Perfect Perfection

Chapter 0: Fire and Ice
“Fire beats ice…” the girl who said this was floating in air. She looked down on the boy, who was scrambling away, and laughed. Conjuring a fire ball in one hand, she condescendingly blew a kiss with her other. “Every time.” Once the ball was launched, it zipped through the air, burning up its surroundings, and was on course for his skull.
That’s me. No, not the girl. I’m the guy. Yeah, the one who’s scrambling to get away. See, I have powers. Well, a lot of people do. Actually, I shouldn’t say a lot: Only about 100 humans do. That’s what he said, anyway. Including that girl, I only know of a handful. Somewhere between 15 and 20. I don’t know. You’re probably wondering how normal humans got powers. Well, let me explain. Ