Neck in the face, breaking the mind-control sunglasses in the process and knocking him unconscious.

“Good job Skylar,” Jane said. “You distracted him long enough for me to get close to him and attack.”

“But will he remember everything I said?” Skylar asked. “That was a really long speech and I don’t know if I’ll be able to re-recite it when he wakes up.”

“He snapped out of his mind control when you were talking to him, didn’t he? He’ll probably remember everything you told him,” Jane said.

“I hope so,” Skylar said.

Beast, Darrian, Alex and Robbie ran up to Skylar, Beast saying, “That was a very good speech. I’m sure MLK would’ve been proud.”

“Yeah, that was awesome!” Alex complimented.

“Zara was right, you will make a great activist when you’re older,” Robbie said.

“Thank you,” Skylar said, grinning.

Beast then asked Jane, “Where are José and Bog?”

“José got shot by the Loaner, and as far as I know, Bog is unconscious,” Jane stated.

“Take me to them,” Beast said.

As the Nymph led the man back to the window-seat room, Skylar asked Darrian, “Am I in trouble?”

“If your little plan had failed and you had gotten yourself hurt, you would be,” Darrian stated. “But you managed to do what you planned to do without injury, and I’m proud of you.”

“Sweet! I’m not going to get grounded!” Skylar cheered.

“But in all seriousness, don’t do anything that crazy ever again,” Darrian pleaded.

“I’ll try,” Skylar replied.

Then, a weird hum was heard throughout the mansion and within seconds, the lights began to come back on.

“Looks like the power is working again,” Robbie said. “Thank god.”

“No, thank Ivan,” Beast said as he returned with Bog and José, the former helping the latter walk, and Jane. “Robbie, Jane, you carry the Loaner down to the clinic. Skylar and Darrian, you pick up the pieces of the mind control sunglasses.”

Jane and Robbie lifted the Loaner off the ground and carried him down the stairs, with Beast, José and Bog following close behind.

Darrian looked around the floor and got to work on gathering the broken sunglasses pieces, while Skylar thought to himself, “I wonder who that Loaner really is.”

A little while later, the Loaner was lying in one of the clinic cots, no longer wearing his trenchcoat, which was folded and set on a nearby table, his shoes, which were on the floor, and no longer had his knife and gun on him, which Beast kept locked in his study. This was to make sure the Loaner wouldn’t try to kill anyone when he regained consciousness.

In the cot next to his, Samuel was healing José’s wound. “I’m not going to hold this against him,” the Playa said. “I know it’s not his fault he shot me. It was that damn mind controller.”

“Good to know that you’re not one to hold a grudge, José,” Samuel replied.

“I can be very forgiving, unless of course, what the person did is very horrible, like they raped or killed someone I cared about, then they’re dead to me,” José stated.

At that moment, Skylar and Alex walked into the room, where the former said, “Dang, I was hoping the Loaner would be awake by now.”

“Perhaps he’ll be conscious tomorrow morning,” Samuel said. “Then, you two can talk about discrimination in Loaner Valley as long as you can.”

Alex looked at José half-healed wound and asked, “Did you get the bullet out?”

“No bullet to worry about,” Samuel stated. “Loaner guns don’t use bullets; their ammo is a form of magic energy called mana that when shot, it forms this little beam of magic that wounds the target.”

“Like a magical laser gun?” Alex asked.

“Exactly,” Samuel confirmed.

“How do they reload them?” Skylar asked.

“They technically don’t. When all the mana is used up, they wait for it to recharge. How long it’ll take to recharge depends on how much magical energy is in the area,” Samuel explained. “You see, Loaner guns can absorb mana in the air, which usually comes from magic users in the area. For instance, since there are a few magic users in this house, the Loaner would probably need at least ten minutes to recharge his gun.”

“So that’s why he didn’t try shooting at Beast a second time,” José said. “He used up all the mana he had.”

Samuel then finished healing José and asked, “How does your wound feel now?”

“I don’t feel any pain from it,” José answered, sitting up and pressing his finger on it.

“Don’t poke at it, I don’t want it to reopen,” Samuel said. Then he looked over at the two children and said, “Shouldn’t you two be sleeping now?”

“Yeah, but we wanted to check in on José and the Loaner,” Skylar said.

“Well, we’re both fine. Thanks for caring,” José said. Then the Playa turned towards Samuel and asked, “Hey Samuel, could I stay in the clinic for the night?”

“Why?” Samuel asked.

“I want to stay with the Loaner in case he wakes up in the middle of the night and put him at ease if he tries to run out on us,” José said.

“If you think you need to stay, then go ahead,” Samuel said, walking out of the room.

“Good night,” Alex and Skylar said as they walked out of the room.

“Buenas Noches,” José replied.

Sometime in the middle of the night, the thunderstorm was beginning to pick up again, and there was a loud crash of thunder that startled José awake.

He looked out the clinic window to see it was still night out and was about to go back to sleep when he heard something move in the neighboring clinic cot. He turned over to see a figure sitting up on the other bed.

Then, there was a flash of lightning that lit up the room for a moment, allowing José to see the Loaner was wide awake and had a terrified expression on his face.

José sat up in bed, saying, “Hey, you’re awake.”

The Loaner looked at the Playa for a few seconds before suddenly tackling off the cot and holding him down on the floor.

“Whoa! Take it easy!” José shouted.

The Loaner looked around the clinic and asked, “Who are you? Where am I? Where are my gun and knife?”

“I’m José. I’m a Playa,” José stated.

“Am I in Playa City?” the Loaner asked.

“No, and as long as we’re on that topic, I should probably state that we’re no longer in the Otherworld either,” José said.

“Then where the hell are we?” the Loaner asked, his grip on José’s shoulders getting tighter.

“We’re in another dimension called the Human World,” José stated. “And we locked your weapons away so you wouldn’t hurt anyone when you woke up.”

“I should’ve figured that,” the Loaner muttered.

José was then silent for a moment before asking, “Can you get off me? This is a very weird position.”

The Loaner then released the Playa, saying, “Sorry.”

José sat up on the floor and the Loaner did the same. For a few moments, they just remained silent until there was another crash of thunder and lightning that caused the Loaner to jump.

“Okay, what is going on out there?” Broker asked.

“It’s a thunderstorm,” José stated. “Don’t you get those in Loaner Valley?”

“Oh, so that’s what a thunderstorm looks like,” Broker said, peering out the window. “I’ve never seen one before. We don’t get those in Loaner Valley, mainly because it hardly rains.”

“Oh yeah, I forget, your country is mostly rock and dirt right?” José asked.

“Pretty much,” Broker said. “We do get a lot of dust storms though.”

José nodded and then asked, “So, what’s your name, Loaner?”

The Loaner was quiet for a few moments before answering, “Broker.”

“Nice to meet you, Broker,” José said, sticking out his hand.

Broker stared at it for a moment before taking it and shaking, “Nice to meet you too, José.”

When they let go, Broker asked, “So what room is this?”

“The clinic. We’re in the mansion that’s owned by two humans named Samuel and Beast,” José explained. “There are a few other humans and Otherworlders here too, so you won’t be lonely here. You were put in here because you feel unconscious after Jane punched off your mind control.”

“Mind control? I was being mind controlled!?” Broker shouted.

“Yeah, and while you were under it, you kind of...shot me,” José said, pointing at the scar on his abdomen.

Broker winced and said, “I’m so sorry about that.”

“It’s no big deal. Not like you actually killed me or anything,” José said. “Fortunately, we have a healer in this mansion.”

“Oh, that’s good. Is it a Fairy or an Alkristal?” Broker asked.

“Neither. It’s a human that can use magic,” José stated. “They have magic users in the Human World, but there aren’t that many of them.”

“They also have discrimination here,” Broker added.

“So you DO remember the speech Skylar gave you,” José said, grinning.

“Is that the name of the kid who was saying it?” Broker asked.

“Yeah, he’s very smart on that subject. He was very worried that you wouldn’t remember his speech,” José stated. “He came up with that practically on the spot.”

“And he wants to get rid of my country’s caste system for some reason,” Broker said.

“He thinks the way Brown-Necks are being treated in your country is wrong and should be put to an end,” José said. “In the kid’s defense, a lot of Otherworld countries feel the same.”

“I know, but I don’t think it’s even possible,” Broker said. “I mean, there was ONE guy 500 years ago who tried to do it, and he failed. Then, nobody ever attempted to do it again.”

“But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try,” José said. “I mean, Skylar seems to know what he’s talking about. He might give you some tips about how to do it right the second time,” José said.

“You actually think a little kid’s advice could bring down a system that’s been in place since the beginning of the Otherworld?”

“Si.”

“You’re crazy.”

“I try.”

Then, the two were quiet again, sitting on the floor listening to the rainstorm going on outside.

Then, Broker broke the silence again by asking, “So other than us, who are the other Otherworlders that are here?”

“Oh, there’s Bog, an Ampman, and Jane, a Nymph,” José answered. “Jane’s the one who’s responsible for freeing you from the mind control so you should probably thank her later.”

“I’ll be sure to do that tomorrow morning,” Broker said. “And the other humans?”

“There are a few adults named Ivan, Frederick, Zara, Constantine and Leah, and a few kids named Robbie, Alex, and Carina. Skylar and his mother, Darrian, don’t live here, but they visit sometimes,” José stated.

“Do you think they’ll like me?” Broker asked.

“You seem like a cool guy, I’m sure they will,” José said. “I know Skylar really wants to meet you.”

“Were you and those other two Otherworlders you mentioned mind controlled just like I was?” Broker asked.

“Yes, and we’re expecting more to come over the next few days,” José said.

“Shit, looks like our lives are going to get crazy,” Broker said.

“But it’ll be fun,” José insisted, smiling.

Broker nodded and looked up at the ceiling for a second, before sighing, “We’re stuck in the Human World, aren’t we?”

“Not necessarily,” José said. “Whoever kidnapped us all and mind controlled us must have a machine that’ll allow him to go to the Otherworld. If we beat this guy and get ahold of the machine, we might be able to go home. Do you have any family or friends that you want to get back to?”

Broker bit his lip and answered, “Family yes, but friends...I had a lot of friends once but now I’m left with just one.”

José eyes widened and he said, “Oh, I’m sorry. Were they killed?”

“No, they’re not dead; they’re just not allowed to be around me anymore,” Broker explained.

“Why not?” José asked.

“I’d rather not talk about it,” Broker said. “But if anyone noticed I’m gone for a while, they’ll probably think I’m dead or something.”

José put his hand on Broker’s shoulder and said, “Don’t be like that. I’m sure they think you’re alive and are waiting for you to return.”

“I doubt that,” Broker replied, but he looked over at José and smiled, “But thanks for trying to cheer me up.”

“De nada,” José said, before getting to his feet and saying, “Well, we better get back to bed. It’s almost one in the morning.”

The two went back to their cots, where Broker asked, “Hey, does the Human World have chest binders?”

“I don’t know. You’ll have to ask the humans that live here,” José said.

“I’ll be sure to do that,” Broker replied.

The next morning, José and Broker walked down the hall to the dining/living room, where they found everyone else was already awake and eating breakfast.

Alex spotted the two Otherworlders and greeted them, “Good morning José and Loaner stranger.”

“Buenos dias, Alex,” José replied.

“Good morning to you, too, child stranger,” Broker responded.

“I got a name you know,” Alex said. “It’s Alex.”

“Well so do I, and it’s Broker,” Broker stated.

“As in a stockbroker?” Leah asked. “That’s a weird name to give someone.”

“Loaners tend to have names associated with money or economics. His name isn’t exactly strange,” Beast stated.

“So there’s probably someone in Loaner Valley with the name Dollar or Coin or something,” Robbie asked.

“Most likely.”

“So, where are our plates?” José asked.

“Over there,” Zara stated, pointing at two empty chairs that had a plate of food in front of each.

José and Broker sat down, where they were seated across from Alex and Skylar, who were both fixated on the Loaner.

“So, what do you remember from last night?” Skylar asked.

“Some kid’s voice giving me a speech about discrimination,” Broker answered.

“That was me!” Skylar exclaimed, smiling.

“Oh, you’re Skylar,” Broker said. “You’re a little shorter than I thought you’d be. With a speech like that, I thought you were older.”

“I’m a small child. Give me time to grow,” Skylar said.

“So, you really think you can tear down my country’s caste system, a system that had been in place for centuries,” Broker said.

“Hey, slavery was a thing for over a few centuries, and we managed to get rid of that,” Skylar said.

“Slavery? Humans had slavery?” Broker asked.

“Over a century ago, yeah. It was horrible. They forced my people to work in fields under the hot sun while their masters sat in the shade ready to whip one of us if we as much as slowed down or stopped for a second,” Skylar stated. “Then, slavery got abolished after the Civil War, but black people didn’t have a lot of rights until the 1960s, which was about 50 years ago.”

“What kind of rights did black people not have?” Broker asked.

“Well, there was the right to vote,” Skylar answered.

“Vote? What’s that mean?” Broker asked.

“It’s how we choose our country’s leader, at least in America it works like that. Every four years, we have something called an election to decide on who will be our new leader, or president, for four years, or eight years if they’re lucky enough to get re-elected,” Skylar explained. We pick a candidate from a bunch of people in two political parties called the Democrats and Republicans, and the candidate that’s left in each party are the final two we have to choose to be president.”

“That sounds very complicated,” Broker said. “In the Otherworld, we all have kings and/or queens ruling the country. They pretty much rule until they die and then their eldest child takes over. If they don’t have a kid, then a sibling does it. If no sibling, then the general rules.”

“Oh that’s a monarchy,” Skylar said. “A few countries still have that system of government, but I forget which ones. I think England does.”

“That’s a constitutional monarchy. There’s a king or queen in England, but they don’t have much political power,” Beast corrected. “Saudi Arabia has a straight-up monarchy though.”

“The only time we get to choose our leader is if we overthrow the old one for being too corrupt,” Broker stated. “What do you do if you get a corrupt leader?”

“Simple, we pray to our gods and hope he gets impeached,” Skylar answered.

“Or assassinated,” Beast added.

“Beast, that’s treason,” Samuel told his husband.

“Who says I’d be the one doing it?”

“We currently have a president we don’t like,” Skylar stated.

“‘Don’t like’ is an understatement. I fucking hate that bastard,” Beast said through gritted teeth.

“What’s so bad about him?” José asked.

“If we told you everything, we’d be here a while,” Skylar said. “But to put it simply, he’s racist, sexist, homophobic and xenophobic.”

“Yikes,” Broker said.

“Anyway!” Skylar said, changing the subject. “For as long as you’re in the mansion and whenever I stop by here, I’ll give you information about how you could possibly get rid of your country’s caste system.”

“If you’re confident that it’ll work, then I’ll listen,” Broker said.

“That’s the spirit!” Skylar exclaimed.

After breakfast, everyone was in the living room part of the room, with Broker standing in the center, ready to answer questions anyone had.

“So,” Beast began. “What were you doing before you got abducted.”

“I was going through some rocky areas trying to find a spot where I could mine for jewels,” Broker answered. “Preferably a spot where nobody could find me and rob me.”

“And then what happened?” Beast asked.

“I heard a gunshot,” Broker stated. “And I felt something hit my arm. I looked over and saw it was a dart. I pulled it out and kept going around-.”

“Wait!” Frederick interrupted. “You got hit with a dart and you just shrugged it off!?”

“Well, yeah,” Broker said. “When Loaners aren’t old enough to brandish an actual gun, they’re given pellet or dart guns to use as practice.”

“Why?!” Frederick asked.

“Sometimes Loaner kids go to the mines themselves to see if they can find jewels for their families, and there are these big rodents that like to hang out in the mines-,” Broker began to explain until Frederick said, “Okay, you can stop there.”

Then, Broker went on with his story, “So I pulled the dart out and kept going around the land, but soon I began to feel very drowsy and eventually, I blacked out.”

“A sleep dart. That’s what the mind controller shot at you,” Beast said. “And it makes sense since he knows Loaner senses are very keen and that if you sensed him trying to attack you, he knew you would run away and he’d never catch you.”

“Yeah, probably,” Broker said. “So when I woke up, I found myself in some dank prison cell and I heard people screaming all around me. I thought I was in my country’s dungeon and began to freak out myself. Then, a man wearing all black walked by, so I reached my hand through the bars and grabbed his arm, asking why I was locked up.”

“And what happened?” Beast asked, leaning forward in his chair.

“He shouted at me and then forced me off his arm and soon, I heard a hissing noise and I was unconscious again,” Broker stated.

“Do you remember what he said to you?” Samuel asked.

“Yeah, he said ‘Get your dirty hand off me’ and then he called me some weird word,” Broker answered.

“A weird word? What weird word?” Leah asked.

“Well, I’ve never heard a word like it before, but maybe it has more significance with you humans,” Broker said.

When the Loaner stated the name the mind controller had called him, all the humans in the room went stiff.

A lot of people, like the children, and Darrian were mortified, while some others, like Beast, Constantine, and Zara looked very angry.

Broker observed all their expressions and asked, “Is that like a bad word here or something?”

“It’s a racial slur for people with skin color like mine and yours,” Skylar stated.

“So, this mind controlling freak is a racist? Makes me look forward to pummeling him,” Beast said.

“What’s a slur?” Jane asked.

“It’s a word that offends a person, specifically those that are a minority, like how the word Broker was called offends black people,” Zara explained.

“Are there slurs in the Otherworld?” Skylar asked curiously.

“Well, now since you mention it, there are some,” Broker said. “In Loaner Valley, Loaners of the higher castes called Brown-Necks things like Dirt-Necks or Shit-Necks, because they wear brown.”

“Words that offend us Ampman are swamp creature and pond scum,” Bog stated. “They’re insulting because it implies that we’re disgusting monsters.”

“I don’t think Nymphs have slurs,” Jane said. “At least, I’ve never heard any.”

“Playa’s don’t have any either, as far as I know,” José added.

“So, did what I say help you guys in any way?” Broker asked.

“No really. We still don’t have an idea on what the mind controller looks like,” Samuel stated.

“But we will find out who he is eventually, and when we do, I’m going to give him hell,” Beast snarled.

“Guess we’ll have to wait till the next Otherworlder shows up,” Robbie said.

Darrian then stood up and said, “But before that happens, my tires are going to be fixed so me and Skylar won’t have to stick around to see it.”

“Aw man,” Skylar muttered.

Broker then said, “I have one more question for you guys.”

“What’s that, Broker?” Beast asked.

The Loaner cleared his throat and took a deep breath before asking, “Does the Human World have chest binders?”

Beast smirked, “Why yes it does, but you can’t find them in stores. You’ll need to look them up online. Zara will help you with that later.”

“What’s a chest binder?” Alex asked.

“It’s something that looks like a crop top but it worn to flatten someone’s chest. Mostly trans men wear them,” Beast explained. “I had to wear one for a few years before I got surgery.”

“Wait, you’re trans?” Robbie asked, his eyes wide. “When were you going to tell me and Alex?”

“I already knew,” Alex said.

“What?! When?!” Robbie asked his sister.

“It was during my ‘where do babies come from’ phase,” Alex explained. “Sometime after Zara told me how reproduction works, I got confused about where Mom came from so I asked Gramps if he and Grandpa adopted her. He told me no and explained why.”

Robbie slammed his head into the table and groaned, “Nobody tells me anything anymore.”

A little while later, after Skylar and Darrian had left the mansion, Robbie was walking down the hall, thinking about what had happened over the last few days.

First, there’s another dimension with weird beings called the Otherworld, which his grandparents have apparently been to! Then, turns out magic is real and he and Alex possess it, and to top it all off, someone's mind controlling Otherworlders into trying to kill his grandfather, Beast.

Robbie wondered what other stuff he would learn about his grandparents over the summer and then he realized what door was passing by. It was the door to Samuel’s study, one of the other rooms in the mansion he and Alex weren’t allowed to enter. With all the chaos going on, Robbie had pretty much forgotten about investigating his grandparents’ studies.

He grabbed the doorknob and attempted to turn it, thinking maybe now it was unlocked since most of his grandparents’ secrets were out in the open now. Unfortunately, he was wrong. Then, he knocked on the door. No answer. Samuel must’ve been somewhere else.

The boy was about to leave when he heard Broker’s voice ask, “Hey Robbie, what’re you doing?”

Robbie turned around to see the Loaner coming down the hall.

“I was um...trying to get into my grandpa, Samuel’s, study so I could...borrow one of his books on magic,” Robbie lied. “But the door is locked and he’s not in.”

Broker laughed, “Man, you’re a horrible liar. You paused a lot while saying that, but if you want to get in and look around, I can help you do that.”

“You can?” Robbie asked, very surprised. Then, he remembered what Samuel told him the night before. “Oh right, Loaners can pick locks.”

“Yeah, and we’re very good at that. But if I pick the lock the old fashioned way, it’ll take a while and we might get caught by your grandpa,” Broker stated. “Lucky for us, I have an alternative.”

The Loaner then pulled something out of his trench coat pocket. It looked like a screwdriver, but instead of the usual blade and tip on the shank, it had these little points on the side of the shank that made it look like a weird key and there were small buttons on the handle.

“What’s that thing?” Robbie asked.

“It’s a semi-automatic lockpicker,” Broker explained. “You just stick it into the lock, press a few buttons and within seconds, the lock is undone. Only high caste Loaners are able to afford these.”

“Then why do you have one?” Robbie asked.

Instead of answering, Broker just stuck the lockpicker into the lock of the door and pressed a few of the buttons on the handle. Soon, there was a click and the Loaner turned the doorknob and opened the door.

“See? Easy,” he said.

“You didn’t answer my question,” Robbie stated.

“Whoa! Check out all this stuff in here!” Broker exclaimed, turning on a light looking into the room, ignoring Robbie completely again.

Robbie looked into the study and was very surprised by what he saw. The teenager had expected the room to be very organized, have a desk and chair, and maybe a bookshelf in it, but he didn’t expect the room to have its walls covered with dozens of framed photographs, a few tapestries, and drawings of weird symbols he didn’t recognize, shelves full of rocks, minerals and jars of herbs, and racks that held staves, swords and daggers.

“Holy shit,” Robbie muttered.

“Question: is Samuel the one with the magic powers?” Broker asked, to which Robbie nodded.

The teenager walked over to a shelf that had several kinds of gemstones displayed on it and began to look at them.

“Man, look at all these. I wonder if these gems are used in magic in some way,” he said, picking up a big yellow gem. “Check out the size of this topaz.”

“Actually, that’s a yellow diamond,” Broker said, before pointing at a smaller yellow gem. “This is a topaz.”

“Oh,” Robbie said, putting the diamond back on the shelf. He pointed at a blue one and asked, “Is this a sapphire?”

“No, that’s an aquamarine,” Broker corrected. “You don’t know much about gemstones do you?”

“I know the names of some but I’ve never actually seen any,” Robbie admitted.

“Name as many as you can,” Broker said. “I’ll see if I can point it out to you.”

“Okay,” Robbie said before taking a deep breath and began reciting names of gemstones. “Ruby, sapphire, garnet, pearl, amethyst, rose quartz, jasper, peridot, lapis lazuli…”

As Robbie said a gemstone name, Broker pointed at each one on the shelf. When Robbie was done, Broker commented, “You know a lot of gem names.”

“Yeah, there’s this cartoon Alex really likes that involves gems,” Robbie stated.

“What’s a cartoon?” Broker asked.

“I’ll show you one later,” Robbie said. Then he pointed at a glowing light blue gem on the lower shelf and asked, “What’s this one?”

“Oh! That’s a gloomstone!” Broker exclaimed.

“A gloomstone? We don’t have a gem like that in the Human World,” Robbie stated.

“They probably only exist in the Otherworld,” Broker stated. “They’re really rare. It’s said that if you wear one, it absorbs any form of depression or sadness you’re feeling. I wore one for a while.”

“A while? What happened to it?” Robbie asked.

“A Black-Leg stole it from me and sold it,” Broker answered. “They’re really valuable. You could get a thousand dollars from just an ounce of it.”

“I’m sorry to hear that yours got stolen,” Robbie said.

“Eh, it’s not so bad. I don’t really need it anymore,” Broker said, before walking away from the shelf.

He walked away from the shelf and began to examine the photos on the wall until he gasped, pointed at one of the pictures and exclaimed, “Hey! That’s my mother when she was young!”

Robbie went over to the wall and looked at the photo Broker was pointing at. It showed four people: a white man wearing a gray pinstripe suit with a very smug smile on his face, a tan-skinned young boy wearing a black leather jacket with slicked back hair, a boy with dark brown skin wearing a black hoodie with the hood lined with black fur and sunglasses, and a young Samuel, who looked to be in his 20s.

Robbie frowned, “Your mother is in this picture? Where?”

Broker pointed at the dark-skinned boy. “That’s her. At least that was her. She transitioned into a woman when she was in her 20s. Obviously this was before that.”

“So your mom is trans too?” Robbie asked.

“Yep, and she adopted me and my sister when she was 30, in case you were wondering how we came to be raised by her,” Broker said. “Say, you sounded very surprised when you learned your grandpa, Beast, was trans. Are trans people not common in the Human World?”

“No, they’re pretty common. I just didn’t expect to meet one. Then again, for all I know, I might’ve known more trans people but they never told me they were trans,” Robbie said. “Trans people don’t usually reveal their gender identity when they first meet a person.”

“Why’s that?” Broker asked.

“Well,” Robbie said, trying to figure out how to explain this to the Loaner. “There are a lot of people in the Human World that don’t like trans people. Who think they’re ‘frauds’ and that they shouldn’t exist and should stick with their biological gender.”

“What do they do to people that are trans if they meet one?” Broker asked.

“They do a lot of horrible stuff to them, from ridiculing them in public to even killing them if they’re that hateful. Transphobia is a pretty serious problem here,” Robbie stated.

“Man, and I thought discriminating people by skin color was fucked up,” Broker said.

“Yeah, and now I’m wondering if Gramps went through that when he was younger,” Robbie said. “I would ask him, but he’s so secretive, that I doubt he’ll give me that information.”

“Well, I can say I haven’t gone through that torment,” Broker admitted. “I guess the Otherworld is more tolerant than the Human World.”

The two then went quiet for a moment until they heard someone clear their throat. The duo looked towards the door to see Samuel standing in the open doorway.

“Oh, sorry, Grandpa, I-,” Robbie began to apologize until Samuel put his hand up, telling him to stop.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m not the type to flip out if someone breaks into my personal space. Beast on the other hand...is debatable.”

“Sorry for the break-in. Robbie and I were curious about what was in here,” Broker explained. “I didn’t know that you knew my mother.”

“You’re mother?” Samuel asked, tilting his head.

Broker removed the photo from the wall and showed it to Samuel, pointing at the black kid in the picture. “That’s her,” the Loaner stated.

“Oh, you mean Carson,” Samuel said.

“Actually, she goes by Carmen now,” Broker corrected.

“Oh, sorry,” Samuel apologized, then asked, “Do you know who the other two are?”

“Nope, but I bet you’re going to tell us,” Broker said.

“The boy in the leather jacket was Tony, a Black-Leg, and the man in the pinstripe suit is a Gray-Back named Fajoe,” Samuel stated.

“Tony? As in Boss Tony, the Loaner General? Man, that guy is so cool!” Broker exclaimed. Then he said in a bitter tone, “But Fajoe is a bit of a jackass.”

“Tony’s the general now? Good for him,” Samuel said. “As for Fajoe, Beast and I weren’t too keen on him either.”

“Then why is he in a picture with you?” Robbie asked.

“He insisted on it, saying how he’d famous for knowing a human,” Samuel stated. “I honestly wanted to punch him out of the shot, but I knew that wouldn’t look good for me, so I didn’t.”

“Did Gramps have a picture with him too?” Robbie asked.

“Yes, he did,” Samuel said, going over to a shelf and pulling out an old album. He flipped through the pages until he found the one he wanted and pointed at a particular photo. “And he actually managed to punch him,” he stated.

Robbie and Broker looked at the photo to see an image of a young Beast, who had no facial scars but still had his typical irritated expression, suckerpunching Fajoe in the face, while young Tony had his hand over his mouth, looking stunned, and young Carmen was laughing.

“Ha! That bastard deserved it!” Broker laughed.

“And afterwards, Fajoe became extremely afraid of Beast,” Samuel stated.

“We got to ask Beast about that,” Broker said. “Come on Robbie!”

And soon the Loaner had bolted out of the room, with Robbie running after him, shouting, “Wait up! I can’t go as fast as you!”

A short while later, Broker and Robbie found Beast and were asking him about Fajoe.

“I hated that bastard,” Beast stated. “When I first saw him, he was in the middle of mugging a Brown-Neck child into giving him the gems they got for their family. I drop-kicked him for it.”

“Nice,” Broker said.

“Then, when he found out I was from another dimension, he had the nerve to be nice to me because he thought I would take him back into the Human World with me,” Beast added.

“Good thing he didn’t convince you,” Broker said. “He’d be a real problem for you humans.”

“Yeah, that’s what I figured,” Beast said. “I take it you know him.”

“Yeah, he hasn’t really changed since you last saw him,” Broker stated. “He’s still a greedy bastard.”

“Is he still a Gray-Back?” Beast asked.

“No, he’s a Black-Leg now,” Broker answered.

“Damn, he got richer,” Beast said.

Robbie then asked Broker, “Did Fajoe take money from you?”

“Yeah,” Broker said aloud. Then he muttered, “And a whole lot worse than that.”

Beast, hearing what Broker muttered, just replied, “I’m sorry for what he did to you. I honestly wanted to kill him back then, but Samuel wouldn’t let me. If I had done that, maybe you’d be in better shape.” Then, he went on his way.

At that moment, José came walking down the hall, greeting the Broker and Robbie, “Hola, Broker and Robbie. What are you doing hanging around here?”

“We were just talking to Beast about a Loaner I know back in Loaner Valley,” Broker stated. “Not long ago, we snooped in Samuel’s study and found a picture of each of them with him.”

“Did he have any photos taken in Playa City?” José asked, curious.

“No, we didn’t check, but we’ll ask later,” Broker said.

José nodded and asked the Loaner, “So, how are you settling into the mansion?”

“It’s pretty nice here,” Broker stated. “It’s a lot better than sleeping in the streets.”

“You slept in the streets?” Robbie asked, his eyes wide.

Broker nodded, “A lot of Brown-Neck Loaners do. A lot of us aren’t able to afford housing due to what little money we have. There’s always the risk of getting robbed and/or killed in your sleep when you sleep outside though.”

“So you’re homeless?” Robbie asked. “That’s kind of sad.”

“It’s more than sad. It’s miserable,” Broker stated. “I did sometimes stay at my sister’s place, but higher caste Loaners began to notice and threatened me.”

“Is your sister in a higher caste?” José asked.

“Yeah, my sister Moolah, and my mom, are both Black-Legs,” Broker stated.

“Wait, so if two of your family were Black-Legs, then that means you must’ve been a Black-Leg too!” Robbie concluded. “So that’s how you have the automatic lock-picker. But, how’d you lose your wealth?”

“I don’t know to talk about it,” Broker replied.

“Was Fajoe involved?” Robbie asked.

“Is that why you don’t have friends anymore?” José added.

“I said I don’t want to talk about it!” Broker snapped, causing José and Robbie to jump.

Broker sighed, “Sorry for snapping. That’s a very sensitive topic for me. Please don’t make me talk about my past, cause I’d honestly rather not.”

“Sorry,” Robbie and José replied.

After an awkward silence, Broker then asked, “Is there a place nearby where I can run laps?”

“Run laps?” Robbie asked.

“Yeah, I got to keep my legs in shape for when the next Otherworlder shows up, and for when I get home,” Broker stated. “I don’t want to go home and find out that I’m slower because I lagged in training.”

“Oh, there’s an old dirt track not too far from here. It was used for motorbike races according to my grandparents, but now only wild horses hang around it,” Robbie stated. He got out his phone and went on Google Maps to try to find the location. When he did, he told Broker, “It’s about 8 miles northwest from here. Careful not to do anything that’ll upset the horses.”

“Thanks, I’ll go check it out now,” Broker said before running off.

A half hour later, Broker had found the dirt track Robbie was telling him about. It was in the middle of a vast field of grass and some small wildflowers, and not to far from the track was a herd of horses that were busy eating grass, trotting around and doing whatever it is horses do in fields.

Broker looked around the track and decided to start his first lap by walking. He had to make sure there wasn’t anything on the tracks that could interfere with his laps like rocks he could trip over, traps someone asshole had set intended for the horses that he could set off, trash a different asshole had tossed on the ground that he could slip on, or horse shit that could ruin shoes.

As he walked around the track, he glanced at the surrounding area. Loaner Valley was mostly brown or gray rocks and dirt, so seeing all the bright colors of the grass and flowers was a little new to him. Also, when it came to animals, there were usually small mammals, reptiles, and a few birds of prey that hung around, so the horses were new too. He had only seen settings like this in picture books his mother read to him and his sister, so he was honestly a little excited.

When Broker completed his lap without coming across any problems, he got down in the starting position to run around the track. He noticed a few of the horses had taken notice to him and were watching, wondering what he was doing there most likely, but they didn’t seem threatened by his presence so they eventually carried on.

Then, the Loaner launched around the track! First one lap, then five, then ten, then twenty, then fifty, and soon he began to lose count! He ran for quite a while until his legs and lungs began to get tired, which was when he decided to stop and catch his breath.

He looked back at the horses and had he not been so worn out, he would’ve laughed at what he saw; every single horse in the herd was staring at him, meaning they had seen what the Loaner had done, and seemed to be in the middle of processing what they had just witnessed.

Soon, a small foal seemed to have gotten pretty curious about the strange being and trotted up to Broker, followed by an older horse, who he assumed was its mother. The little horse went up to the Loaner and sniffed him, as if making sure he was real and not a hallucination. Broker smirked and reached out towards the baby animal, who backed away a few inches and sniffed his hand, before putting its head into the palm. The foal let out a small whinney and ran off with its mother to rejoin the herd.

Broker grinned and said to himself, “I think I’m going to like it here.”

Then he let out a loud sneeze and muttered, “Dang, don’t tell me I’m one of those people with a pollen allergy. I really liked this place.”

Meanwhile, back at the mansion, Bog, Jane and José were sitting in the living room, having a little talk about Broker.

“So, Broker used to be a Black-Leg?” Jane concluded, after hearing what the Playa had to say.

“Yeah, and I think a Loaner named Fajoe is involved with why he’s a Brown-Neck now,” José stated. “I feel like Fajoe did something really horrible to him to make him give up his wealth and I’m worried about what it was, but Broker won’t tell me anything.”

“Well, it’s his life. He probably doesn’t want anyone knowing about it,” Bog said. “Why are you so concerned with him?”

“I...I don’t know! We only spoke to each other a few times, and yet, I connected with him so well in the short time we’ve known each other, well enough that I feel the need to look out for him and worry about him,” José said.

Alex, who was sitting at the dining room table, coloring, then commented, “I know what that means.

“What does it mean?” José asked.

Alex gave José a serious expression before breaking out in a grin and exclaiming, “You’re in LOVE!”

José, his eyes widening and his cheeks turning red, shouted, “What! No I’m not!”

“Aww! That’s cute,” Jane said, giggling.

“Well, Broker is a pretty handsome young man. I would’ve been surprised if you didn’t feel attracted to him, José,” Bog said, smirking.

“No! That’s not it!” José defended, but his face was still red. “How can I be in love with him? I just met him!”

“Love does weird things to people,” Jane stated.

“José and Broker, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes José with the baby carriage!” Alex sang.

The Otherworlders stared at Alex, very confused, until Jane asked, “What was that song just now?”

“It’s a song people sing to make fun of people who are in love with someone. Mostly kids do it,” Alex explained.

“Why are me and Broker sitting in a tree?” José asked.

“I don’t know. I didn’t write the song,” Alex said.

“Sounds like a fun tune,” Jane said. “Can you teach it to me?”

“Sure!”

“Please don’t,” José begged. “Broker might get home soon.”

Before Alex could recite the song again, there was a loud metal bass riff that shook the mansion, causing the windows to shatter and Alex to scream.

Jane and Bog ran into the kitchen to look out the window. Standing in the backyard was a tan-skinned woman, wearing a black tank top with a purple skull on the front, black leather pants, black wedge-heeled boots, a black, long, sleeveless coat and was gripping a bass guitar. She also had on a helmet similar to the one Bog wore. She stared up at the window and bared her teeth at the Otherworlders looking down at her.

“It’s a Goth,” Jane gasped.

At the old dirt track, Broker heard the blast of metal music from where he was, where he said, “Oh god, don’t tell me the next Otherworlder is here already!” before bolting back to the mansion.

Robbie had just run into the dining/living room to find everyone else already there.

“Okay, what is it this time?” he asked. “I was playing Skyrim when I heard the noise and my TV screen cracked, and I hadn’t saved in a while!”

“It’s a Goth, the other race in the Otherworld that can use supersonic instruments,” Beast stated. “Which means Alex will have to hide in the basement again.”

“Darn my sensitive hearing,” Alex muttered.

“Where’s Broker?” Samuel asked, looking around the room and seeing that the Loaner wasn’t present.

“He’s at the old dirt track,” Robbie stated. “He said he wanted to run some laps.”

“He probably heard the music from where he was. He might be one his way back right now,” Beast said.

Not even a moment after saying that, Broker ran into the room and said, “Okay, I’m here. What’s going on?”

“See, told you he’d be here soon,” Beast said before answering the Loaner, “A mind-controlled Goth was sent at us.”

“Dang, I heard their music is extremely loud. Louder than Nymph music from what I know,” Broker said.

“Oh yeah, Goth Grounds is right next to Loaner Valley. You can hear their music from there?” Jane asked.

“Yeah, which is why we call them the Noisy Nation,” Broker stated. “So, what’s our plan to fight this guy?”

“Well, you should probably refrain from using your gun. We don’t want to cause serious harm to the Goth,” Samuel stated.

“Got it. So I’ll just rely on my hand-to-hand combat and knife-fighting skills,” Broker said.

“Just don’t cut her anywhere serious, like her arteries,” Beast said.

Then, there was another blast of metal music from outside, prompting everyone to cover their ears.

“Okay, she’s obviously getting impatient, so we better hurry and get outside before she makes us all go deaf,” Bog said.

“Good plan,” Samuel agreed. “The humans that are fighting will go get their weapons, the Otherworlders will go outside, the humans that are hiding, go to the basement.”

Everyone nodded and went down the hall, where the group split up into three.

The fighters continued down the hall to get their weapons from the treasure room; the hiders went downstairs and into the den to hide in the basement, and the Otherworlders went downstairs and into the backroom to head outside.

Halfway down the hall, Beast glanced back at Robbie, where his eyes widened and he turned around, asking, “What are you two doing here?”

Robbie looked behind himself to see Ivan and Leah had been following them.

“We want to help fight the Goth,” Leah stated.

“Oh no, after what happened when the Ampman and Playa showed up,” Beast said.

“The Playa caught me off guard. I didn’t know he had a whip,” Ivan stated.

“Also, I’m in a lot better shape than I was a few days ago. I could probably handle a fight,” Leah insisted.

Beast looked at Leah and asked, “Are your parents okay with this?”

“Yeah, they both are,” Leah stated.

“Good, because if it was just your father, I’d send you back down to the basement,” Beast said. “And is Frederick okay with what you’re doing, Ivan?”

“Frederick can’t control me,” Ivan said, standing boldly.

“So I take it that’s a no,” Beast said, rolling his eyes.

“Also, I was planning on trying out this new weapon I put together a few days ago,” Ivan added.

“Is this ‘weapon’ going to cause a lot more damage than necessary to the Goth or our surroundings?” Beast asked.

“...Hopefully not,” Ivan answered, though he didn’t sound completely certain.

Beast slapped his hand to his forehead and muttered, “Good god.” Then he said more audibly, “Fine. Go get it. But get a blunt weapon of some sort too, in case your weapon doesn’t function how you want it to.”

Ivan grinned and ran quickly down the stairs and into his lab.

Samuel then said, “Let’s find Leah a weapon and hurry back outside. I’m sure the Otherworlders need out help by now.”

Outside in the backyard, Bog, Broker, Jane and José were standing a few feet in front of the Goth, who was staring at the small group, gripping her metal bass tightly.

Jane stepped closer to her and said, “Okay, you called us out here, now where’s the fight?”

As if on cue, the Goth grabbed the neck of her bass and ran towards the group, ready to swing her weapon.

Jane was reaching for her own guitar to block the attack, but to her surprise, the Goth ran right past her and swung her instrument at Bog and José, who both jumped out of the way.

“I was the one who taunted her. Why did she go after them and not me?” Jane wondered.

While the Goth was more occupied with the Ampman and Playa, Jane took this as a chance to use her own blunt attacks on the Otherworlder. She swung her guitar at her opponent, who immediately turned around and blocked it with her own instrument.

The Goth then pushed against the Nymph’s weapon, forcing Jane to the ground and stood over here, staring down at the woman for a few seconds.

Jane half-expected the Otherworlder to take this as an opportunity to bludgeon her with her bass, but instead, the Goth turned away from her and began to approach the boys again.

The Goth positioned her guitar and began to strum it at Broker, who ran out of the way before the soundwaves could get him, causing them to strike the fence he was standing in front of. The wooden structure broke apart immediately from the supersonic impact!

“Damn, if it did that to a fence, who knows what it could’ve done to me!” the Loaner thought to himself.

Bog shot his tongue out, which wrapped around the Goth’s playing arm, preventing her from strumming her bass anymore. The Goth’s head quickly turned to look at the Ampman, where she stared at him in horror before screaming, “Get your disgusting tongue off my arm!”

The Goth used her other hand to grab Bog’s tongue and squeeze it very hard. The Ampman yelped in pain and retracted his tongue back to his mouth. He groaned from the pain in his tongue and was too distracted to notice the Goth aiming her bass at him.

By the time he noticed, she had already began playing, sending the powerful music at him and quickly sent him crashing through the trees behind him! By the time she stopped playing, Bog was laying on a pile of fallen trees, his entire body aching, especially his ears.

The Goth glared at him and snapped, “Touch me again and I’ll do a hell of a lot worse than that!”

Then, a buzzer went off and the Goth was no longer in control of herself.

“Wait, she lashed out at Bog with her own free will?” José asked Jane.

“Apparently so,” Jane said, as Broker ran over to Bog and asked, “Hey Bog, you alright?”

The Ampman looked up at the Loaner and uttered out, “No” before falling unconscious.

Inside, down in the basement, the other humans were sitting down there waiting for the latest Otherworlder fight to be over.

As the muffled metal music was heard from outside, Constantine said, “Wow, that metal music is very loud.”

“Well, it’s considered one of the loudest genres of music. Why do you think elderly people hate it so much?” Zara stated.

“At least it’s muffled enough to not bother me,” Alex said. “Do you think they’re doing okay up there?”

“I’m sure they’re fine,” Zara said. “So please don’t run out like you did when the Nymph was attacking.”

Frederick, who was sitting on a crate with Carina on his lap, said, “I’m starting to think letting Ivan fight was a bad idea. He told me he’d be fine as long as he had his new weapon, but given his track records for his creations, I don’t know if that’ll be true.”

“What is this new weapon he created?” Constantine asked.

“Some kind of laser gun,” Frederick stated.

Constantine, Zara and Alex stared at the Brit, wide-eyed and silent.

Frederick, seeing their reactions, said, “Something tells me I should be worried about everyone rather than just Ivan.”

“With a weapon like that, assuming that it works, it’ll be very dangerous to use,” Zara said. “If it works like the laser guns in the sci-fi films, Ivan might accidentally kill the Goth with it.”

“If there’s a loud explosion from outside and there’s nothing but silence for ten minutes, I’m going to assume that everyone died,” Constantine said. “I’m really wishing Leah had stayed here rather than head out and fight with the others.”

“If Robbie dies will I get his stuff?” Alex asked, curious.

“Do you want your brother to die?!” Frederick asked, shocked by the child’s question.

“No, I’m just preparing for the inevitable,” Alex stated.

Frederick whispered to Zara, “As she gets older, she really is starting to act more like Beast. It scares me honestly.”

“She acts a little like Samuel too sometimes, with how much she cares about everyone,” Zara stated.

“Well Beast cares too, though he’s more aggressive about it,” Frederick said. “It makes me wonder what Julia was like.”

“My mom was very nice. Pretty sure she took after Grandpa,” Alex guessed. “I don’t know if Robbie acts like Grandpa or Gramps. He’s very weird.”

“Well, most brothers are,” Zara said, smiling.

At that moment, Samuel, Beast, Robbie, Leah and Ivan had made it outside, where they saw the wreckage caused by the Goth so far.

“Shit, the fence!” Beast shouted, seeing the splintered mess.

“Good god, the trees!” Robbie exclaimed, pointing at the fallen trees.

“Oh god, Bog!” Leah screamed, noticing the fallen Ampman.

Broker looked at the humans and told them, “He can’t fight anymore. He’s unconscious!”

“Get him inside,” Beast ordered the Loaner, who lifted Bog onto his shoulders and quickly carried him into the backroom.

Beast then asked Jane, “What happened?”

“The Goth strummed her bass at Bog and forced him to crash through the trees. I imagine he’s in a lot of pain right now,” Jane stated. “When she did it, I think she snapped out of the mind control because she yelled at him before doing it.”

“What’d she yell at him for?” Beast asked.

“Just a moment before, Bog had latched his tongue onto her arm and I think it disgusted her,” Jane stated.

“Similar to how José snapped out of his mind control when Bog licked his face,” Beast said. “Meaning she violently assaulted Bog with her free will.”

The Goth looked over at the new group of people that had just arrived outside and glared at them, until she noticed Broker helping Bog get into the mansion. She positioned her bass to play, aiming it at them.

Leah, noticing what she was doing, shouted, “Oh no you don’t!”

She ran at the Otherworlder, gripping her weapon, a small club, and swung it at the woman. The Goth immediately caught the blunt weapon with her hand, much to Leah’s surprise and glared at the girl.

“Oh shit,” Leah muttered.

The Goth then grabbed her arm and flung her to the ground, causing Leah to cry out in pain.

“You okay, Leah?” Robbie asked.

“Mostly,” Leah answered, sitting up.

Ivan then pulled a strange device out of his pocket, saying, “Looks like this is a good time as any to test my new weapon.”

Robbie looked at Ivan’s latest tech, which looked like a cross between a blaster from Star Wars and a phaser from Star Trek. It actually looked pretty cool!

“Are you sure it’s safe to use?” Samuel asked the Russian.

“Positive,” Ivan said as he pulled the trigger on the gun.

It shot out a beam of light, which flew past the Goth’s head by an inch and struck a nearby tree, causing it to erupt into a flaming pillar!

“God, I hope there weren’t any innocent birds and squirrels in that tree,” Robbie thought to himself.

“O yebat’,” Ivan muttered, seeing the damage he had just caused.

“IVAN!” Beast shouted.

“Sorry! I misaimed!” Ivan yelped.

“Well, don’t think about aiming it again, it’s clearly too dangerous!” Beast snapped at him.

“Relax! I’ll put it back in the house,” Ivan said, about to run into the mansion when he saw the Goth was right in his path! When had she moved there!?

“Um...can I help you?” he asked.

The Goth punched him in the side of the face and wrenched the laser gun from his hand.

“Oh god, she has the gun now! SHE HAS THE GUN NOW!!!” Robbie shouted, running away.

The Goth examined the new weapon in her hands before aiming it at José and pulling the trigger.

The Playa dove to the ground out of the way, causing the blast to strike another tree and setting it ablaze!

She then aimed it at Robbie and fired again, where the teenager dropped to the ground, causing the laser to hit the fence and creating a big hole through it.

“Someone get that gun away from her!” Beast ordered. “Before she destroys the whole yard!”

Broker had just run back outside to hear the human’s command, where he ran towards the Goth and began trying to wrench it from her hands. “Okay, Goth, give it here!” he shouted.

While doing this, the Goth pulled the trigger again, causing the blast to strike the side of the mansion!

Down in the basement, everyone heard the big explosion, causing everyone to jump, especially Alex.

“What was that?” Zara asked, as she kneeled near Alex to calm her.

“I’ll run up for a moment and check,” Constantine said, before running up the basement stairs.

“I thought he was going to wait ten minutes,” Frederick said.

After a few minutes, Constantine ran back into the basement, where he stated, “I found Bog lying on the backroom floor, unconscious, and there’s a huge hole in the wall of the mansion now!”

Frederick buried his face in his hands and moaned, “Good god, Ivan. What are you doing out there?”

Back outside, Beast was yelling at Ivan. “If we make it out of this alive, never make a weapon like that again!”

“I’m sorry! I just wanted to help!” Ivan apologized.

“Well, you did a really shitty job at it!”

At that moment, Broker finally yanked the gun out of the Goth’s hands, where he tore the weapon apart.

“Guns broken!” he stated.

The Goth glared at the Loaner before she swung her bass at him, where the speedy Otherworlder moved out of the way very quickly to avoid getting hit.

The Goth then positioned her bass to play it, where she strummed several notes at Broker, sending soundwaves that sent the Loaner flying back a couple of feet and crashing to the ground.

“Broker!” José shouted, running over to the Brown-Neck. “You okay?”

“Kind of,” Broker groaned.

José breathed a sigh of relief before glaring at the Goth and shouting, “How dare you hurt my friend, you Goth perra!”

He cracked his whip at her, latching it onto her bass and yanked the instrument from her hands with ease.

“Let’s see you hurt my friends without your precious guitar,” José taunted.

The Goth gritted her teeth and clenched her fists before running towards the Playa and punching him straight in the face!

José dropped to the ground, holding his face, allowing the Goth to retrieve her musical weapon and snap, “It’s called a bass, you fuckass!” Then, the buzzer noise went off, causing her head to jolt and she was no longer in control again.

“She snapped out of it again,” Robbie pointed out.

“This time, she was being very violent towards José,” Samuel added. “I wonder what exactly sets her off.”

“We’ll worry about that later, for now, let’s fight!” Beast commanded. He looked over at Ivan, who was looking down at the ground, muttering to himself and shouted, “Azarov! Quit talking to yourself and help out!”

Ivan’s head shot up and he replied, “Okay, Mr. Wagner.”

Then Russian then whipped out his weapon of choice, a big sledgehammer, and ran towards the Goth, swinging it.

The woman saw him coming and swung her own bass at him, knocking the hammer clean from his hands. She then kicked him in the abdomen, causing him to double over in pain, and then elbowed him in the back of the head, causing him to fall to the ground.

Beast slapped his hand to his face and muttered, “At least there was an attempt.”

Robbie ran over to Ivan, asking, “Ivan! Are you okay?”

But the inventor didn’t seem to hear the boy; his hands were covering his face and he was muttering stuff to himself. This was what Robbie heard: “God, if I hadn’t brought out that cursed weapon and stayed inside, we wouldn’t be in this mess right now. This is starting to be like what happened at the lab…”

“The lab? What lab?” Robbie asked. “You mean the Russian lab you almost got hired by?”

Ivan’s attentioned snapped to the teenager and he asked, “You heard that?”

Robbie nodded, prompting Ivan to groan in Russian, “Pervyye tayny Semyuelya i Zverya vykhodyat na otkrytoye, i teper' etot rebenok khochet uznat' menya? Bog, pochemu zhizn' dolzhna byt' takoy!”

“What?” Robbie asked, not sure what he said.

“It was nothing,” Ivan replied. “I’m too injured to fight. Go on without me.”

Then, Robbie heard him mutter, “Vam budet tak luchshe.”

Robbie was about to object until the Goth’s shadow loomed over him and he saw her staring down at him and Ivan.

Robbie whipped out his sword and pointed it at the Goth, saying, “You’d have to be a very horrible person to attempt to attack someone who’s no longer able to fight.”

The Goth just raised her bass up and brought it down, aiming for the teenager’s head. However, Robbie moved out of the way very quickly, causing her to just strike the ground.

At a safe distance away, Robbie began thinking of ways to fight the Goth. When he fought Jane with his sword, he ended up breaking it. It was safe to say the same would happen while fighting the Goth. Then, an idea hit him.

He set his sword down and began forming a large orb of fire in his hands, which he grew to be the size of a beach ball.

“What’s he doing now?” Beast asked.

“He seems to be trying to use his fire magic to attack the Goth,” Samuel said.

“Won’t fire seriously hurt the Goth though?” Leah asked.

“Don’t worry. I can heal burn wounds,” Samuel stated.

Robbie held the big orb of fire in his hands, where he began saying to the Goth in a monotone voice, “You’ve hurt my friends one too many times. Now it is time to meet your demise!”

“Robbie! Remember what I said about not killing the Otherworlder!” Beast shouted at his grandson.

Robbie, not seeming to listen, focused his attention more on the Goth, who was slowly taking a few steps back. He then shouted, “Now, burn in HELL!”

He then threw the fireball at the woman...which immediately extinguished into a small cloud of smoke. Robbie stood there, still in his throwing position, stiff as a statue, rethinking his choices.

The Goth stared at him, her mouth wide open before she suddenly burst out in laughter! “Oh my god! That was SO lame! A baby fairy could’ve pulled that spell off better than you did!” she exclaimed.

“Go easy on me, I’m only a beginner,” Robbie pleaded, a little humiliated by his mistake.

“I should’ve seen that result coming,” Samuel said, rubbing his forehead.

“At least nobody got burned, in the literal sense,” Leah said, wincing at the Goth’s mockery.

The Goth then positioned her bass to aim at Robbie, who was still in his humiliated state, and said, “How about I put you down so you don’t have to live with the agony of being a failure?”

Robbie then stood up straight and said, “No, I like being alive thank you, and also, that last bit was a little ru-AAAHH!”

The Goth began strumming her bass at him, sending soundwaves at him, but before any could actually hit him, Robbie felt someone grab him and yank him out of the way. When they stopped, Robbie looked to see that his rescuer was Broker.

“Thanks,” he said. “But I thought the Goth took your out a few moments ago.”

“Loaners have a pretty fast recovery time,” Broker stated.

Then, the familiar buzzer went off and the Goth’s head jolted, and she resumed her mind-controlled form.

“Wow, she snapped out of her mind control just to make fun of you. Says something about her personality,” Broker said.

The Goth then strummed her bass towards the two, where Broker ran out of the way with Robbie in tow. They went back over to where Beast, Samuel and Leah were, where Samuel said, “The fireball was a good attempt, but I’ll teach you real spells once this situation blows over.”

“If this situation blows over,” Leah said as the Goth focused on the four humans and Loaner.

Jane, who had observed all that had happened so far, stepped up and shouted, “Hey Goth! You didn’t forget about me, did you?”

The Goth looked over at the Nymph, silent.

“I noticed that whenever you’ve snapped out of the mind control, it’s either because one of the guys did something to piss you off, like in Bog’s case, or you want to make fun of someone, like Robbie, which shows you have a bad temper and attitude,” Jane stated. “But I’ve also noticed that you haven’t really done much to harm me and Leah.”

“Jane, do you want her to hurt us more?” Leah asked, gripping her club tightly.

Jane ignored the girl and went on with her statement, “I’m not going to ask why you’re like this, because obviously you can’t answer me right now. But I know I can’t just stand by and let you abuse my friends like this, so I’m going to put an end to you right now.”

The Goth stared at the woman, gritting her teeth.

“You’re aware of how Goths and Nymphs settle disagreements in each of our countries back in the Otherworld, right?” Jane asked, to which the Goth nodded.

“Good,” Jane said, positioning her guitar to play it. The Goth did the same with her bass.

“What are they doing?” Robbie asked.

“They’re about to have a music battle,” Beast explained. “They play facing each other with the supersonic mode on. Whoever gets tired or slips up and gets knocked down is the loser.”
“Awesome,” Robbie said.

“We need to step away a few feet though. This could get loud,” Beast said.

The group retreated back towards the mansion, where they stood near the backdoor to watch what was happening, except for Ivan who was still lying on the ground.

“Ivan, do you want one of us to drag you over here or something?” José asked the Russian, who replied, “No, I’m just fine lying over here.”

Samuel turned towards Beast and said, “I’ll go check on Bog and heal him if he needs it.” Then, the magician slipped into the mansion.

Robbie watched Jane and the Goth standing a few yards apart from each other, staring each other down silently. Finally, Jane cracked her fingers and knuckles and put her fingers on the strings of her guitar. The Goth followed suit.

Then, before anyone knew it, the two Otherworlders began to strum their instruments madly towards each other. When the soundwaves collided, they seemed to push against each other, trying to force back the other.

After awhile, a mixture of rock n roll and heavy metal began to be heard from the guitar battle.

Down in the basement, the small group of humans could hear the muffled music being played.

“What’s going on now?” Alex asked.

“I’ll check this time,” Frederick said as he handed Carina to Zara and went up the stairs.

He went into the backroom to find Samuel using his healing magic on Bog, where he asked, “What’s going on outside?”

“Music battle between Jane and the Goth,” Samuel stated. “It started not that long ago.”

Frederick nodded and looked out into the backyard from the open doorway. He saw Jane and the Goth playing at each other and was amazed to see how fast they were strumming. He’d be impressed if they didn’t get blisters from it.

Then, he noticed something lying on the ground not so far away from the Goth and upon closer inspection, Frederick realized that it was Ivan!

“Ivan!” he shouted, running outside to go to his husband.

Frederick ran up to Ivan’s fallen body and knelt near it, asking, “Ivan, are you okay? What happened?”

Ivan, surprised to see his husband for a moment before resuming his depressed look, said, “I messed up.”

“How?” Frederick asked.

“My weapon caused more harm than good,” Ivan stated. “The Goth stole it from me and tried to use it on us until Broker yanked it from her hands and broke it.”

“Was anyone hurt?” Frederick asked.

“No, but people almost were,” Ivan said. “And the yard ended up becoming this mess you see now.”

“Then it’s not so bad. Nobody got hurt or killed, so you don’t have to beat yourself up over it,” Frederick said.

“But it was MY weapon that caused all this damage, Freddie,” Ivan stated. “If I hadn’t brought it out here, the yard wouldn’t be a wreck right now. Beast was more furious at me then usual so I know I fucked up!”

Frederick glanced up at where Beast stood, to see he was focused on Jane and the Goth’s guitar battle, but for a moment he seemed to glance at the Brit and Russian. Could he hear what they were saying?

Frederick looked back at Ivan and said, “Ivan, everyone makes mistakes.”

“Not mistakes that cost the lives of dozens of people,” Ivan stated.

“But dozens of people didn’t die,” Frederick said, a little confused.

“Not this time,” Ivan said.

Frederick then remembered something Beast mentioned a few days ago; Ivan was almost hired by a Russian lab but they kicked him out. Did the ‘dozens of deaths’ have to do with that incident?

At the same time, Jane was struggling to outplay the Goth. The metal bass was definitely more powerful than her electric guitar, but she shouldn’t give up.

She strummed faster to the point that her fingertips began to get sore. She began to wonder if the fight was starting taking a toll on the Goth at all.

Then, Jane’s fingers slipped, causing her to screw up a note and one of her fingers.

Before she could scream from the pain in her finger, the Goth’s supersonic waves knocked her down to the ground and nearly busted her eardrums.

The Goth stopped playing and smirked, pleased with her victory. She grabbed the neck of her bass and began to approach the fallen Nymph.

“Jane lost,” Robbie said as if anyone couldn’t tell. “What now?”

Beast bit his lip and stated, “In Goth Grounds, when someone loses an instrument battle, the victor has the choice to kill the loser. I’m guessing that’s what the Goth plans to do.”

“WHAT!” Frederick shouted, hearing what the old man said before scrambling to his feet and running to get in the Goth’s path toward Jane.

He looked at the darkly-clothed woman and asked, “You’re not honestly going to kill her, are you?”

The Goth stared at the human silently for a few seconds before nodding.

“But why?! You don’t even know her! She’s done nothing to you!” Frederick stated.

The Goth gritted her teeth and snarled, “I’m killing her cause I feel like it, and I’ll gladly kill you too if you don’t get out of my way!”

The Goth then raised her weapon up, ready to strike the man down. Frederick put his arms up in a feeble attempt to protect himself from the attack, but he knew it’d be pointless; he’d be dead in a second from one of her blows.

However, the Goth didn’t have a chance to swing down her bass because something behind her was preventing her from doing so. She looked behind to see Ivan standing there, holding the body of her bass.

“Don’t...hurt...him…” Ivan said, slowly and menacingly.

“Let go,” the Goth ordered.

“No,” Ivan said.

“I’m going to give you 10 seconds to let go of my bass or I’ll hurt you worse than I did to that Ampman!” the Goth threatened. “One...two…”

“Count as high as you want, I’m not going to let go,” Ivan stated. “Especially if you’re planning on hurting people I care about.”

“four...five...”

“Especially if one of those people is my dear husband Frederick!”

“Eight...nine…”

“So hit me with your best shot!”

“TEN!”

The Goth then yanked her bass from Ivan’s hands and was about to swing it at the Russian’s head, when José’s voice shouted, “Hey chica, look over here.”

“What?!” the Goth asked, turning to look at the Playa.

Broker dashed towards the woman and suddenly drop-kicked her in the head, causing the mind control helmet to break apart and knock her unconscious.

They both crashed to the ground, where Broker quickly stood up and muttered, “Man, I hope I didn’t do any damage to her skull by doing that.”

Jane stood up and walked over to the Goth’s fallen body and said, “I got to say, she has the worst attitude I have ever seen. Hopefully she’s nicer without that helmet on her head.”

“Don’t count on it. Goths are a very temperamental and bitter race,” Beast warned the Nymph.

Samuel then returned outside and stated, “Bog is healed,but he’s too sore to move on his own. Someone needs to help him up to his room.”

“We’ll do it,” Broker said, pointing at himself and José before entering the backroom.

“Who will get the Goth up to the clinic?” Beast asked.

“I’d do it, but I’m worried that if I barely touch her, she’ll become conscious and strangle me,” Robbie said.

Leah rolled her eyes and said, “I’ll do it then.”

“I’ll help you,” Jane said, slinging her guitar and the Goth’s bass onto her back and reached down to grab the woman’s arms.

“What about your broken finger?” Leah asked.

“It’s just one finger. I’ll just try to keep myself from bending it,” Jane said.

Leah nodded and lifted up the Goth’s legs, and the two carried her into the house.

Beast watched them leave and looked back to see Ivan and Frederick knelt on the ground, picking up the pieces of the mind control helmet.

Beast slowly approached them, where Ivan looked up and said, “I’ll get all these pieces back to my lab and analyze them to see if we can trace the user, but with how broken they are, I doubt I’ll be successful.”

Beast nodded, “Alright. I’ll talk to you later then.”

Beast then walked into the house, with Ivan and Frederick following close behind, leaving Robbie and Samuel the only ones left outside.

Samuel began to use his magic to repair the hole in the mansion and Robbie looked at the backyard, which had become a huge mess.

“So, what are we going to do about the yard?” he asked his grandfather.

“Well, we’ll need to repair the fences, clean up the ashes from the burnt up trees and clear up all the fallen trees. At some point this summer, we’ll need to plant new ones to replace them,” Samuel answered.

Robbie nodded and then noticed the remnants of Ivan’s laser gun still lying on the ground. He walked over to where they were and began to pick them up, figuring Ivan would want to repair it and figure out how to make it work better next time.

When he picked up the last part, he looked up and noticed something in the woods he had never seen before.

Located only a few feet across from the statue of Chief Taino was a tall statue made of a smooth black stone. It seemed to have been hidden by the trees the Goth knocked down, which could explain why Robbie hadn’t noticed it’s existence before. It looked like a person wearing samurai armor and gripping a long katana. The base of the statue had two words engraved into it: General Ankoku.

“Grandpa, who’s this?” Robbie asked, pointing at the black statue.

Samuel looked over and answered, “That’s Ankoku. He was general of the Shadow army in the Otherworld. He must be really old by now. He was a friend of mine and Beast’s. I nearly forgot about that statue.”

“Are there other statues in the woods?” Robbie asked.

“Yes, 13 more to be exact, but I made them so long ago, I can’t exactly remember where each one was,” Samuel stated.

“Remind me to head out and look for them tomorrow.”

“Gladly.”

A little while later, after the Goth was put in the clinic and her bass was locked in the treasure room to keep her from getting it and trying to use it on them again, Robbie was walking down the hall, thinking about the statues in the woods.

“Grandpa said there were 13 others hiding in the woods, though he couldn’t remember where. He also mentioned that General Ankoku was a friend of his and Gramps’. Did that mean Chief Taino was a friend of theirs too, along with the statues of the other Otherworlders hiding in the forest? Will I get a chance to meet them in the future,” he thought.

Then, Robbie spotted Jane and Alex coming down the hall, where Alex was asking the Nymph, “So when will you be able to use your finger again?”

“In a few days,” Jane stated, looking down at the small splint on her finger. “Samuel healed the break, but he says I probably shouldn’t use it for a while, otherwise I might break it again.”

“Like your finger could break off!?” Alex gasped.

Jane laughed, “No, that won’t happen.”

Robbie then said, “Hey Jane, I have a couple of questions for you.”

“What do you need to know?” Jane asked.

“Near the backyard, there are two statues situated close to the woods. They’re statues of people Grandpa and Gramps knew in the Otherworld. Chief Taino and General Ankoku. Do you know who they are?” Robbie asked.

“Well, Chief Taino is the ruler of Askarian Territory,” Jane stated. “From what I hear, he’s pretty level-headed and wise.”

“What’s an Askarian?” Robbie asked.

“They’re a warrior race that relies on hunting and gathering, though I heard some do their own gardening,” Jane stated. “As for General Ankoku, he was the general of Shadow Army until his death.”

“He died?” Robbie asked.

“Yeah, from old age. Happened some time after he retired. Now the General is a guy named Fang,” Jane explained. “My dad knew Ankoku. He had two kids: a son named Crow and a daughter named Raven. Crow eventually married General Fang, while Raven had the luck of marrying Lord Onyx, the king of Shadow Forest.”

“Wow, she lucked out,” Alex commented. “Did they ever have kids?”

“Yep, a lot actually,” Jane answered.

“How many?” Robbie asked.

“I forget how many daughters they have, but they have only ONE son,” Jane stated. “I forgot his name though.”

Robbie’s eyes widened, “A guy with more than one sister. That must’ve been hell. Good thing I only have one.”

“I don’t know, having more than one sister could be fun,” Alex stated.

“For you, maybe, but not for me,” Robbie said.

“Let me guess, when mom was pregnant with me, you wanted a brother,” Alex said.

“Yes, I prayed hard for one, but then you showed up,” Robbie said. “Guess this proves God isn’t real!”

“Fuck you!” Alex shouted.

“I’m telling,” Robbie said before running down the hall.

“Get back here!” Alex shouted, going after her brother.

Jane watched them leave, smirking, “Good to know brother and sister dynamics in the human world aren’t that different than the Otherworld.”

She continued going around the mansion until she came across the clinic, where she wondered, “Is the Goth awake yet?”

She stepped up to the clinic door and carefully opened it, peering into the room. The Goth was still lying unconscious on the bed, so the Nymph quietly closed the door. “Bog did say it took him longer to wake up than it took me, José and Broker. She might be up and about tomorrow,” she thought to herself.

At that moment, Robbie had barged into the dining/living room, stating, “Alex said the F-word!”

“Did not!” Alex denied.

“Good for her,” Beast replied, prompting Samuel to rub his forehead and said, “Beast…”

“Ha! He’s not even mad!” Alex teased.

“Of course not,” Leah said. “Have you heard the language he uses.”

“Beast, Alex shouldn’t be swearing,” Frederick said. “What if she uses that language at school. She could get in serious trouble.”

“Alright, I’ll scold her,” Beast said, before turning to look at his granddaughter. “Alex, you’re not allowed to swear.”

“Dang it,” Alex muttered.

Robbie then stepped up and asked, “So, there are 13 other statues in the woods other than Chief Taino and General Ankoku?”

“Yes, there are,” Beast confirmed. “Each one is a statue of a person Samuel and I were friends with in the Otherworld.”

“Who made them?” Robbie asked.

“I did,” Samuel answered. “It’s a form of magic. I’ll teach it to you when you’re ready.”

“Would it be okay if I went into the woods tomorrow to look for more of them?” Robbie asked.

“Well, you know pretty much all of my secrets by now, so I don’t see why not,” Beast said.

Bog, who was lying on the couch, stated, “I know of those two Otherworlders you mentioned. Taino is a great Askarian Chief, and he has a son named Delsin now. Ankoku was a great general until he passed away, and he had two children.”

“Ankoku died?” Beast asked. “Damn, I was hoping I would meet him again.”

“Sorry you lost one of your friends, Gramps,” Alex said.

“Eh, it was bound to happen. He was a lot older than I was. He would’ve been about 70 by now,” Beast said as he got up from his chair. “Now, I need to check up on someone.”

He left the room and not long after, Robbie followed him.

Beast went down to Ivan’s lab to find the Russian analyzing the pieces of the Goth’s mind control helmet. Robbie stood outside the room near the open door to listen.

“Anything yet?” he asked.

“Nyet. It’s too damaged to find anything. Again. You guys need to be careful when you take the mind control off of these Otherworlders,” Ivan stated.

“Yeah, we’ll try to work on that,” Beast said. He glanced at a nearby trashcan to see the pieces of Ivan’s laser gun sitting in it.

“I see you gathered the pieces of your invention...and trashed them,” he pointed out.

“Robbie got the pieces for me actually. I threw them in the garbage,” Ivan corrected. “That thing was a mistake.”

“Not necessarily. It just wasn’t ready for actual use,” Beast said. “I take it you threw it together recently.”

“Yes, the day after José showed up,” Ivan confirmed.

“So you didn’t test it at all before today?” Beast asked.

“Yes, but that’s mainly because I didn’t know where to test it,” Ivan admitted.

“Well, that’s where you went wrong,” Beast said, picking the pieces of the gun out of the trash can. “Now since you know how it works, you can rework it to work how you want it to.”

“You sure you want me to do that?” Ivan asked. “After that thing burned down a few trees and nearly killed people?”

“To be honest with you, yes,” Beast answered. “This gun would be a better help if you put a stun and kill switch on it. Also, I kind of want to use it on the bastard that’s behind all this madness going on right now.”

Ivan stopped looked over the helmet parts and sighed, “For a moment, I thought I was going to relive what happened in Russia.”

Beast looked over at Ivan and said, “You mean the incident at your old lab? The one that cost your coworkers lives?”

Ivan nodded, “After that day, I told myself to never make a big mistake like that again, that no one would die because of me. It came really close to happening again today.”

“While that might be true, but there’s something you should know. We’re not like those other scientists; we’re more skilled than they are, we know how to fight and we work well under pressure,” Beast stated. “You will never have to worry about going through that hell again. I’ll make sure of that, cause I’m way smarter than your boss was.”

Beast then put the pieces of Ivan’s laser gun on the table near Ivan and began to leave the room. Before he left, Ivan turned to face Beast and said, “Beast.”

“What?” the old man asked.

“Thank you.”

“No problem, kid,” Beast said.

“Don’t call me a kid, I’m a grown man,” Ivan said.

“Well, you’re young enough to be my son, so that makes you a kid,” Beast stated.

“Is that your way of saying I’m like a son to you?” Ivan asked, grinning.

“No.”

“Damn.”

Before Beast left Ivan’s lab, Robbie ran into the backroom to avoid being noticed. He always thought his grandfather was annoyed by everyone in the mansion, especially Ivan. It was nice to know he actually gave a damn about his emotions. Maybe Beast wasn’t such the grump as he comes off to be.

That night, Robbie laid awake in his bed. He couldn’t sleep for some reason, probably because he was wondering what was going to happen tomorrow. What kind of Otherworlder would show up this time? He didn’t know and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know.

Then, he heard footsteps outside his bedroom. He glanced at the door, which was suddenly cracked open a little, accompanied by a loud creak. The teenager froze in his bed, not sure who was coming into the room. Then, he saw the shadow of someone’s head peek into the room.

Robbie, stared at the silhouette and asked, “Who’s there?”

The person didn’t answer; instead they pulled their head out and slammed the door shut.

Robbie sat up in bed and said to himself, “What the fuck?”

A few moments later, Alex woke up to hear someone opening her bedroom door. She glanced up to see the shape of a head look into the room at her.

“Gramps, Grandpa, Robbie, is that you?” she asked softly.

The shadow pulled their head out of the room and shut the door.

“I guess not,” Alex concluded.

In Jane’s room, the Nymph was lying awake in bed as well, when the mystery person opened her door and looked inside. She immediately sat up in her bed, asking, “Who’s there?!”

The person slammed the door shut and she heard the sound of someone running down the hall.

Jane got out of bed and opened her door and looked out into the hall, where she saw the Goth running away from her.

“What the hell is she doing?” the Nymph wondered to herself before shutting her door and going back to bed.

Later, at around six in the morning, Robbie woke up and looked at his clock. He groaned when he saw how early it was and tried to go back to sleep. After a few moments, that was proven to be undoable and he got out of bed to get ready for the day.

He went downstairs to the second floor where he encountered Broker and José in the hall.

“Why are you two up so early?” he asked.

“Couldn’t sleep anymore,” José stated. “I had a weird dream where someone looked into my bedroom and left quickly. It kind of freaked me out.”

“I don’t think that was a dream, because I saw that too last night,” Robbie said.

“Yeah, me too,” Broker added. “I wonder who that was.”

“The Goth maybe,” José guessed. “Maybe she woke up in the middle of the night and went around the mansion, trying to figure out where she was.”

“Well, it was kind of creepy if you ask me,” Broker said.

The trio arrived to the living/dining room, which was pretty dark save for the lights coming from the windows.

“Looks like we’re the first ones up,” Robbie said, as he clicked on the light.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”

Alex woke up to the sound of people screaming and ran out of her room to investigate. She went downstairs to the dining/living room to find Robbie had flattened himself against a wall, José standing nearby, practically stiff as a statue, and Broker hiding the Playa. All three of them were focused on something, so Alex looked over to see what.

It was the Goth, who was sitting in one of the armchairs, which she seemed to have positioned to look at the door for when someone walked in. She had a mischievous grin on her face and she said, “That was a better reaction than I hoped for.”

“What are you trying to do? Give us heart attacks!” Broker shouted.

“No, I just wanted to tease you a little,” the Goth stated.

Now since the helmet was gone, Alex had a better look at her face. She had tan skin, though it looked like it may have been lighter than José’s, black hair that was an inch past her neck and was pretty mussed up, giving it a spiky look, and dark pink eyes.

“Now since some people here are awake, I’d like to have some answers: One, where the hell am I, and two, who the fuck are you?” the Goth asked.

“Well, if you ask like that, we’re not telling you shit,” Robbie said, a little annoyed by her attitude. Then he thought to himself, “She doesn’t seem that much different than she was when she was on mind control.”

At that moment, Beast and Samuel entered the room, the former asking, “Okay, why the hell are you all screaming at 6 in the morning?”

Then, he noticed the Goth sitting in the armchair and said, “Oh, you’re awake.”

“She scared us,” Robbie told his grandfather. “That’s why we screamed.”

“I didn’t even do anything scary,” the Goth stated. “I was just sitting her comfortably when they walked in and turned on the light. As soon as they noticed I was here, they freaked out.”

“Well, I imagine you’re wondering where you are, so I guess I’ll tell you now; you’re in the Human World, a dimension that’s connected to the Otherworld,” Beast explained.

“The Human World? I take it you’re a human,” the Goth guessed.

“Yes, my name is Beast Wagner. I actually studied the Otherworld for a while a long time ago, so I know a thing or two about Goth Grounds,” Beast stated.

“I’m Samuel Verrat, his husband,” Samuel introduced himself. “I actually lived in the Otherworld for a few years before Beast showed up.”

“The little girl and teenage boy are my grandchildren, Alex and Robbie,” Beast stated. “And the tan-skinned man is José, a Playa, and the dark-skinned man is Broker, a Loaner.”

“Isn’t there a Nymph here too?” the Goth asked.

“That was Jane. You had a guitar battle with her,” Robbie stated. “I think she’s still sleeping. Assuming that our screams didn’t wake her up.”

“They did,” Jane said, walking into the room, rubbing her eyes. She looked at the Goth and asked, “So, what’s your name?”

“Beatrice,” the Goth stated.

“Well, Beatrice, care to explain why you were creeping around the mansion last night?” the Nymph questioned.

“I was curious about the mansion. I wanted to see how many people were here,” Beatrice explained.

“So that was you!” Robbie shouted. “God, you scared me! I thought you were another intruder or something.”

“Well sorry,” Beatrice replied, though she didn’t sound sincere. Then she asked, “Okay, so where’s my bass? I kind of need that.”

“It’s in the treasure room. I’ll get it for you,” Beast said, walking out of the room.

Alex went up to the Goth and asked, “So, what happened to you?”

“What do you mean?” Beatrice asked, a hand flying up to cover the left side of her face.

“How’d you end up in our world? How you got caught by the mind controller?” Alex explained. “We ask every new Otherworlder these questions.”

“Oh, that,” Beatrice said, lowering her hand and standing up from her seat. “I was walking out of town and into the woods with my pet dog, Tenacious, to get away from someone.”

“Who?” Jane asked.

“Is that info important?” Beatrice asked, clenching her fists.

Jane, seeing her demeanor, replied, “No, I guess not.”

“Anyway, so me and Tenacious were just hanging out in the woods when he began to whimper for some reason,” Beatrice went on. “For a second, I thought the person I was trying to get away from had followed us here, but when I turned to look, I saw a stranger standing there. He had a mask on and before I could ask him who the hell he was, he pulled out a gun and shot a dart at my arm!”

“He shot me with a dart gun too!” Broker exclaimed. “Though I didn’t get a chance to see who the shooter was. I assumed it was some kid.”

“Never assume, Broker. Except that everyone’s out to get you,” Beatrice said.

“That’s what paranoia is,” Robbie said.

“Do I care?” Beatrice asked.

“...No?”

“Okay then. So I was beginning to black out and the last thing I remember seeing was Tenacious trying to attack the guy.”

“What a good dog,” Jane commented.

“Yeah, he’s great. Too bad he didn’t succeed,” Beatrice said. “I swear, if that freak hurt Tenacious even a little, I’ll-.”

“Beatrice, the story. What happened after?” Samuel asked.

“Right, so I blacked out for god knows how long and I woke up to see-,” Beatrice began saying until José interrupted, “You were locked in some sort of cell.”

“And hearing people scream all around you,” Broker added.

“And maybe began to freak out yourself,” Jane finished.

“I take it you’ve heard this part before?” Beatrice asked.

“More so lived it,” Jane explained.

“Damn, I wonder who else got abducted by this creep,” Beatrice said.

“Well, whoever it is, he’s sending another mind controlled Otherworlder to attack us at some point today, so we’ll need to be ready,” Beast stated while walking back into the room holding Beatrice’s bass.

He held it out to the Goth and said, “Not a scratch on it.”

Beatrice took it from him and examined it, muttering “Thanks.”

“Beatrice, I just wanted to let you know a few things; we currently don’t know if there’s a way to get you and the other Otherworlders home right now, so you might be stuck in the Human World for a while,” Samuel told the woman.

“That’s alright. I’m not in a rush to get home,” Beatrice said.

“Really? Not even to see if your dog’s okay?” Jane asked.

“If my dog didn’t get hurt or killed by this mind controller guy, he’s probably with my friend, Spike,” Beatrice stated, slinging her bass onto her back and walking out of the room.

As she left, Robbie noticed something on the side of her face that she covered; it looked like a scar from being punched there.

“I wonder if that’s why she’s not in a rush to get home,” he thought to himself.

A few hours later, when it was close to noon, Robbie found Beatrice sitting in the window seat of the window seat room, staring out the window.

“What are you looking at?” he asked.

“At all the color and plants outside,” Beatrice answered. “In Goth Grounds, there’s a lot of gray rocky terrain, the trees have no leaves or flowers on them and their bark is a dark gray, and there are no flowers on the ground at all. And it’s always cloudy there.”

“And let me guess seeing green grass, trees with leaves, flowers and brown bark, flowers on the ground, blue skies and sunlight surprise you?” Robbie asked.

“Pretty much. It’s so bright here,” Beatrice stated.

“Your homeland sounds very depressing to look at,” Robbie said.

“Yeah, but I got used to if after a while,” Beatrice replied. “I actually was curious about visiting the other countries in the Otherworld, like our country’s general, Zeze had, but...I had to throw out those dreams.”

“Why?” Robbie asked.

“...Can we talk about something else, please?” Beatrice asked.

“She’s being secretive, like Broker was,” Robbie thought to himself before asking, “Where’d you get that scar on your face.”

Beatrice glared at him and asked in an icy tone, “Are you usually this nosy?”

“No, sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you,” Robbie apologized.

“Yeah, whatever,” Beatrice replied before looking back out the window.

Robbie was about to leave the room when he turned around and said, “My mother had scars like that on her face sometimes.”

Beatrice looked over at the teenager with wide eyes and asked, “Really?”

“Yeah, I didn’t start noticing them until I was ten,” Robbie explained. “She tried to hide them with makeup but she didn’t do a good job at it. Alex never seemed to notice because she’s so oblivious but I always did.”

“Where’s your mom now?” Beatrice asked.

“She’s...dead,” Robbie answered. He had no idea what compelled him to tell Beatrice all that, but he knew he had to find some way to tell her he knew what she may have gone through.

“And your dad?” Beatrice asked.

“Ran out before the cops showed up. He’s still out there as far as I know, but the police said they’d track him down,” Robbie said.

Beatrice clenched one of her hands and said, “If we come across him, I’ll kill him for you.”

“Thanks, but I’m pretty sure that’d be murder,” Robbie said. “I do know that I want him to pay for what he did. Just not through killing.”

“Suit yourself,” Beatrice replied.

“Beatrice...can you not tell the Otherworlders, the ones here right now and the future ones about this,” Robbie said. “I don’t want anyone to get involved with my past. And don’t tell Alex! She has no idea it was dad that did it.”

“Your secret is safe with me,” Beatrice promised. “But for the record, Alex WILL find out at some point in her life.”

“And that’ll be a day to remember,” Robbie said.

Downstairs, Alex and Jane were telling José and Broker about the statues of Samuel and Beast’s Otherworld friends.

“Chief Taino and General Ankoku are only two of the statues in those woods. There are 13 others and I want to find them all,” Alex stated.

“Taino and Ankoku are pretty big deals in the Otherworld, so I’m curious about what other famous people they have statues of in those woods,” Jane said.

“I wonder if they have a statue of my mom. Course, her name plate would be technically incorrect, but maybe I can fix it with my knife,” Broker said.

“Is your mother famous?” José asked.

“Not really. She’s popular with other Loaners, but she’s not anything like a ruler or a general,” Broker stated. “So not every statue is going to be someone famous, there might be a few average people we’ve never met in our lives.”

“Do you think Bog would know about the Otherworld people? He seemed to know a lot about Chief Taino and General Ankoku,” Alex said. “Maybe he can come with us and tell us about the statues we find.”

“Probably, but he’s still pretty weak from the fight yesterday, so I don’t think we should bother him,” Jane said.

“Aww.”

At that moment, Robbie walked into the room, where Alex said, “Robbie, we’re going into the woods to find more Otherworld statues. Do you want to come with us?”

“Yeah, mainly because I was already planning on doing that,” Robbie said.

“Should we invite Beatrice?” José asked.

“I’ll go look for her and ask,” Jane said, walking upstairs.

“She’s in the window seat room,” Robbie stated, to which Jane replied, “Thank you.”

Jane went up to the window seat room, where Beatrice was still staring out the window.

“Beatrice, me and a few of the others were planning on heading into the woods to find statues Samuel made a long while back. Do you want to come with us?” the Nymph asked the Goth.

“No thanks. I kind of wanted to stay inside today,” Beatrice answered.

“You sure? Well, okay. But if you change your mind, you know where we’ll be,” Jane said, walking out of the room.

Beatrice looked over at the Nymph as she left and then stood up, saying, “Wait.”

“What is it?” Jane asked.

“What happened to your finger? I just noticed the splint,” the Goth asked, pointing at Jane’s hand.

“Oh, I broke it during our guitar battle yesterday,” she explained.

Beatrice winced and said, “Damn, that must’ve hurt like hell. Sorry about that.”

“It’s not your fault,” Jane said, smiling. “It was my fault that I seriously screwed up a note. No need to worry.”

After lunch, everyone was all set to head out into the woods to look for the Otherworld statues. At Zara’s insistence, everyone had a bottled water and Alex had a little backpack full of snacks to give them more energy in case their search lasted through the afternoon.

“What do you have in there?” Robbie asked his sister.

“Yummy stuff,” Alex answered.

“Yeah, but what?”

Alex opened her bag to reveal it was filled with fruit snacks, Fruit-by-the-foot, candy bars, and one banana.

“Alex, you can’t rely on that stuff to keep you going,” Beast told his granddaughter. “Only 1/10th of it is actually healthy. You’ll make yourself sick.”

“But the fruit snacks and Fruit-by-the-foot has fruit in it!” Alex argued.

“Not real fruit,” Beast said, before taking the back from her and switching the snacks with more bananas, granola bars, and apple slices.

“Not fair,” Alex muttered as Beast returned the bag to her.

“What’s Fruit-by-the-foot?” Jane asked.

“It’s this long flat strip of candy that’s fruit flavored,” Robbie stated as he grabbed one and opened it. He pulled out the roll and rolled it out, showing its length to the Otherworlders.

“Wow, that is long,” José commented.

Robbie nodded as he tore the candy into five pieces. He gave four to Alex, Broker, Jane and José and kept one for himself, which he ate. The others followed suit.

“Wow, this IS really fruity,” Broker said.

“And sweet,” Jane added.

“Mine tastes weird,” José stated, chewing on his, which was accompanied by the sound of paper crinkling.

“You’re supposed to peel the paper off before you eat it, José,” Alex told the Playa.

“Oops.”

After their brief snack was done, the group headed outside and stood at the entrance of the woods, observing the Chief Taino and General Ankoku statues.

“Damn, these were done in really good detail,” Broker commented, examining them. “Samuel did this with magic?”

“Yeah, apparently,” Robbie said.

Then group then went into the woods to see if they could spot any more statues, but so far, no luck.

“I wonder how deep into the forest we’ll have to go to find more,” Jane said.

“I imagine very deep. They’re probably very spread apart from each other,” Robbie said.

“If that’s the case, we might have to split up to find them all,” Broker said. “Jane and Alex can go left into the woods, and José, Robbie, and I will go right. Sound good?”

“That’s a good plan,” Jane said. “We might find all of the statues before evening if we have two groups covering the ground.

“If we find any statues, we’ll take pictures of them and show you later,” Robbie said, holding up his phone. “Alex, you use your little Polaroid camera to take photos of the statues you and Jane find.”

“Okay,” Alex said, saluting her brother.

The small group then split up into two smaller groups and went in their assigned directions.

Back inside, Beatrice had watched them enter the woods from the window.

“Man, now I wished I had tagged along,” she muttered. “It’s kind of boring just sitting here.”

She started getting up from her seat until she thought she saw something moving among the trees out of the corner of her eyes. She turned to look and for a second, she thought she saw the shape of a person running through the woods.

“What the hell is that?” she asked, looking closer, but the figure was gone.

“Maybe it’s my eyes playing tricks on me, or one of the others moving around the woods,” she concluded, standing up from her seat and leaving the room.

In the right side of the woods, Robbie, José and Broker had encountered their first statue; it depicted a man wearing armor and had these spike-like wings on his back. Robbie read its label aloud: “Prince Cobalt.”

“King Cobalt technically,” Broker corrected. “He’s the king of Alkristal Mountains, or at least he was.”

“Was? What happened?” Robbie asked.

“He was murdered,” José stated.

“Murdered?! By who?!”

“We’re not from there, so we don’t know ALL the details,” Broker explained. “All we heard was that just a day or so before, Shadow Forest let an intruder go free, who they thought was harmless. The same intruder went into Alkristal Mountains, broke into the royal family’s castle, attacked them, and killed Cobalt.”

Robbie then remembered what Bog had told him about General Arsenic and his death defying powers. “Oh, and sometime afterwards, his son went to General Arsenic to get him to bring his dad back to life, but he refused.”

“You know this story?” José asked.

“Kind of. Bog told me about it a little when I asked him about death-related magic, specifically the kind that could revive the dead,” Robbie stated.

“I can’t remember which son it was that went to Arsenic,” José said.

“Which son? He had more than one?” Robbie asked.

“Yeah, four to be exact. And one daughter, Aquamarine,” José stated. “I remember her because she was the only girl.”

“And the only prince I know of is Azuro, because he was the oldest,” Broker added. “But I don’t think it was him who went to Arsenic.”

“Wait, Bog also mentioned that the Shadow Queen died...oh god, the queen was General Ankoku’s daughter! I just remembered Jane mentioned her name to me,” Robbie stated.

“Yeah, Queen Raven. She was a good person from what I heard, who cared about all her children,” Broker stated. “She died sometime after King Cobalt was killed...but she wasn’t murdered.”

“What happened?” Robbie asked.

“She committed suicide,” Broker answered. “She was the one who thought the intruder was harmless and let him go free, and when she saw she was wrong, she was devastated and blamed herself for it. A few weeks later, she stabbed herself in the heart.”

“God, that’s awful,” Robbie said. “No wonder her only son wanted her back so badly.”

“Despite the Shadow prince being the only son of Lord Onyx, I never knew his name either,” José stated. “He never went outside Shadow Forest much.”

“How long ago did they die?” Robbie asked.

“Six years,” Broker stated. “I was mining for jewels with my sister when mom ran into the mine and told us what happened.”

“I was in my room reading, when my father came into my room and told me,” José added.

“Is this one of those ‘where were you when it happened’ situations, like JFK’s assassination and 9-11?” Robbie asked.

“I guess so,” Broker said. “Who’s JFK? Is he related to MLK?”

“And what’s 9-11?” José asked.

“I’ll tell you about those once we’re back at the mansion,” Robbie said.

At the same time, Alex and Jane had encountered a statue was well; a statue of a young girl with butterfly wings. The label said, “Lady Daffodil.”

“Who’s Lady Daffodil?” Alex asked.

“I’m not sure. I know for a fact that she’s a fairy but I don’t think she was anyone famous,” Jane stated.

“Fairies are real!” Alex gasped.

“In the Otherworld, yes,” Jane confirmed, smiling. “I’m guessing they don’t  exist in the Human World?”

“Only in fairy tales and fantasy stories,” Alex stated. “Like Peter Pan, but I can’t think of any others.”

“I’ll have to read that book and see what humans got right about fairies,” Jane said, walking further into the brush.

Alex took a photo of the statue with her camera and was about to follow the Nymph, when she heard something strike the ground behind her. She turned around to see an arrow sticking into the ground, the shaft vibrating for a few seconds before stopping. She looked around the area to see if she could determine where the arrow came from, but she didn’t see anyone. She pulled the arrow out of the ground and ran to keep up with Jane.

Meanwhile, in the mansion, Beatrice entered the dining/living room to find Beast sitting at the table, surrounded by books, and Bog lying on the sofa.

“What’s with all the books?” the Goth asked the human.

“I’m looking through my old notes and albums to see if I can figure out who from my past could be mind controlling all you Otherworlders. Obviously, it’s not someone from the Otherworld because they don’t know anything about mind control technology,” Beast stated. “It has to be someone that I worked with in the past, or was associated with my work, but I only knew a handful of people so right now I’m stuck.”

Beatrice nodded and looked over at Bog and asked, “And what are you doing?”

“Trying to relax, like Samuel told me. I can’t move my muscles really well right now,” Bog stated. “That metal bass of yours can cause a lot of damage to a person’s body. I’m surprised my bones didn’t shatter.”

Beatrice looked over all the books on the table and spotted one labeled Goth Grounds, where she pointed at it and asked, “Can I look at that one?”

“Sure, it’s your country,” Beast allowed.

Beatrice grabbed the book and began flipping through the pages. She stopped on a page that was a sketch of a large dog and a person standing next to it, showing size difference. The dog’s height was three feet taller than the person.

She showed the page to Beast and said, “That’s the kind of dog Tenacious is, but he’s only a third of the way to that size.”

“If he was full grown, that mind controller probably wouldn’t have abducted you. He’d be too scared to go near a dog that could crush him,” Beast said. “In the human world, there’s no dog close to that size, except in fiction.”

“So Human World canines are small?” Beatrice asked.

“Yep, some even small enough to fit perfectly in your lap,” Beast confirmed.

“They sound fun,” Beatrice said, smirking.

“Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know someone named General Zeze would you?” Beast asked.

“Yeah, he’s still General, but people have been trying to convince him to retire,” Beatrice said.

“So he’s still alive? Good,” Beast said. “He’s one of my Otherworld friends so I’d hate it if anything happened to him while I was gone. I’m already bummed out about Ankoku’s death.”

“I don’t blame you. General Zeze was pretty depressed about his death too, but he was more upset about King Cobalt, who was murdered,” Beatrice stated.

“Cobalt was murdered?!”

At the same time, back outside, Jane and Alex had found another Otherworld statue, this time of a woman wearing a Victorian style dress and brandishing a lance. Her plaque read, “General Anastasia.”

“She looks fancy,” Alex commented.

“Well, Aristocrats are a fancily-dressed race,” Jane stated. “It’s kind of what they’re known for. This one, General Anastasia, is known as one of the greatest Generals in the Otherworld. She’s retired now, and I heard her daughter took over the job.”

“Retired? So she’s not dead?” Alex asked.

“Nope, she’s still alive as far as I know,” Jane said.

“Oh good, Gramps will be happy to hear that,” Alex said as she took a picture of the statue. “He was sad when he heard Ankoku was dead.”

“Yeah, it sucks when someone you haven’t seen in years dies,” Jane stated. “It makes you wonder if there was a chance you could’ve seen them again before that.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Alex said as she began to poke at the ground with the arrow she found.

Jane stared at the girl for a moment before asking, “Alex, where’d you find that arrow?”

“It was shot into the ground behind me after we looked at the statue of Lady Daffodil,” Alex answered.

“Shot? What do you mean shot?”

“Well, it wasn’t behind me before and I heard it hit the ground,” Alex stated.

Jane took the arrow from the little girl and examined it, saying, “There’s only one race in the Otherworld that I know uses arrows in combat and that’s-.”

But before she could finish her statement, she heard the sound of a bow string being snapped and out of the corner of her eye she saw an arrow flying towards her head, where she screamed!

In the mansion, Beast and Beatrice heard the Nymph’s cry, where Beatrice asked, “What the hell happened out there?!”

“I think the next Otherworlder has shown up,” Beast said.

“Shit, and the others don’t have their weapons with them,” Beatrice said, hopping up from her seat and running out of the room.

“Wait Beatrice, I’ll go with you,” Bog said, trying to get up from the sofa but was having a difficult time.

“No Bog, you’re too injured. You need to stay here,” Beast told the Ampman.

“Okay, Beast,” Bog complied.

Beatrice ran down the hall and up the stairs, thinking, “Their weapons have to be in their bedrooms. I need to grab them and get outside fast.”

Somewhere else in the woods, Robbie, José, and Broker heard Jane’s scream.

“That was Jane!” José exclaimed. “She’s in trouble!”

“I guess the next Otherworlder has shown up to try and kill us,” Broker said.

“But how do we fight it? We don’t have our weapons,” Robbie stated.

At that moment, Beatrice burst through the brush, her guitar slung on her back and carrying the guys’ weapons. “Someone call for weapons?” she asked, grinning.

“Beatrice! How’d you know the Otherworlder was here?” Broker asked.

“I heard Jane’s scream,” she stated. “Here, I got your weapons.”

She handed José his whip and Broker his gun and knife.

“My bedroom door was locked, so how’d you get my whip?” José asked.

“I kind of had to kick the door off the hinges,” Beatrice stated.

“Great.”

“What about my sword?” Robbie asked.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to let a kid like you fight,” Beatrice stated.

“I’m not a kid,” Robbie muttered.

“We need to find Jane and Alex,” Beatrice said. “Why’d you guys split up?”

“To cover more ground in finding the Otherworld statues,” Robbie stated.

“God, you’re such idiots.”

“I’ll run over to where they’re supposed to be and see if I can find them,” Broker said before dashing off.

Meanwhile, Jane was on her hands and knees, staring down into the river. Stuck in the riverbank was another arrow, which had been aimed at her head. Fortunately, she dropped down to the ground fast enough to avoid getting hit.

Alex stared at the projectile and asked, “So, what race uses arrows?”

“Askarians,” Jane stated. “The race that Chief Taino leads. If there’s one in the woods right now, we need to leave as soon as possible.”

“Why?” Alex asked.

“Askarians are incredibly strong and skilled at combat. If you fight one in the woods, they’ll definitely have the upper ha-,” Jane was explaining until another arrow flew by her head, nearly grazing her cheek.

She quickly got to her feet, picked up Alex, and began running back the way they came. Alex looked behind them to see something crashing through the trees after them.

“Jane, I think it’s following us!” she shouted.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let it get us,” the Nymph promised, as she kept running.

Soon, the two had arrived to the area near the pond where the small island was, where Jane set Alex on the ground and looked back where they just ran from.

“I think we lost it for now,” she stated.

Then, a brown blur zipped past them for a second and then another second later, it returned and stopped, revealing to be Broker.

“Oh good, you’re safe,” Broker said. “What happened? What attacked you?”

“An Askarian, I think,” Jane stated. “It tried to shoot an arrow at Alex earlier and tried to shoot two at me.”

“Shit, that’s not good. I better get you two back to the mansion to tell Beast before it shows up and tries to-,” Broker began saying until his eyes suddenly shifted to the left and he immediately dropped to the ground.

Before Jane or Alex could ask what he was doing, an arrow flew over him and struck a tree. The Loaner jumped to his feet, pulled out his gun and fired it in the direction the arrow came from, shouting, “Come out! I’m better armed than you are!”

Soon, someone pushed back the branches of the tree and stepped out into the open area, where the two Otherworlders and human child could see it. The Askarian had light brown skin, long black hair pulled into a simple ponytail and forest green eyes, which were very wide open. He wore dark green cargo pants, a tan tunic with intricate patterns around the collar and wrists and fringe at the bottom, and dark brown moccasins. He had an arrow quiver and a spear slung on his back and was gripping a bow.

He also had a pair of metallic headphones on his head, possibly the mind control device being used on him, and there was a wound on his upper arm, possibly where Broker got him with his gun.

Alex looked at him and commented, “He looks like an indigenous person.”

“What’s an indigenous person?” Jane asked.

“It’s a term for a group of people that lived in a country first before people from another country showed up and colonized it,” Alex explained. “Skylar told me about them. They were put through a lot of problems because of the colonizers, but I’ll tell you about that later.”

“Good, because I don’t think the Askarian is interested in a human history lesson,” Broker stated, as the Askarian slung his bow on his back and pulled out his spear. He gripped the spear with both hands spread apart and pointed the tip at the trio.

“What should we do?” Alex asked.

“I’m armed. I can fight this guy. You two head back to the mansion where it’s safe,” Broker said.

“Aren’t Askarians extremely strong, though?” Jane asked.

“Yeah, but what Loaners lack in strength, we make up for in speed,” Broker stated before bolting towards the Otherworld enemy.

The Askarian began jabbing his spear towards Broker, but the Loaner dodged each attempt, avoiding injury easily.

Broker slipped his gun into his pocket and whipped out his knife, saying, “Let’s see if you can dodge just as swiftly as I can!”

He then made swinging motions with his knife hand towards the Otherworlder, who backed away every time to avoid getting cut. Soon, the Askarian was backed up against a tree.

“Okay, now since I got you pinned, hold still and I’ll rip those headphones off of you and you can be free,” Broker said, reaching his hand towards the Otherworlder’s head.

Unfortunately, before Broker had a chance to touch the device, the Askarian grabbed his arm and gripped it tightly. Broker winced from the pain, feeling like his arm would shatter any second. Then, the warrior kneed him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him, and shoved him to the ground.

Broker was about to stand up, but the Askarian then put his foot on the Loaner’s chest, keeping him pinned to the ground. The Otherworlder raised up his spear, aiming the point at Broker’s neck, ready to stab him.

Broker clenched his eyes shut, ready to accept his death, when he heard a familiar voice scream, “Don’t kill him!”

The Askarian froze and looked in the direction of the voice, where José leapt out of the bushes and tackled him to the ground.

“If you think I’m going to stand by and watch my friend get killed, you have another thing coming!” the Playa exclaimed.

“Thanks José,” Broker said, getting to his feet.

“No problem, amigo,” José replied.

Suddenly, the Askarian tossed the Playa off his body and stood up, gripping his spear and gritting his teeth.

“Looks like we pissed him off,” José said, cracking his whip out. “You ready?”

“Always am,” Broker replied, gripping his switchblade.

At the same time, Jane and Alex were running down the path that lead back to the mansion when they encountered Beatrice and Robbie.

“Jane, Alex, you’re both okay,” Robbie said.

“Yeah, but Broker and José are fighting the Askarian and I think they might need help soon,” Jane said.

“If that’s the case, then we better get over there,” Beatrice said, handing Jane her guitar. “I know you can’t play, but you can still club somebody with that.”

“Thanks, Beatrice,” Jane said.

“Alex, go back to the mansion and get my sword,” Robbie ordered his sister.

“Why can’t you do it?” Alex asked.

“I want to stay to watch the fight so I can see what Askarians do in combat,” Robbie stated.

“I’m not your squire!” Alex argued.

“Well, you are now,” Robbie said. “Now go get my sword.”

“Hmph!” Alex harrumphed before running back to the house.

Beatrice rolled her eyes, “Siblings.”

José kept cracking his whip at the Askarian, trying to latch onto him in some way. If he could just hold him long enough, it might give Broker a chance to grab the headphones off of him. Unfortunately, the Otherworlder used his spear to deflect every strike the Playa made.

“Damn, this Askarian is a lot more skilled than I thought,” José thought to himself. “He must be some sort of warrior.”

Then, José had finally managed to get his whip to wrap around the Askarian’s right arm. When the enemy tried to shake the bindings off, José said, “Oh no, I’m not letting you get free that easily. Sorry if this leaves scars on your arm.”

The Playa clicked the button on the whip handle, triggering the spikes to poke out of the rope and pierce into the Askarian’s arm, causing the Otherworlder to cry out in pain.

“I got him!” José shouted. “Broker, you do the rest.”

“Got it!” Broker called back before running up to the Askarian and reaching for the headphones. However, before his fingers could even touch the ear covers, the Askarian used the long handle of his spear to knock the Loaner away from him and into a tree.

“Broker, you okay?” José asked his friend.

Broker didn’t give a reply; he just laid on the ground and groaned in pain.

Then, the Askarian put his spear on his back and used his now free hand to grab José’s whip, even though the needles were still out.

José’s eyes widened and he asked, “Doesn’t that hurt?”

The Askarian didn’t answer; he just yanked on the rope, pulling the Playa closer to him very fast. Before José could do anything to stop himself from getting closer to the Otherworlder, the enemy punched him in the gut, causing him to release the whip and fly into the bushes, falling unconscious.

“José!” Broker gasped.

The Askarian unwound the weapon from his arm and tossed it aside. There was blood dripping from his arm, but that didn’t seem to faze him at all.

Broker staggered to his feet and pulled out his gun again, saying, “For the record, I was hoping I could refrain from using this, because I don’t want to seriously hurt you.”

When the Loaner began firing at his enemy, the Askarian whipped out his spear again and began spinning it in his hand, deflecting the mana bullets from him and into the trees, ground, or up into the air.

Broker stopped pulling the trigger and asked, “Okay, what is that spear made of?!”

The Askarian didn’t answer, instead he just put his spear back on his back and pulled out his bow, and aimed an arrow at the Loaner.

Broker tried to fire his gun again, but nothing shot out of the barrel! “Dammit! I must’ve used up all the mana I had!” he thought to himself.

The Askarian shot the arrow at Broker, which hooked onto the shoulder of the Loaner’s shirt, pinning him to a tree standing directly behind him.

“Oh fuck!” Broker shouted, as he started using his hands to try to pull the arrow out, but it wouldn’t budge from the tree trunk.

The Askarian fired another arrow, which pinned the other shoulder of Broker’s shirt into the tree, then two more, which struck the sides of the Loaner’s shirt, completely pinning his upper body to the tree.

Broker kept trying to pull the arrows out, but they still wouldn’t move. Maybe they’re designed so only Askarians can pull them out? Soon, the Loaner realized the Askarian was aiming another arrow at him, this time it seemed to be at his upper body.

“Listen man, you don’t want to do this,” Broker pleaded. “If you kill me, you’ll never get those mind control headphones off of your head!”

The Askarian held his position and pulled back the arrow, but Broker noticed that his hands were shaking.

“You’re trembling. I know that means you’re still kind of in control and don’t really want to do this,” Broker stated. “Just put the weapons down and let me go and I’ll help you. It’s the only way the mind controller won’t make you hurt anyone.”

The Askarian clenched his teeth and shut his eyes tightly. For a moment, Broker thought he heard him mutter, “I’m sorry.” and was about to release the arrow.

Then, there was a loud blast of metal music, that caused the Askarian to fly backwards into the pond!

Broker looked over to see Beatrice, Jane and Robbie running over, where he said, “Good timing! I was sure he was going to get me with that arrow. Now get these arrows out of my shirt so I can move away from this tree!”

Robbie went over to the Loaner and began pulling at the arrows, but they didn’t show any sign of moving out.

“Where’s José?” Jane asked.

“Over there in the bushes, unconscious,” Broker stated, pointing at the fallen Playa.

“Damn, what’d the Askarian do to him?” Beatrice asked.

Broker was about to explain when the Askarian climbed out of the water and stared at the three people now involved in the fight.

Robbie looked at the Otherworlder, noticing that he looked like a Native American or indigenous person, but his eyes stuck out more than anything. Rather than looking soft and calm, like normal eyes, they seemed to shake in the Askarian’s head, as if tormented by something inside him. He wondered if this was what the other Otherworlder’s eyes looked like while under the mind control, and he felt like he’s seen eyes like those before, but he couldn’t remember.

Meanwhile, Alex had gotten to the mansion and was telling Beast about the Askarian in the dining/living room.

“He had these weird headphones and I think everyone is fighting him right now,” she stated.

There was then a blast of metal music from outside, that caused the house to slightly vibrate and Alex to jump and whimper.

“Looks like Beatrice is fighting him too,” Alex muttered. “I don’t want to head back out there.”

“Why would you need to?” Beast asked his granddaughter.

“Robbie asked me to bring him his sword,” Alex stated.

“Why? You’re not his squire. Also, you shouldn’t be messing with sharp objects,” Beast stated.

“That’s what I told him!” Alex shouted.

“Besides, he can’t handle fighting an Askarian anyway. His sword would be useless against one,” Beast stated.

“Oh good, then I won’t have to go back outside,” Alex said.

“So, what kind of weapons did the Askarian have?” Beast asked.

“A bow and arrow, and a spear,” Alex answered.

“So he can do range and close combat,” Beast said. “That might be a problem. And you say his mind control was a pair of headphones?”

“Yeah, that’s what they looked like,” Alex said. “Does that mean he won’t hear Beatrice’s bass riffs?”

“Not necessarily. He might hear some of it, but it won’t affect him like it affected Bog the other day,” Beast stated.

“What should we do?” Alex asked.

“Well, I’m going to go downstairs and ask Ivan about the mind control devices,” Beast stated. “I’m starting to think the mind control device size doesn’t have anything to do with intelligence anymore.”

“I’ll go with you,” Alex said as the two walked out of the room, leaving Bog alone on the sofa.

He could hear Beatrice’s metal music playing and he covered his eyes. “My friends are risking their lives out there against an Askarian, and here I am, stuck on the sofa!” he thought to himself.

He then sat up on the sofa and moved his legs to touch the floor. “I know Beast told me I needed to stay out of it, but I just can’t sit by while my friends fight for their lives. My strength might be what they need to stop the Askarian. I need to get out there and do something!”

Back in the woods, Beatrice was strumming her bass at the Askarian, trying to knock him off his feet like she did the first time, but he had stuck his spear into the ground and was gripping it tightly, preventing himself from being blown away.

“Looks like he learns fast,” she said.

“Well, Askarians are known for that,” Jane stated. “They have to be if they wish to defeat something they’re fighting.”

At the same time, Robbie was still trying to pull the arrows that were keeping Broker pinned to the tree out, but they still wouldn’t move.

“Yeah, I’m starting to think I won’t be able to pull these out,” he admitted. “I think you’re stuck.”

“I better not me! I don’t want to wait for the Askarian to be defeated to be free!” Broker shouted. “Besides, he probably won’t regain consciousness until tomorrow morning, and I don’t want to be out here all night!”

“One of us can set up camp out here to keep you company,” Robbie suggested.

“That’s not helping.”

The Askarian, seeing what Robbie was doing, ran over to the teenager, gripping his spear and began trying to stab him with it. Robbie jumped back every time he attacked to avoid getting impaled and soon, he found himself very far away from Broker.

Beatrice snuck up behind the Otherworlder and swung her bass at him, aiming for his upper body. The Askarian turned around and blocked the attack with the pole of his spear, and then pushed his weapon against hers.

Beatrice could feel her body being forced back, creating grooves in the ground where her feet were. She tried to push the warrior back, but he didn’t seem to budge.

“Damn, Askarians really are one of the strongest races in the Otherworld,” she thought to herself.

Then, the Askarian forced her to fall back on the ground and he pointed his spear at her throat, prompting the Goth to mutter, “Oh shit.”

Meanwhile, in the mansion, Beast and Alex had gotten down to Ivan’s lab, where the Russian was looking over the pieces of his laser gun. He looked over to see the two and greeted them, “Beast, Alex, what brings you two here?”

“The mind control devices,” Beast stated. “The new Otherworlder has headphones this time, rather than sunglasses or a helmet. I’m starting to suspect intelligence doesn’t have anything to do with the mind control device size anymore.”

“Headphones? Weird,” Ivan said. “I guess that means that whatever is controlling the Otherworlders is not in the lenses of the sunglasses or the helmets.”

He went over to his other desk and looked through a few pages of notes he had until he found the one he needed and showed it to Beast. “You were wrong about the intelligence thing, just like you thought, but I’ve been starting to think that it involves willpower or mental strength,” he stated.

“Makes sense,” Beast agreed. “Goths are very stubborn, so of course sunglasses wouldn’t work on them. Ampman are all very strong-minded, so they’ll need helmets. Brown-Neck Loaners don’t have much will due to their hopeless situation, so Broker needing the glasses makes sense. As for Nymphs and Playas, their mental strength tends to vary.”

“And what about the current Otherworlder?” Ivan asked.

“Askarians are a strong warrior race and usually have strong will, so I’m not sure why this one would only need headphones,” Beast stated. “Unless he’s gone through some sort of trauma or is just different than other Askarians.”

“I’ll have to get a closer look at the device in order to see if my theory is right,” Ivan said.

“Hopefully it doesn’t get broken,” Alex said.

Back outside, Jane had run up behind the Askarian, swinging her guitar to strike him in order to prevent him from harming Beatrice. The Otherworlder turned around and blocked her attack with the handle of his spear, resulting in a loud bang from the collision between the wood and the metal.

“Listen, I don’t know if you can hear me because of those headphones, but you need to stop this,” Jane stated. “You have to break free from the mind controller’s control over you. If you don’t, you’ll kill innocent people.”

The Askarian lowered his weapon and stared down at the ground, breathing heavily but not saying a word. Jane lowered her guitar and reached her hand towards the Otherworlder’s head to grab the mind control device off of him.

Suddenly, the Askarian’s gaze snapped up at her and he swatted her hand away from his head, resulting in a loud snap and a shock of pain to go through Jane’s hand.

“Oh my god! My hand!” Jane shouted, dropping her guitar and grabbing her wrist.

The Askarian grabbed her guitar and tossed it into the woods, and readied his spear to stab her through the chest.

“Wait! Don’t!” Jane shouted.

Broker, still pinned to the tree, shouted, “Okay, time for plan B!”

He immediately tore his shirt open and slipped out, running over to Jane and grabbing her out of the way before the Askarian could kill her.

“Why couldn’t you do that before?” Jane asked the Loaner.

“I didn’t want to ruin my shirt!” Broker stated. “Hopefully Samuel can fix it, because otherwise, I’m going to be without a shirt for a while!”

Robbie looked at Broker and said, “So that’s what a chest binder looks like.”

Broker’s chest binder looked like a tight crop tank top and had fasteners on the back.

“What? You’ve never seen one before?” Broker asked.

“I always thought binders looked more like tube tops,” Robbie stated.

“Well, some do, but those kinds of binders need to be avoided. They might cause the wearer to have trouble breathing or-AH!” Broker explained until an arrow flew past his head.

He turned around to see the Askarian brandishing his bow, about to fire another arrow, where Broker looked back towards Robbie and said, “We’ll finish this talk later.”

The Loaner than ran towards the Otherworlder as he shot the arrow, hoping to get the Brown-Necks, but Broker deflected it with his knife, causing it to hit a nearby tree instead.

When he was close enough to the warrior, he snatched the bow from his hand and broke it in half over his knee, saying, “Sorry about this!”

Broker then swung his knife at the Askarian, aiming to wound him somewhere, but the Otherworlder whipped out his spear again and used it to knock the small blade from the Loaner’s hand.

Then, he used the handle to strike Broker in the side, stunning him long enough to punch him in the face and into the ground.

“Broker!” Robbie shouted.

The Loaner just laid on the ground silently.

Beatrice got to her feet and ran towards the Askarian, gripping her bass and shouting, “Okay jackass, I think you’ve done enough!”

However, the Askarian roundhoused the Goth away from him before she had the chance to strike. Jane seeing her friends defeated and the Askarian the only one left standing, thought to herself, “Oh god, this isn’t good. I need to go get more help.”

She turned around and ran back towards the mansion, with the Askarian going after her.

Robbie ran over to Beatrice and helped her sit up, asking, “Did you notice the Askarian’s eyes?”

“You mean how they were green? Yeah, I noticed. What about it?” she asked.

“No, not the color, how they looked,” Robbie stated. “They looked like something was tormenting him in his head. I’ve seen eyes like those before.”

“Really? Where?” Beatrice asked.

“In my history textbook from last school year,” Robbie explained. “You see, I noticed the Askarian looks like a race of people we have in the Human World we called indigenous people, and in the past, white humans put them through a lot of hell. One of the things we did was take a bunch of them, mostly children, and tried to strip their culture away from them and force them to adopt what I guess you could call white culture. There were photos of people that were victims to this in the textbook and the way their eyes look remind me of the Askarians.”

“Well, it makes sense that the Askarian’s eyes look like that,” Beatrice said. “If I didn’t know better, I bet he can see what he’s doing since his eyes aren’t covered. He can see himself attacking people he doesn’t want to in a strange world he doesn’t know. He was taken away from Askarian Territory and forced to live here and what he’s doing now goes against his country’s warrior code.”

“Warrior code?” Robbie asked.

“It’s a set of rules soldiers in Askarian Territory, and pretty much anywhere in the Otherworld, now that I think about it, follow,” Beatrice explained. “Basically, you’re only allowed to fight others for training or battle purposes; you can’t fight people just for the heck of it or without reason. My grandpa told me about it.”

“But if the Askarian can see what’s going on, why hasn’t it snapped him out of the mind control,” Robbie asked.

“He needs the right motivation to do it. Clearly seeing us in pain or fear isn’t enough,” Beatrice stated, tapping her chin. Then, she asked, “Hey, was that a statue of an Askarian I saw when I was running into the woods?”

“Yeah, it’s Chief Taino when he was young,” Robbie stated.

Beatrice grinned, “Perfect.”

Then she began to follow where Jane and the Askarian went.

“Beatrice, what are you planning?” Robbie asked.

“I’m going to remind the Askarian of who his REAL master is,” the Goth stated.

Meanwhile, Bog had finally managed to get out into the backyard.

“So far, so good,” he thought to himself. “Now I just need to walk into the woods and find out where the others are.”

Then, he heard Jane’s voice call out, “Bog!”

The Ampman looked up to see the Nymph running out of the forest.

“Jane!” he called back. “What happened? Did you defeat the Askarian?”

“Not even close!” Jane stated. “Broker and José both got taken out. I ran back here to get Samuel and Beast. What are you doing out here?”

“I wanted to help.” Bog stated.

“What! But you’re still injured,” Jane said.

“I’m fine,” Bog lied as he felt a sore pain in his legs as he walked forward.

At that moment, the Askarian emerged from the woods and noticed the Ampman, where he stopped in his tracks and stared at him.

Jane looked at the two Otherworlders and said to Bog, “If you really think you’re up to a fight, go ahead. But don’t blame me if you get hurt badly.”

Bog and the Askarian stared at each other silently, until the former said, “I know how to deal with you.”

He knelt near the pool and stuck his hand into the water. When he pulled it out, he brought a stream of water with it, which he then threw at the Askarian.

The warrior shut his eyes, expecting to be splashed by the water, but instead the water wrapped around his body, pinning his arms to his side, like some sort of weird rope.

Bog then leapt towards the Askarian, winding up for one of his punches when-”GAAH!” Bog cried out, stopping right in front of the warrior.

He grabbed the shoulder of his arm he was about to use to attack, having felt a horrible pain in it at that moment. What good timing for that to happen.

The Askarian, seeing that the Ampman was distracted, took this as an opportunity to kick the aquatic Otherworlder into the mansion exterior.

Bog struck the wall so hard it left a huge dent in it and knocked the wind out of him! He slumped to the ground, muttering, “Perhaps coming out here was a bad idea. I’m sorry.” Then, he fell unconscious.

The water rope that bound the Askarian’s arms to his side then slipped off his body, splashing to the ground, allowing the warrior to retrieve his spear.

Jane stood there frozen. She had to do something to save herself and make sure the Askarian didn’t enter the mansion and hurt everyone inside, but what?

At that moment, Alex had noticed it had gotten quiet outside and left Ivan’s lab to go into the backroom to look out the backdoor. She expected the see her brother and the Otherworlders coming out of the woods, carrying an unconscious Askarian, who was headphone-less, but instead, she saw this:

Bog was lying near the mansion, seeming to be out cold, and Jane standing in front of the Askarian, her arms out and shouting something at him.

Alex ran out of the room, crying, “Gramps!”

“Alex? What’s wrong?” Beast asked, leaving Ivan’s lab.

“The Askarian is in the backyard and I think Bog tried to fight him, but he’s unconscious now!” Alex stated frantically. “Jane’s out there all alone!”

“What! I told Bog he had to stay inside!” Beast shouted. “Why does nobody listen to me!”

“What should we do?” Alex asked.

“I’m going to find Samuel. Whatever you do, don’t go outside,” Beast said as he ran up the stairs to the second floor.

Alex darted back into the backroom and looked through the door, wondering what was going to happen now since Jane was by herself.

Meanwhile, Jane was talking to the Askarian, trying to snap it out of its mind control.

“I know you don’t want to hurt anyone, but whoever put those headphones that are controlling you on your head does,” Jane said. “If you stay still, I can take them off and free you from his control.”

Jane walked closer to the Askarian, reaching out her hand towards him to try to grab the headphones again.

However, just like the last time she tried, he wouldn’t let her. He grabbed the Nymph’s arm and threw her down to the ground.

Jane sat up and looked up at the Askarian as he continued on his way towards the mansion. But, he stopped in his tracks and looked back towards the Nymph, where he gripped his spear and walked back over to her.

Jane backed away from the Otherworlder until she backed up into something solid and cold, which prevented her from moving any further.

The Askarian looked down at her and raised his spear, the sharp point aimed at her chest. Just when he was about to lunge it, something grabbed the back of his head.

“Hey Askarian, I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” said Beatrice’s voice.

Jane looked behind the Askarian to see the Goth standing there, one hand on her hip and the other on the Askarian’s head. Beatrice grabbed the headphones, but instead of ripping them off, she tilted the Otherworlder’s head back to make him look up.

“Especially not in front of the statue of your country’s chief,” she added.

Jane looked behind herself to see the statue of Chief Taino and looked back up at the Askarian’s face. His eyes were very wide open, his mouth agape, making a bit of a choking sound like he wanted to say something but was unable to speak.

He dropped his spear and raised his hands up towards his head. Beatrice released the headphones and stepped back, ready to see what would happen next.

At that moment, the buzzer for the mind control began to go off, trying to control the Askarian again, but he kept reaching for the headphones, his eyes still on the Chief Taino statue, not seeming to notice.

When he finally grabbed the headband of the headphones, he began to pull at it, letting out an agonized scream. The buzzer kept going off, but the Otherworlder didn’t falter in his actions.

Beatrice and Jane winced at the noise and quickly covered their ears.  Alex did the same indoors, wondering what was going on.

Then, there was a loud crack! The Askarian had broken the mind control headphones in half! He dropped the two pieces and collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

“Wow,” Beatrice said. “I didn’t expect it to be that intense.”

Jane nodded and stood up, a little shaken by what she just saw. Beatrice grabbed the two halves of the mind control headphones and stuck them in her pocket, and asked the Nymph, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Jane answered. “Well, I think he may have broken my wrist, but I’m sure Samuel can heal it.”

Alex ran outside, saying, “That was so scary! I thought for sure he’d kill Jane!”

“Well, he didn’t, and that’s all that matters,” Beatrice said, patting the kid on the head. Then, she grabbed the Askarian’s spear and arrow quiver.

Beast and Samuel ran outside, where the former said, “Oh thank god, you took care of it without us.”

Samuel went over to Bog and began healing him, saying, “Hopefully next time, Bog will stay put and not get involved the next time he’s seriously injured.”

“Where are the others?” Beast asked the two women.

“Over here!” called out Robbie’s voice.

The group looked into the woods to see Robbie walking out, with Jane’s guitar slung on his back, holding Broker’s knife in one hand and the Askarian’s broken bow and arrows in the other. José was right behind him, carrying Broker on his back, who was still out cold.

“After Beatrice left, I did a quick sweep of the woods and found the Askarian’s arrows, Jane’s guitar and Broker’s knife,” Robbie stated.

“Thanks, Robbie,” Jane said, taking her electric guitar from the teenager.

“No problem,” Robbie said as he put the arrows and broken bow into the Askarian’s quiver.

Alex looked down at the Askarian, where she noticed one of his pockets was twitching.

“One of his pockets is moving!” she exclaimed.

Everyone looked down at the Askarian to see what the little girl was talking about. A few seconds later, a small furry head poked out and looked around the area. It climbed out of the Askarian’s pocket and began hopping around in the grass.

From the way it looked, it reminded Robbie of a rabbit, only is was very small. Was it a baby?

The small mammal sniffed around some more before looking up at the people staring at it. It raised one of its paws and let out a small squeak, as if saying, “Hello!”

“Aww, it’s so cute!” Alex squealed, kneeling near the little rabbit and taking it into her hands.

“Is that a micro-rabbit?” Jane asked.

“It would seem so,” Beast confirmed, looking at the small animal. “I’m guessing it’s the Askarian’s pet.”

“This guy got to take his pet rabbit with him, but my dog gets left behind. Not fair,” Beatrice grumbled.

“Can we keep it?” Alex asked.

“We might have to,” Beast said. “Since it is the Askarians.”

“Yay!” Alex cheered. “I wonder what its name is.”

A short while later, after the Askarian was put in a clinic cot and everyone’s injuries were tended to, almost everyone was in the dining/living room. Almost because Bog was put in the clinic as well, and Broker was put in his room, since he was still out.

Alex was sitting at the table, watching the micro-rabbit hop around on the tabletop, squeaking a lot; Robbie and Leah were nearby, playing scrabble but eying the small mammal; Jane was sitting on the couch, with a brace on her wrist; José was sitting on the other side of the couch, sitting back with an icepack on his abdomen; Beatrice was standing up, leaning against a wall with her arms crossed.

Zara walked into the room, holding a small plate of carrot chips, saying to Alex, “I have some food for your little friend.”

The mini-bunny squeaked happily as the woman set the plate on the table, and the rabbit grabbed a chip with its little paws and began nibbling on it.

“For a rabbit, that thing acts a lot more like a hamster,” Robbie commented, prompting the animal to squeak angrily at him.

“Careful Robbie, I think you just offended it,” Leah warned, snickering.

“Okay, let’s try another name; Cotton-Ball?” Alex asked the small rabbit, who shook its head.

She had been trying to figure out what the rabbit’s name was for at least a half an hour now, but so far, nothing. She had said all the names a person could call a rabbit, like Fluffy, Flufftail and Snowball, but it kept shaking its head at her. She was starting to run out of ideas.

“Can you give me a hint about what your name is?” she asked.

The micro-rabbit nodded and pointed at its ears. They were strange to look at, since one was pointing up and the other laid flat. It gave it a crooked appearance.

“Your ears are crooked,” Alex stated.

The rabbit squeaked.

Robbie thought for a second before saying, “Crooked-Ear. That’s its name.”

The micro-rabbit nodded, squeaking happily, before proceeding with its meal.

“Fitting name for a rabbit,” Beast said, walking into the room and hearing the name of the rabbit. “What about the Askarian’s name? Can you tell us what it is?”

Crooked-ear nodded and squeaked three times.

“Yeah, that doesn’t tell us much,” Leah said.

The bunny then hopped over to their Scrabble board and stared at the letters for a moment before suddenly stealing a few tiles!

“Hey!” Robbie shouted, trying to grab the small mammal but it jumped away from his hands and scampered away.

Crooked-ear went back over to Alex and arranged the letters it stole in a particular order. She looked at what it spelled out and read it aloud for everyone. “Kiowa.”

“Smart rabbit,” Beatrice commented. “I wonder if the Askarian taught it how to do that in case of situations like these.”

“Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if he did,” Beast said. “Now since we have his name, we have to wait for him to wake up so he can tell us what happened to him.”

“He had a small mind control device, so for all we know, he could be awake by now,” Jane stated.

“Yeah, maybe he and Bog are talking to each other,” Alex suggested.

Crooked-ear began to squeak frantically, as if saying, “Please! I want to see my master!”

“Okay, I guess we’re going to check on him,” Beast said. “Since Crooked-ear seems very worried about him.”

Alex picked Crooked-ear up and carried him out of the room to the clinic, accompanied by Beast, Robbie, Beatrice and Jane.

When they got there, they found Kiowa still unconscious on the bed, but Bog was awake and staring at the ceiling.

“Looks like Kiowa’s still out,” Jane said. “But Bog is conscious at least.”

Bog looked over at Beast and said, “I’m sorry that I disobeyed your order. I really wanted to help the others fight and I didn’t stop to think about how injured I was. It was a very stupid mistake.”

“Just promise to never do it again, and I’ll let it slide,” Beast replied.

“I promise.”

“Good.”

Alex set Crooked-Ear on the bed, where the micro-rabbit climbed onto his owner’s body and hopped up to his head, where he began to smack at Kiowa’s chin with its little paws.

“You’re going to need a bigger force than your little paws to wake him up,” Beatrice told the little rabbit. “I could punch him awake if you want.”

“No Beatrice,” Jane told the Goth.

“Relax, I was only kidding. Sort of.”

Crooked-Ear squeaked in response and pointed a paw at a small table situated near the clinic cot.

Jane picked him up and set him on the table, where she asked, “Are you going to watch your master until he wakes up?”

Crooked-Ear shook his head and positioned himself to face Kiowa’s head and got low to the tabletop, shaking his tail.

“What’s he doing?” Alex asked.

“I think he’s going to-,” Robbie began saying when Crooked-Ear took a big leap into the air and slammed down on Kiowa’s face!

The Askarian’s eyes flew open and he immediately sat up, causing Crooked-Ear to fall off his face and land in his lap. Kiowa looked around the room and spotted the small group standing before him, where he asked, “Where am I? Who are you?”

“Relax, Kiowa,” Beast told the Otherworlder. “You’re not in any danger. You’re in the clinic of my mansion.”

KIowa’s eyes widened and he asked, “How did you know my name?”

Jane pointed at Crooked-Ear and stated, “Your little rabbit friend told us.”

“You can understand Crooked-Ear?” Kiowa said, very surprised.

“He stole a couple of small tiles with letters printed on them and arranged them to say your name for us,” Jane explained. “He’s a very smart rabbit.”

“Yeah, he is very clever,” Kiowa said as Crooked-Ear climbed up his tunic and settled himself on his shoulder. Kiowa reached his hand toward him and scratched the little rabbit’s head with his finger, prompting Crooked-ear to squeak contently.

“So, how do you have that little rabbit as a pet?” Alex asked.

“I work as a micro-rabbit breeder in Askarian Territory,” Kiowa explained. “I’ve looked after several hundred micro-rabbits and sold a good deal of them to other Askarians or other races in the Otherworld.”

“They’re that popular of a pet?” Robbie asked.

“One of the most popular,” Kiowa stated.

“I think dogs are better,” Beatrice said, prompting Crooked-Ear to squeak angrily at her.

“Is raising micro-rabbits fun?” Alex asked.

“Very, though it’s a very difficult job sometimes, considering how many they are,” Kiowa stated.

“Wow! I want to breed rabbits!” Alex exclaimed.

“I can tell you how it’s done if you want,” Kiowa offered.

“Cool!”

“So, who are you people?”

“I’m Beast Wagner, I’ve studied Askarian Territory a long while back, so I’m familiar with your country’s customs and culture,” Beast stated. “I also know Chief Taino personally.”

“I’m Robbie, his grandson,” Robbie added. “The little girl is my sister, Alex.”

“I’m Jane, a Rock N Roll Nymph,” Jane stated.

“I’m Beatrice, a Goth,” Beatrice said.

“And I’m Bog, an Ampman, though that may have been obvious,” Bog stated.

“There are some others in the mansion as well, but we’ll introduce them to you tomorrow,” Beast stated.

“Why is Bog in the clinic?” Kiowa asked.

“You kind of...injured him,” Robbie explained.

“Oh god, I’m so sorry!” Kiowa apologized, bowing his head towards Bog.

“Don’t worry about it. The fault was mostly mine,” Bog stated. “I was injured from a fight that occurred the day before, so I shouldn’t have even tried to confront you.”

“So, what do you remember about your abductor?” Robbie asked.

“How did you know I was abducted?” Kiowa asked.

“All the Otherworlders here were taken from the Otherworld,” Beast explained. “And they were all mind controlled into fighting us like you were.”

“Taken from the Otherworld? You mean I’m not in the Otherworld anymore?” Kiowa asked.

“Nope, you’re in a dimension called the Human World,” Beast stated. “The world works a bit differently here than it does in the Otherworld.”

“Oh,” Kiowa replied, looking a little shocked from this bit of news. “I don’t think I can talk about what happened to me right now. Maybe I’ll tell you tomorrow.”

Beast nodded, “Alright. I’ll leave you alone then.”

After the group left the room, Bog said to the Askarian, “Don’t worry, the Human World is pretty nice once you get a good look around. You might like it here.”

“I hope you’re right about that,” Kiowa replied.

The next morning, Alex had gotten up earlier than usual and was sitting at the dining room table, with a stack of paper and some crayons set nearby. She wanted to ask Kiowa about rabbit breeding, since it sounded like a fun job to her, so she could take notes on it.

Jane walked into the room and was surprised to see the little girl, where she asked, “What are you doing up so early, Alex?”

“I’m waiting for Kiowa to get down here so I can ask him about rabbit-breeding,” Alex explained.

“Well, why don’t we go down to the clinic and see if he’s awake? If he’s not, then we can eat some breakfast so you won’t have to sit there and starve yourself waiting for him,” Jane suggested.

“Okay,” Alex said, hopping out of her chair and following the Nymph out of the room.

The two went down to the clinic and opened the door, where they found Bog lying awake in his cot, but the bed Kiowa was in was empty!

“Bog, where’s Kiowa?” Jane asked

“And Crooked-ear?” Alex added.

“I don’t know. When I woke up they were not here,” Bog stated.

“Okay, that’s kind of concerning,” Jane said, before running out of the room, with Alex following close behind.

On their way back to the dining/living room, they saw that the doors to the treasure room were open. They looked in, expecting to see the Askarian in the room, but nobody was present.

Alex pointed at a wall and stated, “Kiowa’s weapons were propped up over there, but now they’re gone.”

“What could he be doing with them right now?” Jane wondered out loud.

“Don’t ask me. I’m not psychic!” Alex stated.

“What’s going on?” Beast asked as he and Samuel walked down the stairs.

“Kiowa’s missing, and his weapons are gone,” Jane stated.

“Well, he couldn’t have gone far,” Samuel said. “I doubt he’d leave us so suddenly without telling us. Perhaps he’s somewhere else in the mansion.”

The four went around the house, trying to locate the Askarian and his micro-rabbit, but there was no sign of either of them. Soon, the other residents of the mansion were up and were all gathered in the clinic, trying to figure out where Kiowa was.

“I had mentioned to him yesterday that the Human World was a nice place,” Bog stated. “Perhaps he went outside to have a look for himself.”

“But how far would he look?” José asked. “For all we know, he could’ve gotten himself lost.”

“Askarian’s can’t get lost. They are incredibly skilled at tracking and retracing their steps,” Beast stated. “I’m sure he’d find his way back here.”

“Maybe in Askarian Territory,” Broker said. “But this is the Human World. A whole new dimension that’s very different than the Otherworld. He’s not familiar with it at all.”

“Broker has a good point,” Jane agreed. “As far as we know, Kiowa has never been outside his homeland until now.”

“Amazing,” Beatrice said. “He’s only been here for nearly one day and he’s already done something stupid.”

“Beatrice, don’t be mean,” Jane scolded.

“If Kiowa’s just heading out for a look around, why’d he take his weapons with him?” Leah asked.

“Protection? There could be a lot of wildlife out there that could attack him, like bears and mountain lions,” Constantine suggested.

At that moment, Beast’s eyes widened and he slapped his hand to his forehead muttering, “Oh god, don’t tell me he’s doing what I think he’s doing.”

“Doing what?” Alex asked.

“We’ll find out when he gets back here,” Beast said.

Robbie looked out the clinic window, where he noticed something small and white hop out of the woods, dragging something.

“Hey, I think I see Crooked-Ear,” he stated.

Broker went over to the window and looked, where he confirmed, “Yep, that’s the micro-rabbit, and he has a stick with him for some reason.”

Everyone, except for Bog, who still couldn’t move, left the clinic and went downstairs to go outside, where Alex ran up to the micro-rabbit and picked him and the stick up.

Crooked-ear pointed his paw at the stick and squeaked, as if saying, “Look what I got!”

Alex held the stick in her hand and handed it to Beast, saying, “It has a weird feeling to it.”

“That’s because it’s not a stick,” Beast stated, looking at the object. “It’s a deer antler.”

“A deer antler? Where and how did Crooked-Ear get a deer antler?” Jane asked.

“From a deer, where else,” Beatrice said.

“But deer antlers don’t fall off at this time of year,” Zara stated.

“Is it mating season? Maybe one lost it in a fight over a female?” Constantine suggested.

“Hold on, aren’t Askarian’s known for hunting,” Robbie said.

Upon saying that, the group heard footsteps coming from the woods and looked to see Kiowa walking out, carrying a dead deer on his back, which was missing an antler.

“Whoa,” Leah said.

“Holy shit,” Constantine muttered.

Frederick had covered his mouth with his hands and his eyes were so wide that he was worried they’d pop out of his skull.

As for the other Otherworlders, none of them seemed shocked by this. Actually, Beatrice seemed amused by everyone’s reaction to the scene.

“What’s wrong?” Kiowa asked confused about their reactions.

“You went out and killed a deer,” Robbie said.

“Yeah, I thought it’d be good for breakfast,” Kiowa stated, smiling. “I thought I’d do it to repay you for helping me get that mind control device off.”

“That’s nice of you, but you didn’t really need to do that,”Robbie stated. “Not a lot of people hunt for food in the human world anymore.”

“Really?” Kiowa asked. “I didn’t know that.” He looked down at the ground, a little embarrassed by his actions.

Zara quickly stepped up and said, “But we’d be more than happy to cook it. Though, something like deer meat would be better suited for dinner, and I’d have to look up how to prepare it.”

“Yeah, and I’ve wondered what deer meat tastes like,” Leah added, to cheer the Askarian up.

Kiowa looked up and smiled, “Oh, good, then the deer won’t go to waste.”

“What does deer meat taste like?” Alex asked.

“It tastes similar to beef,” Beast stated. “I tried some when I was in Askarian Territory.”

“Why does Crooked-Ear have the antler?” Robbie asked, pointing at the micro-rabbit.

“He wanted to help,” Kiowa stated, as Crooked-Ear squeaked happily. “So I broke off one of the antlers and let him drag it back here.”

“So, how do we prepare deer meat and preserve it until it needs to be cooked?” Leah asked.

“Well, I’m going to need a few knives,” Kiowa stated.

“I’ll go inside and get some,” Beast said before entering the house.

Robbie and Frederick went in after him, where the latter asked, “Are we seriously going to cook that deer for dinner?”

“Yes, Frederick, we are,” Beast said.

“Is that even safe? What if we get sick from eating it? I don’t want Carina or Alex to get food poisoning or something worse,” Frederick said.

“It’ll be fine if we cook it long enough,” Beast stated.

“Couldn’t we just throw it out, get some beef, cook it and say it’s the deer meat?” Frederick suggested.

“Kiowa will know the difference, and if we do that, we might offend him,” Beast replied. “God Frederick, why are you freaking out about this?”

“It’s just a little weird to eat something that was killed by someone’s bare hands,” Frederick stated.

“Frederick, a lot of meat is prepared that way,” Beast said.

“Not like that!”

Robbie rolled his eyes and said, “Jesus, Frederick, if you don’t like the idea of eating deer meat, you, Ivan and Carina can eat out.”

“What Robbie said,” Beast said.

“I’m sorry, I’m just a little worried about eating it,” Frederick said.

“People eat deer meat a lot more often than you think. Indigenous people eat it sometimes, and modern day hunters,” Beast stated. “It’s nothing new really.”

“Also, there’s another concern I have,” Frederick said.

“What’s that?” Beast asked.

“Um, Ivan and Zara are both Jewish. Is deer meat kosher? Would they be able to eat it?” Frederick asked.

Beast stopped in his tracks to think for a second, where he said, “I honestly have no idea. You might want to look that up. Don’t want Ivan and Zara to get left out.”

“What should I do if I don’t like how deer meat tastes?” Robbie asked.

“You’re going to fake liking it and eat the rest,” Beast told his grandson. “I don’t want you spitting it out in front of Kiowa.”

“I’ll try,” Robbie said. “But I don’t know if Alex and Carina will. I bet they’ll complain if they hate it.”

After the deer meat was cut up and put in the fridge for later, the deer skin and bones were scraped and clean, ready to be used for whatever purpose Kiowa wanted to use them, and Zara began researching recipes for deer meat.

After breakfast, Beast went up to Kiowa and said, “I believe now would be as good a time as any to tell us about who abducted you.”

Kiowa nodded, “I know, and I’m ready to tell you.”

Kiowa sat on the floor, behind the coffee table in the living room, while everyone else sat on the sofa, in the armchairs, on the ottoman, or in the dining room chairs, watching him. Crooked-Ear hopped around on the coffee table, squeaking, until Kiowa shushed him.

“Be quiet, Crooked-Ear. We’re about to talk about something serious,” he said.

Crooked-Ear nodded and sat on the table, looking around the room to see who would talk first.

Beast asked, “So what were you doing prior to your capture?”

“I was at one of the micro-rabbit tunnel systems I tend to,” Kiowa stated.

“Micro-rabbit tunnel system?” Robbie asked.

“It’s a series of rabbit holes where micro-rabbits live. They tend to live in colonies,” Kiowa stated. “There are several of them in Askarian Territory. The one I was at was the one where Crooked-Ear lived.”

“They sound fun,” Alex said. “How many rabbits are there usually in a colony?”

“About a hundred,” Kiowa stated. “Anyway, I was observing the rabbits as they were hopping around, going about their business, when I noticed a few of them had frozen in place and were staring at something behind me. I thought it was a predator, so I turned around and grabbed my spear, ready to fight it. But it wasn’t an animal.”

“What was it then?” Leah asked.

“It was a man wearing some kind of black uniform and a strange mask. The mask is a little hard for me to describe,” Kiowa stated.

Alex grabbed a sheet of paper and her crayons, where she ran up to Kiowa and handed him the things, saying, “Try drawing it.”

Kiowa set the paper on the table and chose a black crayon before sketching out the design for the mask. He held up the image he made for the others to see, where Beast stated, “It’s a gas mask. They’re worn to prevent the wearer from inhaling any kind of harmful fumes.”

“Him wearing that would explain what he did next,” Kiowa said.

“What’d he do next?” Robbie asked.

“He threw some sort of weird metal canister at me, which I poked with my spear. That was obviously a mistake, because I poked a hole into it and some gas began to leak out,” Kiowa stated. “A few of the rabbits approached the can and immediately collapsed to their sides! I thought it was poison so I began getting the other rabbits to return to their holes so they wouldn’t get killed by it. They were all shrieking out of fear, and soon, the fumes began to reach my own senses and I eventually blacked out.”

“It was sleeping gas. It’s made to cause the person exposed to it to fall into a deep sleep for a long time,” Beast stated. “I doubt your rabbit friends were harmed by it.”

“Oh, that’s good,” Kiowa said.

“But why sleeping gas? Why not use a sleep dart or hit him on the head like he did to the rest of us?” Broker asked.

“Hitting an Askarian on the head to knock them out would’ve been impossible. Kiowa would’ve sensed the mind controller sneaking up on him and fought back,” Beast stated. “As for a sleep dart, that would’ve worked too, except for one thing.”

“What’s that?” Robbie asked.

“The micro-rabbits. Kiowa, I take it you have a strong bond with them,” Beast said.

“Yes, they’re always happy to see me when I come by,” Kiowa stated. “And they don’t mind when I take a few of them to give to other Otherworlders.”

“If that’s the case, then I’m pretty sure if they saw Kiowa get knocked out and was about to get abducted, the rabbits would’ve done something to stop the mind controller,” Beast explained.

“Those little things? Taking down a full grown man? I doubt that,” Beatrice said. “They’re too little to fight.”

“Ever heard the term ‘strength in numbers’?” Beast asked. “If there was only one micro-rabbit, it would’ve been impossible to fight a man, but if there’s over a hundred? It’s VERY possible.”

“But not all of them would attack the mind controller. A few might actually start shrieking to alert any nearby Askarians on what’s going on,” Samuel added.

“Yes, they are very loud,” Kiowa confirmed. “Loud enough to be heard all the way back in town, if there are enough of them doing it.”

“How loud can micro-rabbits shriek?” Alex asked.

As soon as she asked, Crooked-Ear began screaming on the coffee table, causing everyone in the room to cringe and quickly cover their ears. Robbie winced at the noise, still able to hear it despite his hands muffling the sound. He looked over at Alex to see that her hands were clasped very firmly over her ears and she was shaking.

Kiowa then commanded, “Okay, Crooked-Ear! You can stop now!”

Crooked-Ear instantly went quiet for a moment before squeaking contently.

“Dear god,” Beatrice muttered. “He’s loud for a little guy.”

“I’m sure everyone in Aristocrat Empire and Goth Grounds could hear a noise like that,” Jane added.

“If not the entire Otherworld,” José threw in.

“I bet even my friend, Krona, would be able to hear that,” Broker claimed.

“What’s so special about her?” Beatrice asked.

“She’s deaf.”

“So those rabbits would’ve worked as an alarm system,” Robbie said. “Guess that explains why he used sleeping gas.”

“But you said the rabbits did start shrieking for a few moments before you blacked out,” Leah said. “Wouldn’t someone had noticed?”

“Yes, most likely, but by the time someone would’ve gotten to where I was, I would probably be gone already,” Kiowa stated.

“Is there anyone in Askarian Territory who would be concerned about your disappearance?” Samuel asked.

“My father, Lakota, for one,” Kiowa stated. “And this one warrior named Quon. He’s this guy who always tries to pick fights with me.”

“Why does he do that?” Jane asked.

“He challenged me in a fight when we were kids and I beat him. Now he made it his life mission to one day defeat me in combat,” Kiowa explained.

“Doesn’t that go against your warrior code?” Beatrice asked.

“Yes, but he’s pretty much an outcast in my homeland, so nobody pays much attention to him,” Kiowa stated.

“Okay, now back to the story. What happened when you woke up?” Beast asked. “Did you see the man again when you were in your cell?”

Kiowa’s eyes widened and he asked, “How’d you know I was in a cell?”

“We all woke up in a cell,” Broker stated. Pretty sure our cells were in the same area yours was.”

“I should’ve figured that,” Kiowa said. “Yes, I woke up in some kind of jail, and I heard screaming all around me.”

“That may have been the other victims,” Beast stated.

“Some of those screams may have been us actually,” Jane admitted.

“There are fifteen races in the Otherworld, and so far, there’s been one person from each race. You’re #6, so there’s nine more people to fight and free,” Beast stated.

“Those poor people. Hopefully we’ll be able to save them from the tormenting mind control,” Kiowa said.

“We’ll be able to do it, but it might take a few more days,” Samuel said. “As soon as we have each Otherworlder, we’ll hopefully have enough info to find him.”

“And then we’ll beat him up!” Alex exclaimed.

“I was thinking that we should kill him,” Beast admitted. “But I can’t decide if I want to use my knives or Ivan’s laser gun.”

“Beast, don’t talk about committing murder in front of our grandchildren,” Samuel told his husband.

“What, it’s not like they’ll witness it,” Beast said, smirking.

Kiowa then went on with his story, “I saw someone walk by my cell and I went up to the bars to have a look at him. I couldn’t see his face, because of how little light in the area there was, but I noticed a strange symbol on his arm.”

“What’d it look like?” Beast asked.

Kiowa grabbed the crayon, flipped his picture of the gas mask over and drew a few lines on the other side. When he held up the image, all of the humans’ blood ran cold.

It was a Nazi Swastika. Robbie never thought he’d see a symbol like that outside of his history class. He looked over at Ivan and Zara, to see that they were both paler than usual.

“Beast, could I actually use my laser gun personally and come with you to fight this guy?” Ivan asked, gritting his teeth.

“What’s that symbol?” Jane asked.

“It’s a Nazi swastika,” Beast stated flatly.

“Nazis? Oh, Skylar mentioned them to me, José and Bog. Apparently, they want black people dead,” Jane stated.

“Not just black people,” Zara stated. “Jewish, Romani, disabled and LGBT people too.”

“Or anyone who’s not white, Christian, straight or abled-bodied,” Beast summarized.

“What’s a Jewish person?” José asked.

“Jewish refers to a person involved with a religion called Judaism,” Zara explained. “Ivan and I are part of that religion. During the 1940s, Nazis rounded a bunch of Jewish people up and put them in these camps, where they were tortured and killed.”

“That’s awful!” Jane gasped. “Why did they do that?!”

“Germany was having a lot of troubles, mainly financial things, and a man named Adolf Hitler said it was our fault it was happening,” Zara answered. “His actions eventually started World War II, and after a few years of fighting, Hitler and his allies were defeated and the surviving people were freed.”

“Never forget, was what we all said after the Holocaust happened” Ivan quoted. “Though based on the state of this country, I think a lot of people already have!”

“Hey Beast, can we punch the shit out of this Nazi before you kill him?” Leah asked. “Punching a Nazi had been on my bucket list for a while,” Leah said.

“Sure, just wash your hands afterwards,” Beast agreed. “And Ivan, if you ever fight this guy alone, be careful. If he finds out you’re Jewish, he might shoot your eye out or rip your arm off or worse.”

“I’ll try,” Ivan promised.

“Are we in serious trouble because this guy’s a Nazi?” Broker asked.

“Well, based on what you all said, he might be working alone,” Samuel said. “So it wouldn’t be too much trouble. But if he has other Nazis working with him, it might be something serious.”

“The mind controller has normal humans working for him, while we’re going to have the most powerful races of the Otherworlders working with us,” Beast stated. “Taking them all down will be easy.”

“Hopefully,” Kiowa said.

A short while later, KIowa is sitting outside in the backyard, staring at the woods. He still couldn’t believe he had to stay in this world until the humans found a way to get him home. How long was that going to take? Weeks? Months? Years? Decades?! Hopefully it wouldn’t be that long.

At that moment, he heard the backdoor opening and turned around to see Alex walking outside, carrying a stack of paper and a box of crayons.

“Hello Alex. What’s with the paper and crayons?” Kiowa asked.

“I wanted to ask you about rabbit-breeding so I can take notes on it,” Alex stated as she sat down next to Kiowa. “It sounds like an interesting job.”

“Notes? You’re old enough to write?” Kiowa asked.

“I can write a little,” Alex said. “But I was planning on drawing pictures to represent most of the notes.”

“I see,” Kiowa replied as Alex got a piece of paper and a crayon ready.

“Hey, where’s Crooked-Ear?” Alex asked, looking around.

“He’s in those square patches of soil you have near the mansion,” Kiowa said, pointing back towards the house. “I think he’s digging a tunnel system there.”

Alex turned around to look at the spot that Kiowa was referring to. It was a flower bed, which was now full of small holes and small piles of dirt. At one point, Crooked-Ear popped out of one of the holes and let out a few squeaks, as if saying, “Hi! I’m right here!”

“Those are the flower beds,” Alex stated. “Zara wanted to plant some flowers there, but she never found the time to do it. Good thing she never did it, because she’d be mad at Crooked-Ear for ruining the plants.”

“Humans garden?” Kiowa asked.

“Yeah, if we have the time to,” Alex stated. “Some people plant flowers, some plant fruits and vegetables, and some plant both to make their yards look nice.”

“You should try getting around to doing it again,” Kiowa said. “With all the people that are probably going to be living in the mansion soon, I’m sure it’d work with the extra help. I know a Fairy would love to see a nice garden.”

“Growing a garden sounds fun,” Alex said. “Anyway, let’s get down to rabbit-breeding business.”

She wrote on the top of her first piece of paper: “Rabit Bredding Part 1.”

Then, she asked, “What do you breed rabbits for?”

“Well, there are many kinds of rabbits in the Otherworld, some are bred for food, others for pets, and some for possibly both,” Kiowa stated. “But in my case, it was mostly for pets. Micro-rabbits aren’t a good source of meat for people.”

“Why’s that?” Alex asked.

“They’re so small, you’d have to kill over a dozen in order to get enough meat to satisfy your family, if not just yourself,” Kiowa stated. “And you can’t really use their pelts or bones for anything, so killing micro-rabbits is kind of pointless.”

Alex drew a fork and knife and a t-shirt on the paper, and crossed both images out with a red crayon. “So, they’re only meant as pets?” she asked.

“Pretty much,” Kiowa said. “They’re very popular because of how cute they are.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Alex said. “Do they have other uses?”

“Well, in Loaner Valley, they’re trained to act as alarm systems,” Kiowa stated. “Mostly by the White-Hearts and Black-Legs for when someone breaks into their house.”

“Because their shrieks are loud enough to catch everyone’s attention?” Alex asked.

“Exactly,” Kiowa said.

Upon saying that, Crooked-ear began shrieking from one of his holes, prompting Kiowa to holler, “Thank you, Crooked-Ear, but there was no need for audio!” silencing the bunny.

After a few minutes of recovering from Crooked-Ear’s noise, Alex asked, “How long to micro-rabbits live?”

“On average, about 2 years in the wild and 12 years indoors,” Kiowa stated. “However, my father once looked after a rabbit that lived to be 18!”

“Your dad was a breeder too?” Alex asked.

“Yes, he was part of how I got into the business. I grew attached to the little guys as soon as I met them,” Kiowa stated. “He plans to retire in a decade or so, so when that happens, I’ll be in control of all the rabbit colonies.”

“Wow! That’s awesome!” Alex exclaimed. She wrote “Lives 2 yeers in wild, 12 yeers indors” on her paper and then got a new sheet of paper, which she wrote on. “Rabit Bredding Part 2.”

“Hey, how old is Crooked-Ear?” Alex asked.

“About four years. I raised him ever since he was a baby,” Kiowa stated. “He hung around me the most everytime I went to check on his rabbit colony, and a few times, he hitched a ride home with me when I wasn’t looking. I’d usually find him in my quiver, or one of my pockets.”

“Looks like he was going to hitch a ride home with you again before you got abducted,” Alex said. “Because he was hiding in your pocket when we found you.”

“Yes, he was, but that’s because I decided to keep him as my own pet, hence why he has a name,” Kiowa stated.

“What do they eat? Carrots?” she asked.

“Rabbits can eat pretty much any kind of vegetable, berries, grass and hay,” Kiowa stated. “Crooked-Ear is particularly fond of baby tomatoes.”

“Tomatoes aren’t a veggie! They’re a fruit!” Alex exclaimed.

“So they are,” Kiowa said, laughing.

“What do they do in the winter? Do they hibernate?” Alex asked.

“No, they’re around all year,” Kiowa stated. “But I tend to bring food that I had stored for them to give them so they can survive the cold times.”

“That’s good,” Alex said. “And in the spring, there will be new baby bunnies?”

“Yep, on average, micro-rabbits have 10 babies at once, and they’re the size of cotton balls,” Kiowa stated.

Alex drew a picture of a carrot, a tomato, a blueberry, and some grass on the page, with a arrow pointing at it reading “Food.” Then she drew two rabbits surrounded by ten small orbs with two black dots inside each one, with an arrow pointing at one saying “Babby.”

“Are rabbits your favorite animal, Alex?” Kiowa asked.

“Yep, they’re so fluffy and cute,” Alex confirmed. “I have a lot of plush toys of them, but Carina keeps stealing them from me!”

“Is she your little sister?” Kiowa asked.

“No, but she’s annoying like one,” Alex stated. “I sometimes wonder if I put Robbie through that hell when I was her age.”

“Kids your age shouldn’t say hell,” Kiowa said.

“Too bad, I just said it,” Alex said. “Do you have any siblings?”

“No, I was an only child,” Kiowa answered. “Mainly because sometime after I was born, my mother passed away.”

“Oh, my mom died too,” Alex stated. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

“It’s okay,” Kiowa said. “I would’ve liked to have siblings. Then I wouldn’t have been alone as I was as a kid.”

“Trust me, Kiowa, you don’t want siblings,” Alex stated. “If they’re older than you, they try to boss you around when there are no adults around. If they’re younger than you, they’ll take your stuff and annoy you.”

“What if they’re the same age as you?” Kiowa asked.

“It’s a mixture of both, I think,” Alex guessed.

“Does Robbie try to boss you around?” Kiowa asked.

“Sometimes, only when he’s in charge of watching me and none of the adults or Leah are around,” Alex stated. “He’s so annoying that I want to throw him in a lake sometimes.”

“Gee thanks,” Robbie’s voice said.

Alex and Kiowa turned around to see the teenager standing at the backdoor.

“Great, he heard me,” Alex said.

“I swear, I wonder if you hate me,” Robbie stated.

“I don’t hate you,” Alex stated. “You’re just annoying.”

“Well, so are you,” Robbie said, sticking his tongue out. “And also, you’re right about the younger sibling taking the older sibling’s stuff, because you’ve stolen by 3DS a few times!”

“Only because you refuse to share!” Alex argued. “And I only use it to play Animal Crossing. And maybe Mario Kart.”

“And you’ve tried to take my sodas from me!” Robbie added. “Which you’re not even allowed to have until your ten!”

“Who says?”

“Gramps does!”

“Well, one day I might succeed in drinking my first soda, and that day might be today!” Alex exclaimed before jumping to her feet and bolting inside the mansion.

Robbie chased after her, hollering, leaving Kiowa alone outside.

The Askarian gathered up Alex’s crayons and paper and put them in the backroom so they wouldn’t get ruined in any way.

When he sat back down on the ground, Crooked-Ear hopped over to him and began squeaking at him. Kiowa picked the micro-rabbit up and set him on his shoulder, saying, “You could’ve just climbed onto my shoulder. You’re not a kit anymore. Or had all that digging worn your out?”

Crooked-Ear squeaked in response and leaned against Kiowa’s neck. Kiowa smirked and glanced up at the sky to see a few birds flying by. Then, he looked forward into the woods, where he noticed the Chief Taino statue.

He got to his feet and walked up to it to get a closer look. It looked exactly how Chief Taino looked when he was young, probably in his late 20s or early 30s. Beast said he knew Taino personally, but how? You’d have to be really lucky to meet someone that was royalty.

Kiowa got on his knees and bowed his head, closing his eyes. Crooked-Ear climbed off his shoulder and bowed his head toward the statue too, though Kiowa doubted that he knew why they were doing it.

Kiowa said softly, “Chief Taino, I hope that you are well right now and that everything is peaceful back home. I hope that you and my father, General Lakota, will still be alive and well by the time I return home. And I hope that Quon doesn’t drive himself crazy trying to find out where I am so he can fight me.”

At that moment, Crooked-Ear began squeaking frantically, looking at something deeper in the woods. Kiowa opened his eyes and looked over to see what had caught the micro-rabbit’s attention. He saw the silhouette of a person wearing a dress and holding an umbrella, where he heard a dignified female voice say, “Sorry, was I interrupting something just now?”

Inside the mansion, Robbie had managed to catch up with Alex in the kitchen, where the little girl was grabbing a bottle of Cheerwine from the fridge.

“You’re too late, Robbie! I have the soda now!” Alex exclaimed, laughing.

“Alex! Give that bottle to me now! If Gramps finds out you drank soda, he’ll be so pissed even Satan would fear him!” Robbie stated.

Alex glared at her older brother before saying, “Okay, fine.” She then threw the bottle down at the ground, causing it to bounce towards Robbie, who caught it with ease.

“Thank you,” he said, looking down at the bottle. It was then that he noticed the liquid in the drink was starting to fizz up and he could feel the plastic slightly expanding in his hands.

“Oh shit! Cheerwine is more carbonated than usual!” he shouted before suddenly throwing the bottle out of the kitchen window, which was fortunately open.

Not longer after, he and Alex heard a loud pop and the two went to the window and looked down at the ground, where they saw the now busted bottle of Cheerwine surrounded by red bubbly liquid.

“Why’d you throw it out the window?” Alex asked.

“I panicked,” Robbie stated. “If I didn’t  throw it, it would’ve made a mess in the kitchen.”

“Well, now it’s a mess outside!” Alex pointed out.

“The rain will wash it away,” Robbie said. “I’ll just run down there and grab the bottle so I can recycle it.”

Then, the two saw Kiowa run out of the woods, brandishing his spear, and he looked back, holding his weapon at the ready.

“What’s Kiowa doing?” Robbie asked.

Then, someone dashed out of the woods, brandishing a lance and attempted to stab Kiowa with it, but the Askarian used the handle of his spear to block the attack.

The person brandishing the attack was a tall, plump woman with bright blue eyes and long blonde hair pulled back into a low ponytail and curled at the ends. She was wearing a pink and white Victorian style dress with a skirt that went a few inches past her knees, white gloves and a silver crown on her head.

“It’s the next Otherworlder!” Alex exclaimed.

“What is?” Beast’s voice asked, prompting the two to look behind them and see the red-haired man standing in the doorway.

“Kiowa’s fighting someone in the backyard. We think it’s the next Otherworlder,” Robbie stated.

Beast went over to the window and looked down at the fight that was occuring down below. He then stated, “It’s an Aristocrat.”

“An Aristocrat?” Alex asked.

“They’re a very dignified and wealthy race in the Otherworld,” Beast stated. “They’re strong fighters, but they’re not as strong as Askarians.”

“So Kiowa won’t need our help?” Alex asked.

“Probably not, but we should head out there just in case,” Beast stated. Then, he noticed the soda mess. “What’s with the busted bottle of Cheerwine?” he asked.

“I’m going to go find Grandpa and any Otherworlder’s who can fight,” Robbie said quickly before practically running out of the room.

Beast looked down at Alex and asked, “What’d he do?”

“He threw a bottle of Cheerwine out the window because it was about to blow,” Alex stated.

Beast slapped a hand to his forehead and muttered, “Jesus christ, why couldn’t he just open it and let it overflow in the sink. That mess is going to attract ants near the mansion!”

Outside, the Aristocrat woman asked Kiowa, “So, where is Beast Wagner?”

“He’s in the mansion,” Kiowa answered. “But I’m not going to let you in there. If you want to fight Beast, you’ll have to get through me first.”

The Aristocrat looked at the Askarian with surprised eyes before laughing, “Oh my! This is embarrassing!”

“What is?” Kiowa asked.

“You see, even if I had managed to slink past you and kill Beast without having to fight you, I’d come back outside and kill you anyway,” the woman stated. “You, along with the rest of the people that live in this lovely mansion.”

“Well, in that case, you’re not going to kill anyone, not even me,” Kiowa stated, standing boldly before the woman. “You won’t succeed in your mission.”

“My, aren’t you a confident one,” the Aristocrat commented. “Perhaps you’ll make an interesting opponent for me.”

Kiowa gripped his spear at the ready, staring at the female Otherworlder, waiting for her to attack. The Aristocrat held her lance and just stood there, holding her head high. When she didn’t make any signs that she was about to attack, Kiowa ran towards her, lunging his spear at her.

The woman pointed her lance towards the Askarian, and twisted the handle. Within seconds, the cone part of the weapon began to open up and form into the shape of an open umbrella, which Kiowa’s spear struck but didn’t pierce through!

“What the-how’d your weapon do that?” he asked. “It turned into a umbrella!”

“Technically, it’s a parasol,” the Aristocrat corrected. “This is a special Aristocrat weapon that can convert from a weapon of defense, such as the shield parasol, which it’s currently on, and a weapon of offense, like the lance I was using just a moment ago. It can be changed with just a twist of a handle.”

The Aristocrat then forced her parasol against Kiowa’s spear, forcing the Askarian backwards a few feet. Kiowa steadied himself and gripped his spear tightly, still pointing it at the intruding Otherworlder.

The Aristocrat positioned her parasol to cover her head and said with a smug smile, “Well, I can see you’re intimidated by me. Perhaps you should call your friends out here for help. Oh wait! How silly of me! You injured half of the Otherworlders yesterday, so they’re not going to be of any help to you. You’ve only got a couple of weak humans.”

“Not all of the Otherworlders are injured,” Kiowa stated. “Beatrice is still well. And as for the humans, they’re not as weak as you think. One of them is capable of using magic and a longsword, and the other...frightens me.”

The Aristocrat shrugged, “You still have no chance against me.”

Kiowa ran towards the woman, attempting to lunge his spear to stab her again, but the Aristocrat shut her parasol and used it to smack him aside, sending him crashing into the fence.

“Silly boy, how many times are you going to run at me like a madman with your little spear? It didn’t work the first time, what makes you think it’ll work a second time?” she asked.

“I’m not very skilled in fighting. My father trained me how to do it, but I’m no soldier,” Kiowa admitted.

“Really?” the Aristocrat replied, looking genuinely surprised. “I thought Askarians were a warrior race?”

“We are, but a small percentage of us aren’t involved with the military in any way,” Kiowa explained.

“Still, a young man like you should’ve been trained better,” the Aristocrat stated. “Even if you’re not a soldier, everyone needs to know how to fight back when they’re about to be killed.”

“For someone who wants to kill us all, you’re pretty concerned about my country’s fighting training,” Kiowa pointed out.

Upon saying that, there was a loud buzzing noise that emitted from somewhere and the Aristocrat’s head jolted, making Kiowa jumped.

The Aristocrat blunk a few times before saying, “Sorry, she almost regained control for a second there, but I don’t know why military and training would catch her attention?”

“Wait, you mean you’re not the actual Aristocrat woman talking to me?” Kiowa asked.

“No. I’m the one mind controlling her. You see, because of how her mind is, I can speak through her, just like I did with the Playa a few days ago,” she stated. “But I couldn’t do it with the others for some reason, which is a shame because I had some really good taunts.”

“Mind telling me what your identity is?” Kiowa asked. “Beast is really curious to meet you.”

“If Wagner hasn’t figured out who I am, he’s a complete idiot!” the Aristocrat snapped. “He knows what he did nearly 40 years ago! He’ll deny it but he knows what he did!”

“What did he do?” Kiowa asked, now curious himself.

The Aristocrat smiled and said, “It’d be best if you asked him yourself. Until then, you can keep trying to kill me like the idiot savage you are.”

“Excuse me?” Kiowa asked, tensing up.

“Savage. It’s a term used to describe wild animals that act like murderous monsters,” the Aristocrat stated.

“I know what savage means, but why do you call me that?” Kiowa asked, gripping his spear.

The Aristocrat smirked before saying, “Because it describes your race, the Askarians, perfectly, what with how you hunt, how you fight, how you-.”

Before the Aristocrat could finish her statement, Kiowa ran at her again, lunging his spear to stab her. The Aristocrat blocked the attack again and said, “Goodness, you seem agitated.”

“Of course I am,” Kiowa said. “You just insulted my entire race. And I’m never going to forgive you for that.”

Inside the mansion, the Otherworlders were sitting in the clinic. Bog was still bedridden; Broker was in the other bed, due to his blows to the side which caused him to have trouble sitting up and not being able to run as fast as usual; Jane was sitting in a chair, looking at her wrapped up hand; José was sitting on the floor, leaning his back to the wall so he wouldn’t hunch over and cause pain in his abdomen; and Beatrice was standing up, leaning against a wall, looking at the others.

“I can’t believe how beat up you all got yourselves,” she said.

“Yeah, it sucks,” Broker stated. “And to make matters worse, that means the only two Otherworlders who can fight are you and Kiowa. So other than the humans helping you,  you two will be fighting the next Otherworld attacker on your own.”

At that moment, Robbie ran into the room, holding his sword and shouting, “The next Otherworlder is here! It’s an Aristocrat!”

“An Aristocrat? As in the fancy and rich race?” Beatrice asked.

“I guess. Kiowa’s fighting her right now,” Robbie stated.

“You left him to fight it alone!” José exclaimed.

“I didn’t realize he was fighting it until I looked out the window into the backyard,” Robbie stated, looking out the clinic window to see the two Otherworlders still fighting.

“Well, I better get out there,” Beatrice said, walking out of the room. She stopped and turned around to look at Broker, where she asked, “Hey Broker, where do you keep your gun?”

“In my room. Why?” Broker replied.

“Just curious,” Beatrice said before going down the hall.

“Beatrice! You better not use my gun!” Broker shouted, sitting up. He felt a pain in his side causing him to wince and immediately lay back down, saying, “She’s taking my weapon because I can’t stop her, isn’t she?”

“Most likely,” Jane replied.

“Well, I better head outside to join Gramps and Grandpa. I told them about the Aristocrat before coming up here,” Robbie stated before running out of the room.

“Tell Beatrice to put my gun back! I don’t want her using it unless she has a license!” Broker shouted.

“What’s she going to do with a gun?” José asked.

“Shoot the Aristocrat,” Jane guessed.

“Doesn’t she know she could risk killing her?” José asked.

“Probably not, since she’s planning on using it.”

Outside, Kiowa was still fighting the Aristocrat. He swung his spear at her, hoping to knock her in the side with the handle, but she blocked it every time with the cone of her lance.

“So if you’re not a soldier in the Askarian Army, what is your job?” she asked. “It could explain why you’re so weak.”

“I work as a micro-rabbit breeder,” Kiowa answered.

“A micro-rabbit breeder,” the woman repeated before laughing. “Well, no wonder you’re so weak! Jobs like that are so dull and stupid. It doesn’t allow your strength to grow at all.”

“I’ll have you know that every day I fight off predators that try to eat the rabbit colony I work at. One time, I had to deal with a bear,” Kiowa stated.

“One time? What about the other times?” the Aristocrat asked.

“There were some bobcats, snakes, a few birds of prey…” Kiowa listed until his opponent cut him off, saying, “So animals that are smaller than you?”

Kiowa frowned and stated, “It’s a fun job, which I why I do it.”

“Maybe, but jobs like that are more suited for weaker people, like women,” the Aristocrat stated.

“You think women are weak? Then why are you controlling one to fight us, and Jane and Beatrice too?” Kiowa asked.

“That’s because they’re special,” the Aristocrat explained. “I’d tell you why but you probably wouldn’t understand.”

“Wow, first you’re racist, now you’re sexist,” Kiowa stated. “And to top it all off, you’re a Nazi. I wonder how much more horrible of a person you’re capable of being.”

“Ask me about religion,” the Aristocrat taunted.

At that moment, Beast, Samuel, Robbie and Beatrice ran outside with their weapons. Spotting them, Kiowa ran over to them and informed them on the situation. “The mind controller is speaking through the Aristocrat, but she did snap back to being herself at one point when we were talking about my country’s military system,” he stated.

“So he can talk through her like he did with José,” Beast said. “I’ll have to ask Ivan about that once this fight is over. Did he say anything else?”

“He appears to be very sexist, which confuses me since by now, he’s sent three Otherworld women to attack you, counting this one,” Kiowa stated.

“And he sent four guys. There’s a bit of a gender imbalance right now,” Beatrice pointed out.

“The controller also referred to my race as savages,” Kiowa added.

“He’s trying to get under your skin so you’ll lose focus,” Beast warned. “Don’t let him succeed.”

“Yoo-hoo!” the Aristocrat called. “Remember me? I’m fighting you.”

“Give us a second, bitch!” Beatrice shouted at her.

The Aristocrat’s mouth dropped open and she gasped, “Never have I ever heard such horrid language spoken to me!”

“Well prepare yourself, because my language is going to get worse from here on out,” Beatrice stated as she walked up to the Otherworlder.

The Aristocrat gripped her lance and pointed it at the Goth. “Step back! Don’t come any closer!” she shouted.

“I don’t need to get close to fight you,” Beatrice said, before whipping out her bass and strumming a few notes, sending several supersonic waves at the woman.

The Aristocrat was pushed back a couple of feet and when she steadied herself, she said, “Careful how you play that! You could disrupt the neighbors.”

“Good thing this mansion is in the middle of nowhere,” Beatrice said. “Though I’m surprised that my bass didn’t force you back very far. Either it needs tuning, the strings need replacing or you weigh a lot more than Bog and Kiowa do.”

Upon saying that, everyone’s jaws dropped and the Aristocrat’s face started to turn pink.

“Did Beatrice technically call her-,” Robbie began saying until Beast said, “Yes, she did. Clearly, she has no fear of death.”

“Ugh! I won’t stand for this treatment!” the Aristocrat shouted.

“Then sit down,” Beatrice suggested. “We have an outdoor chair if you want it.”

“You have the most horrendous attitude!”

“Bitchy and proud,” Beatrice said, flipping the woman off.

“That action is very un-ladylike!”

“Do I look like I give a fuck about being ladylike?”

Beast muttered to Robbie, “Other than Nymphs, Goth’s also don’t get along well with Aristocrats. Aristocrats are all about decency, and Goths...aren’t famous for it.”

Beatrice then said to the Aristocrat, “You say I’m the one who’s being unladylike yet you’re the one who’s flipping out and causing a scene to the point where you look stupid.”

The Aristocrat gritted her teeth, glaring at the Goth, who was standing before her proudly and smugly. Her face was turning redder by the second and one of her eyebrows was starting to twitch.

“When should we step in?” Robbie asked.

“I think-,” Samuel began, when the Aristocrat suddenly let out an irritated scream and ran towards Beatrice, ready to impale her with her lance. “Now,” the magician finished before raising his hand and saying, “Terra Murum.”

A wall of earth grew in front of Beatrice, which the Aristocrat stabbed her lance into and got it stuck.

Beatrice ran back over to the group, where Beast asked her, “Beatrice, what were you going to gain from taunting her?”

“I don’t know. Cheap entertainment?” Beatrice answered, grinning.

“You do realize she was about to kill you right?” Robbie asked.

“I probably would’ve dodged her attack,” Beatrice replied.

“Let’s hope that when we remove her mind control, she won’t remember you mocking her so badly,” Beast said. “I’m sure she’ll give you hell for it.”

“I’m not scared,” Beatrice stated.

“You will be.”

At that moment, a familiar loud buzzer noise rang out, prompting everyone to look over at the Aristocrat to see that she had yanked her lance out of the earth wall, shattering the structure in the process.

She stared at the group angrily for a few moments before noticing Beast. She gripped her weapon and quickly ran towards him, aiming to impale him in the heart!

The Aristocrat was close to stabbing Beast in the chest, when he suddenly withdrew two of his long-bladed knives and positioned them to make an ‘X’ shape with the flat sides facing out, which the tip of the Otherworlder’s weapon struck and was stopped!

The Aristocrat’s eyes widened, quite surprised that the man had managed to stop her attack with the two small weapons. Beast then pushed his knives against the lance, forcing the weapon to point upwards, allowing Beatrice to swing her bass and strike the woman in the abdomen, forcing her away from Beast.

“If killing me was that easy, one of the other Otherworlders would’ve done it by now,” Beast stated.

“I should’ve figured that,” the Aristocrat replied. “That was a fail on my part, but I won’t make the same mistake again.”

“We’ll see about that,” Beast said.

Up in the clinic, Jane, José, Broker and Bog were still sitting or laying down in the room. Jane was looking out the window, watching the fight occur.

“I wonder what Beatrice said to the Aristocrat to make her so angry,” she said, after seeing what had happened a moment ago.

“Knowing Beatrice, she probably insulted her,” Broker guessed. “Has she used my gun yet?”

“Not yet. Maybe we’ll get lucky and she won’t use it at all during the fight,” Jane said.

“Damn, I wish I could get up and look out the window to see what exactly was going on,” Broker said.

José was silent for a moment before saying, “I could carry you to a chair.”

“Won’t that strain your injuries?” Broker asked.

“You’re not that heavy,” José replied as he stood up and walked over to Broker’s cot. He gently lifted the Loaner off the bed and carried him over to a chair situated near the window and carefully set him in it.

“Thanks,” Broker said.

“No problem, amigo,” José replied, before heading back to the empty cot and lying down in it.

Broker laughed, “Oh, so you moved me so you could get the bed, huh?”

“Hey, you wanted to look out the window and I wanted to lay down for a bit,” José stated. “It was a good opportunity.”

Outside, the fighting group was still trying to subdue the Aristocrat. The woman was lunging her lance at Samuel, who was blocking with his longsword.

“For an old man, I’m impressed that you haven’t hurt your back or strained your muscles yet,” she pointed out.

“I take good care of my health,” Samuel stated. “That’s why I’m still as nimble as I was in my youth.”

“What about Gramps?” Robbie asked, knowing Beast didn’t have a lot of healthy habits.

“His stubbornness prevented his body from becoming frail and weak,” Samuel stated.

“I’m standing right over here!” Beast shouted.

“I meant it as a compliment,” Samuel said, before swinging his sword and knocking his lance out of the Aristocrat’s hands.

“Ugh! My lance!” she shouted, running to grab her weapon.

Beatrice then ran up to the woman and swung her bass at her, where the Aristocrat quickly used to lance to block the blunt attack. She then forced her weapon against Beatrice’s, forcing the Goth away from her.

She then lunged her weapon at Beatrice, who used the body of her bass to block it, causing the lance’s sharp tip to pierce through the metal body of her instrument and was just an inch away from touching her face. Beatrice yanked her weapon off the lance and looked at it, shouting, “Dammit! My bass!”

Robbie ran up to her and asked, “Do you think Repair magic can fix it?”

“It better! Otherwise, it’s not going to get fixed until I get back to Goth Grounds, and god knows when that’ll be!” Beatrice snapped.

The Aristocrat then charged towards the two, readying her lance to stab one of them, but Kiowa got in her path and swung his spear to force the lance to point upwards and keep it in that position.

The Aristocrat forced her weapon against the Askarian’s, causing him to slide back a little. Kiowa pushed back, forcing the woman to shift a bit as well.

The Aristocrat used her leg to swipe at Kiowa’s legs, knocking him to the ground and pointed her lance down at him.

“End of the line, Askarian,” she stated.

Then, a loud squeak rang out from somewhere nearby, and Kiowa looked over to see Crooked-Ear scurrying over to him from the flowerbeds, where he must’ve been hiding. The micro-rabbit hopped onto Kiowa’s chest and looked up at the Aristocrat, where he began to squeaking furiously at her.

The Aristocrats eyes widened and she immediately shrieked, “Oh god! A rat!”

Upon saying that, Crooked-Ear froze and was silent for a moment, before squeaking angrily and hopping up and down higher.

“I think you offended him,” Kiowa said. “He hates being compared to a rat. He’s a rabbit.”

“He’s an animal! How can he know what I’m saying?” the Aristocrat asked.

“Some animals are capable to understanding speech,” Kiowa stated.

“Figures that it’s your kind that can communicate with animals,” the Aristocrat sneered. “Since you practically live with them.”

“When we find you, we’re all going to beat you up for your discriminative nature,” Kiowa warned. “You are a horrible person for speaking of my race the way you are.”

“A lovely plan, but won’t that require surviving the fight?” the Aristocrat asked before raising her lance to impale Kiowa through the chest.

Beatrice, seeing the scene before her, said, “Okay, time to bring out the gun.” She whipped out Broker’s gun and fired some shots at the Aristocrat.

The woman saw the bullets coming and twisted the handle of her lance to get it to transform into the parasol, which she put in front of her to protect her from the bullets. The mana was immediately absorbed into the cover, not seeming to do any damage to it.

“Dammit,” Beatrice muttered before aiming the gun again.

“Are you sure trying to shoot her again is a good idea? She clearly has protection,” Robbie stated.

“Every sort of protection has a limit. If I keep shooting at the parasol, I might manage to make a hole in it and wound her,” Beatrice stated, before pulling the trigger again.

This time, the Aristocrat spun her parasol in her hands, causing the bullets to bounce off and go all over the place!

“Oh shit!” Beatrice shouted as she and Robbie dropped to the ground to avoid getting hit.

Samuel and Beast did the same.

Broker and Jane ducked from the window, just in case any of the bullets were to fly into the clinic.

“What’s happening?” Bog asked from his bed.

“Beatrice fired Broker’s gun at the Aristocrat and she spun her parasol-shield to deflect the bullets into other places,” Jane stated.

“I knew I shouldn’t have told her where I kept my gun,” Broker stated. “Maybe I should ask Beast to give me a safe to lock it up in when I’m not using it.”

Jane opened the window and stuck her head out, where she saw a few of the bullets had missed the glass by a few inches and hit the side of the house.

“Wow, if the bullets had struck more left, one of them would’ve hit this window, shattering it,” she stated.

“And we’d have glass stuck in us and probably be dead,” Broker added, looking outside.

“It doesn’t look like Beatrice landed any hits on the Aristocrat, though,” Jane stated.

“Good, she would’ve killed her otherwise,” Broker said, looking at the Aristocrat. He squinted his eyes and said, “Actually, Beatrice managed to shoot part of her crown.”

“Which part?” Jane asked, looking closely.

“One of the tips. Part of it’s missing and throwing off the symmetry a little,” Broker stated, pointing at the crown.

Jane looked at what Broker was talking about, to see the crown was indeed missing one of its points, but also noticed small sparks of electricity shot out of it every now and then.

“The crown is...sparking?” Jane stated.

“Yeah, that’s kind of weird,” Broker replied. “Which could only mean one thing.”

“That crown is what’s mind controlling the Aristocrat!” Jane exclaimed. “I wonder if the others know.”

Back in the backyard, Beatrice and Robbie got to their feet, where the former said, “Great, now what do we do?  My bass is busted and I’m pretty sure shooting her again is going to be a mistake.”

“If you can’t fight, hide, and if you can’t hide, die,” Robbie said, before running towards the Aristocrat, swinging his sword.

The Aristocrat changed her parasol back into the lance, which she swung at Robbie, knocking his sword out of his hands. The woman was then about to lunge her weapon at the boy to impale him in the abdomen, when Kiowa got to his feet, grabbed Robbie, and pulled him away from the enemy Otherworlder.

“Thanks,” Robbie said once they were a safe distance away, close to the mansion. “Now we need a plan on how to stop her. Where’s her mind control device?”

“It’s the crown!” he heard Broker’s voice holler from above. The Askarian and human looked up to see Broker and Jane looking out the window, down at them.

“When Beatrice shot at her, she shot part of the crown she’s wearing. If you look closely, you can see sparks shooting out of the spot where the piece was,” Broker stated.

Robbie and Kiowa looked back over at the Aristocrat, to see what the Loaner was talking out. They then noticed the broken part of the crown, where they saw the small electrical sparks.

“Damn, it should’ve been obvious,” Robbie said. “I feel stupid to wondering now. But how are we going to get that crown off of her?”

Kiowa looked at the woman for a moment before saying, “I have an idea. Keep her distracted for me.” Then, he quickly ran away from Robbie.

Robbie looked over to see his sword sticking out of the flowerbed, with Crooked-ear sitting nearby, squeaking angrily at it. The teenager quickly pulled it out of the dirt and faced the Aristocrat.

“Where is your Askarian friend running off to?” she asked, watching Kiowa leave. “Did he decide fighting wasn’t cut out for him and ran away?”

“No, he has a plan to beat you,” Robbie stated. “He just needs to get ready.”

“Oh, does he now?” the Aristocrat asked. “I highly doubt it’ll work.”

“It will. I trust him,” Robbie said, gripping his sword. “Just wait and see.”

Robbie then swung his sword at the Aristocrat, who blocked it with her lance.

Kiowa was running a good distance away from the Aristocrat, pulling out his bow and arrow. If he got far away enough, she wouldn’t even see the arrow coming and he might manage to shoot the crown off her head. He just need to time it right…

At that moment, Alex came outside to see what was going on, where she saw her older brother fighting the Aristocrat. She looked at the other side of the yard to see Kiowa standing there. She ran over to him and asked, “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to try to shoot that crown off her head with an arrow,” he stated.

“Why not use the gun Beatrice toke from Broker?” Alex asked.

“I’m sure based on how many times she fired it, she had used up all the mana that was charged up in it,” Kiowa answered. “I just need Robbie to keep her occupied long enough for me to aim and fire.”

Robbie kept swinging his sword at the Aristocrat, trying to land a hit on her, but she blocked him everytime still.

“You’re very sloppy with that little sword of yours,” she pointed out smugly.

“I just got this sword a few days ago and nobody’s taught me how to use it properly,” Robbie stated. “Cut me some slack!”

“How about I cut you down where you stand,” the Aristocrat replied, swinging her lance at the teenager and tearing a hole in his shirt!

“Gah!” Robbie shouted, jumping back as she swung it again, worried she might get him the second time.

“Now, now. Stay still and I promise I’ll make your death quick and painless,” the Aristocrat said.

“I’d prefer to stay alive, thanks,” Robbie replied.

When the woman was about to lunge her weapon at the boy, they both heard a loud squeak. They looked down at the ground to see Crooked-Ear standing in between them, waving his paws at her to get her to stop.

“Ugh! It’s that rat thing again!” the Aristocrat shouted, before jabbing her lance at the micro-rabbit.

Crooked-Ear hopped out of the way and scurried over to his tunnel system in the flower bed, where he jumped into one of the holes.

Rather than continue her fight with Robbie, the Aristocrat stomped after the small mammal, gripping her weapon tightly. “I’m going to put an end to that little pest!” she declared.

Crooked-Ear popped out of the hole he hopped into and squeaked at her, before ducking back in. The Aristocrat stabbed her lance into the hole, causing everyone to jump. Did she just kill the innocent little bunny?

Fortunately, Crooked-Ear popped out of another hole not too far away from the one he was in before, squeaking at her again, before re-hiding. The woman jabbed her weapon into that hole, but the micro-rabbit was already at a different hole, which she then stabbed, but he had moved to yet another hole.

The Aristocrat let out an annoyed scream before proceeding with Crooked-Ear’s game. It was like whac-a-mole, only the mole was a small cute micro-rabbit, and the mallet was a lance that could kill him.

Kiowa watched what Crooked-Ear was doing and muttered, “Crazy rabbit.”

“Silly rabbit,” Alex corrected, giggling.

Kiowa stared at her for a second, wondering if that was a human joke, but then shrugged and aimed his arrow at the Aristocrat’s crown.

Crooked-Ear noticed what his master was doing and the fourteenth time he popped out of a hole, he pointed one of his paws in Kiowa’s direction.

“What are you pointing at?” the Aristocrat asked before looking over at Kiowa, just when the Askarian shot the arrow.

Before she could do anything to dodge it, if there was anything she could do to dodge it, the arrow struck the front of the crown, piercing through the metal mind control device and forced it off the Otherworld woman’s head.

The arrow flew on until it struck a fence, still threaded through the crown. The Aristocrat fell to the ground immediately, unconscious, though whether it was because of the device being removed or the shock of being shot at, nobody could tell.

“We did it!” Alex cheered.

Crooked-Ear hopped out of his hole, climbed onto the Aristocrat’s body and let out what could only be described as a victory shriek, causing everyone to wince from the pitch.

Beast went over to the fence and yanked the arrow out and removed the crown from it.

“Good shot, Kiowa,” he complemented. “You managed to keep the device mostly intact.”

Kiowa walked over and retrieved his arrow from the human, saying, “That was pretty much my plan. Hopefully, it’ll be a better help in telling us who the mind controller is.”

“Yeah, even if being a Nazi does help him stand out more, it doesn’t really tell us who he is,” Robbie said. “There are over a hundred Nazis in the US, though some particular people won’t admit it.”

“I can’t believe she was so mean to Crooked-Ear,” Alex said, picking up the micro-rabbit. “I hope that was the mind controller who didn’t like them and not her.”

“If the mind controller hates rats, we should release a bunch of them into his hideout,” Beatrice suggested. “That’ll force him outside.”

“How many rats will that require?” Kiowa asked.

“No idea, but I’m mostly saying that as a joke,” Beatrice said. “He might shoot them or something.”

“I can’t believe she ruined my shirt,” Robbie said, looking at the big hole he now had in his t-shirt.

“That can easily be fixed with magic,” Samuel stated. “Just be glad she didn’t take your life.”

Before the Aristocrat was put in the clinic, Bog asked to be moved to his room so he could give her some privacy when she woke up and didn’t want to make his presence awkward. After he was moved to his room and the woman was put in the clinic, everyone else went about their day.

A little while later, everyone was waiting at the dining table in the dining/living room, wondering what Zara and Constantine had made with the deer meat Kiowa got earlier. They were starting to get antsy, cause they were eager to know, and hungry.

Finally, the two exitted the kitchen, Zara holding a big bowl of recently heated up vegetables, and Constantine holding a tray with deer meat steaks on them.

“So, you cut the deer meat into steaks?” Robbie asked, looking at the food as Constantine set it on the table.

“Yep! Then, I cooked the meat and marinated it in sauce that Zara found a recipe for online,” Constantine said. “Hopefully it’ll taste good.”

“What about the rest of the deer?” Alex asked, thinking about the deer skin and bones.

“I’ll find a use for them,” Kiowa stated. “The skin can easily be made into a shirt, but the bones will be more difficult. I’m confused about why Constantine wanted the head intact though.”

“I’m going to take it to a taxidermist tomorrow to have it made so it can be mounted on a wall,” Constantine stated, grinning.

“Humans do that with the animals they kill?” Kiowa asked, his eyes wide.

“Yeah, but sometimes, they have the whole animal stuffed with something to make it look like a statue,” Leah added. “They see them as trophies for hunting, or something.”

“Oh,” Kiowa said, his skin turning to a lighter shade than usual. “That sounds a little...ghastly if you ask me.”

“Yeah, what Kiowa said,” Jane agreed. “Nobody in the Otherworld really kills animals to use them as home decor. Well, actually, Malopixes like to keep animal skulls in their houses but that’s more of a cultural thing, like each animal symbolizes something.”

“And as for the trophy part, nobody hunts animals for sport,” Kiowa added. “We do it to get food to eat or skin to make clothes.”

“Oh, well maybe I’ll let you keep the head and do what you want with it then,” Constantine said.

“Thank you,” Kiowa replied.

“Okay, enough talk about taxidermy. Let’s eat!” Ivan exclaimed.

Robbie took a small bite of his steak. Deer meat did taste pretty good, though it was a bit tougher than beef. Everyone else seemed to be okay with it too.

“This tastes pretty good,” Alex commented. “Maybe we should let Kiowa hunt a deer for us sometimes.”

“Maybe a few times a month, but not everyday,” Samuel said. “Don’t want to cause damage to the deer population as game hunters already do.”

“Just enough so I won’t be out of practice when I get back home,” Kiowa stated. “It would be kind of humiliating if I’m unable to hunt for myself when I return.”

“Also, there’s already a lot of boxed and canned stuff in the storage that’s waiting to be prepared,” Beast added.

“Like that thing of cinnamon rolls Zara bought last month,” Alex stated. “They’ve just been sitting there.”

“We’ll get around to baking them,” Beast said.

“And by the time we do, they’ll be expired,” Robbie stated. “Just like every bakeable product in this mansion.”

“That’s because we don’t have time to bake them,” Beast stated.

“I don’t know, Gramps. As far as I know, nobody really does much in the house so I think we have plenty of time to prepare some,” Robbie pointed out.

“What’s a cinnamon roll?” Kiowa asked.

“You’ve never had one!” practically everyone in the room shouted.

“They’re these little rolls that have cinnamon mixed into the batter and have icing on them,” Leah stated. “They’re really good.”

“I’ve never had one,” Kiowa admitted.

“Well, that needs to change,” Alex said.

“We’ll make that change another day, because I don’t think I’ll have time to bake them in the morning, what with how much food Constantine and I have to prepare for everyone in the morning. Especially with all the new people coming to the house,” Zara stated.

“I could help,” Jane stated. “I’m pretty good at cooking.”

“Me too,” José added.

“You know, Aristocrats are known for pastry making,” Bog stated. “Perhaps there’s a chance that the one we have is skilled in the craft.”

“I’m be surprised if she wasn’t,” Beatrice said.

“If you’re thinking that because she’s fat, Beatrice, that’s not nice,” Jane scolded.

“No, I mean that Aristocrats are required to learn baking when they’re in school,” Beatrice stated. “General Zeze told me so because General Anastasia told him.”

“You seem to know General Zeze very well,” Broker said. “Is he a family friend?”

“Yeah, but he’s also my mentor in the military,” Beatrice stated.

“You’re in the Goth army? Cool!” Alex exclaimed.

Broker dropped his fork and exclaimed, “You do know what it means if he’s mentoring you right?”

“What does it mean?” Robbie asked.

“Zeze wants Beatrice to be General next!” Broker exclaimed.

“That’s awesome!” Alex exclaimed. “Maybe I should call you General Beatrice.”

“If Beatrice is made General, god help that country,” José muttered.

“I heard that!” Beatrice snapped, causing the Playa to jump and nearly choke on his food.

Once dinner was over, Beast went over to Kiowa and handed him a key.

“This is the key to your bedroom,” he stated. “On the third floor, there’s a room with a window seat, and on the right, there’s a hall of bedrooms. Yours is the sixth one on the left side.”

“Thank you, Beast,” Kiowa replied.

Beast just nodded and left the room.

Robbie went up to Kiowa and asked, “So what do you think of the human world so far?”

“It sounds very interesting,” Kiowa stated. “But I’d have to see more of it to make a final judgement.”

“Well, Crooked-Ear seems content with it,” Leah said. “He’s pretty much made himself at home with his little hole and tunnel system in the flowerbed.”

“Yeah, but I need to get him a hutch for when he’s inside,” Kiowa stated. “I don’t want him outside all the time, otherwise predators might get him, or he’ll get caught in bad weather.”

“You treat that rabbit like it’s your baby,” Beatrice teased.

“Oh, and you don’t fret over your dog like that?” Kiowa asked.

“...Okay, good point.”

“We’ll find a good hutch for Crooked-Ear at Petsmart or somewhere,” Constantine said. “In the meantime, you’ll have to use a box.”

“When we’re at Petsmart, can we look at the cats?” Alex asked.

“If there are any,” Constantine said.

“I’ve always wanted a pet cat,” Alex said. “Or a dog, whichever one Gramps will allow.”

“Well, if you get either, keep it away from Crooked-Ear. It might hurt him or try to eat him,” Kiowa said.

“Okay.”

A short while later, Kiowa threw together a makeshift hutch for Crooked-Ear until he got a proper one; it was a large cardboard that had shredded newspaper lined on the bottom, a small bowl of water and an empty one next to it, and a small pile of cloth pieces which was Crooked-Ear’s bed.

Kiowa had the box set on the floor and put Crooked-Ear in it, and was about to head to his own bed when the micro-rabbit started squeaking frantically. The Askarian went back over to the box and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Crooked-Ear pointed his paw in the direction of Kiowa’s bed, squeaking, where Kiowa replied, “No Crooked-Ear. That’s MY bed. Yours is that little pile of cloth.”

Crooked-Ear did a long squeak, where Kiowa replied, “Fine. you can sleep on the nightstand NEAR my bed but not ON it.”

The Otherworlder picked up the micro-rabbit and the pile of cloth and set them both on the nightstand, where Crooked-Ear got to work on rearranging the cloth pieces. Kiowa set his weapons on a dresser and removed his shoes. By the time he got into bed, Crooked-Ear had formed the pieces of cloth into a little nest save for one big piece which acted as a blanket. The micro-rabbit was already snug in his little bed, sleeping soundly.

Kiowa smirked and turned off the light, where he began to drift off to sleep, wondering what tomorrow would bring.

The next morning, Alex woke up and left her bedroom to head down to the dining/living room, planning to ask Zara and Constantine what breakfast was going to be that day. When she was halfway down the hall, she smelled something: cinnamon.

She raced to the room and threw open the doors, asking loudly, “Why do I smell cinnamon?!”

Zara and Constantine were sitting at the table, each holding a cup of coffee and jumped at the small child’s entrance.

“Why aren’t you two in the kitchen? Is breakfast cancelled?” Alex asked.

“Well, we did wake up as usual to make breakfast,” Zara stated. “But someone was also awake. She asked where she was and why and we told her what was going on.”

“Then she insisted on making breakfast for us today,” Constantine added. “To be nice.”

Alex entered the kitchen to see the Otherworlder mixing some batter. Both ovens were in use, one smelling like cinnamon and the other smelling like eggs.

It only took a minute for the Aristocrat to notice Alex’s presence in the room, where she smiled and greeted her, “Hello little one. Who might you be?”

“I’m Alex,” Alex replied. “You’re making breakfast for us?”

“Well, it’s the least I could do since you did free me from some sort of mind control,” the woman replied. “I’m preparing waffles, scrambled eggs and cinnamon rolls.”

“Cinnamon rolls!” Alex exclaimed, grinning.

“I see you have a sweet tooth, just like I do,” the woman said, smiling. “Oh, where are my manners. I’m Catherine, but my friends call me Catty.”

“Nice to meet you, Catty,” Alex replied.

Then, one of the ovens beeped very loudly, causing Alex to quickly cover her ears to block out the noise as Catty went over and shut it off. She opened the oven and pulled out a tray of cinnamon rolls and set them on the counter.

“Once these have cooled for a few moments, I’ll let you ice them for me while I deal with the waffles,” she stated.

“Okay,” Alex said, standing by the counter.

A few moments later, Kiowa, with Crooked-Ear perched on his shoulder, and Beatrice went down to the dining/living room, where Beatrice asked, “What’s the cinnamon smell?”

“It’s cinnamon rolls,” Alex stated. “Catty made some and let me put the icing on.”

“Catty? Who’s Catty?” Kiowa asked.

At that moment, Catty stepped out of the kitchen, saying, “I am. I believe you two are some of the other Otherworlders that occupy this mansion.”

“I’m Kiowa, and the micro-rabbit on my shoulder is Crooked-Ear,” Kiowa stated.

Catty smiled and got a closer look at the small bunny, where she said, “Well aren’t you the most adorable thing!”

Crooked-Ear just replied with an angry squeak, where Kiowa stated, “He’s a little mad at you because you called him a rat and tried to kill us under the mind control yesterday.”

“Oh dear! I’m so terribly sorry about that,” Catty apologized.

“And,” Kiowa went on. “You said a lot of hurtful things about my race.”

Catty froze and her eyes widened, where she asked, “What things?”

“About my race being savages,” Kiowa stated.

Catty’s hands flew up over her mouth and she gasped, “Oh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t know the mind controller was using my voice to say such horrible things, especially things that insult another’s race.”

“It’s alright. It wasn’t your doing completely,” Kiowa forgave. “It was the mind controller saying those obscene things to me.”

“But he was using my voice to say it, and for that I must apologize,” Catty stated. “If I ever meet that man, I’ll see to it that he regrets forcing me to say such offensive things to people who don’t deserve it.”

“Great, I’ll help you,” Beatrice said.

Catty looked over at the Goth and squinted her eyes, asking, “I have some vague memories of my fight with everyone. But I recall someone with your voice mocking me. Was that you, perchance?”

“Maybe,” Beatrice admitted, smirking.

“Including the jab at my weight?” Catty asked, putting her hands on her hips.

Beatrice stopped smiling and said, “I may have been around.”

Upstairs, Robbie had just woken up, and was getting dressed when he heard the sound of something metal striking something, followed by Alex’s voice screaming, “Beatrice!”

Robbie bolted out of his room and went downstairs, where he found everyone else that lived in the mansion had beaten him to the scene; Beatrice was lying on the floor, clutching her head, and the Aristocrat was standing over her, holding a metal tray which had a slight dent in the center.

Kiowa, Alex, Zara and Constantine looked the most horrified out of everyone, as if they just witnessed a murder. The only one who wasn’t shocked by what had happened was Beast, who told Beatrice, “I told you she was going to give you hell for saying stupid shit, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Beatrice groaned, getting to her feet. “But did she have to use a METAL tray?”

“Well, since you’re all gathered here now, I suppose we can commence breakfast,” Catty said.

Alex looked around the room and stated, “Wait, Bog’s not here.”

“Is he still bedridden?” Beast asked.

“I’ll head up and check,” Broker said, about to run out of the room when Bog entered.

“Morning Bog. Are you feeling better than you did yesterday?” Beast asked the Ampman.

“I’m still a little sore, but I can move without assistance,” Bog stated. “What was that bang I heard a moment ago?”

“Beatrice getting hit over the head with a metal tray by the Aristocrat. Her name’s Catty,” Alex stated.

Bog looked at the Aristocrat woman, where his eyes widened and he seemed to mouth “Wow.”

“Catty, that’s Bog, he’s a biologist in Ampman Country,” Alex stated.

“Oh, so you study plant and animal life in the Otherworld? That’s interesting,” Catty said. “It’s very nice to meet you. I didn’t harm you while I was mind controlled, did I?”

“No, I was stuck in the clinic for the day,” Bog stated. “Due to injuries from the last two days. I asked to be moved to my bedroom after you were defeated so you’d have some privacy, so I haven’t seen you until now. But I wish I had seen you sooner.”

“Why’s that?” Catty asked, curious.

Bog looked the woman in the eyes before smiling, “You’re very beautiful.”

Catty’s eyes widened and immediately, she let out a very loud but melodic laugh! So loud, Alex could’ve sworn that the coffee in Zara’s mug vibrated a little.

“My, aren’t you charming,” Catty said. “Are you usually this flirty?”

“First time we’ve ever seen him like this,” Broker stated.

“At least we know Bog doesn’t discriminate against certain body types,” José whispered to the Loaner.

Catty looked over at the Playa and asked, “DId you say something?”

“No!”

“Can we eat breakfast now?” Alex asked. “I don’t want the cinnamon rolls to get cold.”

“Good idea, Alex,” Catty replied. “Let’s sit down for breakfast. We can discuss whatever needs discussing afterward.”

After breakfast, everyone got seated in the living room, where Beast explained to Catty about his investigation regarding the mind controller.

“We’re going to ask you questions regarding your abduction and if you saw what your abductor looked like,” he stated.

“I’ll try to give you as much information as I can,” Catty said.

“So what were you doing before you got abducted?” Samuel asked.

“I was patrolling through Aristocrat Empire when one of my younger soldiers ran up to me and reported a strange man staring at a park from the woods,” Catty stated. “I went over to the park and found the man. He was wearing a mask so I couldn’t see his face, which was kind of disturbing. I told him that he was bothering the people in the park and that he should cease the action or I’d be forced to arrest him.”

“What happened afterward?” Robbie asked.

“He threw a knife at me!” Catty exclaimed. “As soon as I dodged it, I saw that he was running farther into the woods. Since he tried to attack a person of authority, I had to go after him to catch him. He led me to a dark part of the woods and it seemed that I lost him. I was about to turn back to tell my soldiers about him so they’ll keep an eye out for him to arrest him on sight, but something hit me in the back of the head and I blacked out. When I woke up-.”

“You don’t need to tell us what happened. We probably already know,” Jane said.

“Yeah, you were in a cell and there were people screaming all around you,” Beatrice guessed.

“I’m guessing some of those screams were yours?” Catty assumed.

“Most likely,” Broker admitted. “We were all freaking out in there.”

“I wonder who those other poor people were. Hopefully we’ll be able to help them soon,” Catty said.

“Well, so far, it seems like this bastard has one person from each race,” Beast pointed out. “That means there are eight more people to come. So did you see what the man looked like when you woke up.”

“No, but I think I heard his voice,” Catty answered. “He had an accent.”

“Can you imitate it?” Beast asked.

“I’ll try,” Catty said, then she spoke in a German accent, “He spoke kind of like this.”

“That’s a German accent,” Robbie pointed out.

“So our mind controller is a white German male,” Beast stated.

“Who’s a Nazi,” Alex added.

“Maybe it’s Hitler back from the dead,” Constantine joked.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Constantine,” Beast said.

“Wait, you said ‘your soldiers’,” Jane pointed out.

“Yes, I did,” Catty confirmed.

“You’re a commander in the army?” the Nymph asked.

“Oh, I rank a little bit higher than the commander,” Catty stated, smiling. “You see, my mother used to have the role I have, but after she retired, she had me moved up to take her place.”

Jane frowned and said, “The only person in the Aristocrat army who I know arranged something like that was General Anastasia, who had her daughter take her spot.”

“Yes, that is true,” Catty confirmed. “Do you know what the daughter’s name is?”

“Of course we do, who hasn’t heard of General...Catherine,” Broker said before freezing.

The Otherworlders stared at the Aristocrat silently as she smiled back at them.

Then, Jane practically shrieked, “Oh my god! You’re General Catherine!”

“Wow! We have a high-ranking military person here!” Broker added.

“No wonder you were so skilled in combat,” Kiowa stated.

“Hold it!” Beast shouted, making everyone jump. “So, General Catherine is the daughter of General Anastasia, huh?”

Everyone nodded and Catty put her hands on her hips, asking, “Do you doubt me?”

“A bit,” Beast admitted.

“Well, then, ask me something only Anastasia and someone related to her would know,” Catty suggested.

Beast thought for a second, before stating, “General Anastasia always wore a heart-shaped locket that was gifted to her by her mother and passed down for several generations. If you open the locket, what will you find inside?”

Catty seemed very surprised that Beast asked this, but she answered easily, “In one half, it’s a heart-shaped opal, and in the other half is some sort of odd compass that has only half a needle and doesn’t point north.”

“That’s right,” Beast confirmed. “Guess that proves you are her daughter.”

“But how did you know about the locket? Only people in my family are supposed to know what’s in it,” Catty stated.

“I was friends with Anastasia,” Beast stated. “Samuel was too.”

“That doesn’t explain how you knew about the locket,” Catty stated.

“Beast had Cars-sorry, I mean Carmen steal the locket from her and they opened it to look inside because he was really curious, even though she told him not to,” Samuel explained. “He found out what was inside and then faced Anastasia’s wrath.”

“And how furious was my mother when she found out what you had done?” Catty asked, smirking.

“Let’s just say it’s something I never want to witness again,” Beast stated, shivering a little.

Leah snapped her fingers and said, “So that’s where Robbie gets his drive to find out things, even if it’ll get him killed.”

“Hey!” Beast and Robbie shouted.

“I’m just saying,” Leah said, putting her hands up.

“Damn, I can’t believe the mind controller abducted an actual general,” Beatrice said.

“Yeah, Catty being missing had to have caused an uproar,” José said. “I bet there’s a search party for her as we speak.”

“Lead by my mother, no doubt,” Catty guessed. “Despite me being a strong general and an adult, she hasn’t stopped being overprotective of me.”

“Say, if the mind controller took a general, what are the odds that he took a prince or princess?” Broker asked.

“Or an actual ruler!” Jane added.

“Not possible,” Bog said. “The royal families always have good security. They won’t let one of the members wander off somewhere without a bodyguard.”

“And royal bodyguards are really strong, so I doubt the mind controller would even attempt to fight them,” Catty said.

“What if he knocks them out with sleep darts or knockout gas?” Alex asked. “Like he did to Broker, Beatrice and Kiowa?”

“Well, I suppose that could make a abduction possible,” Catty said. “But so far it seems that, aside from me, you’re all ordinary people.”

“So no prince or princess abductee?” Alex asked.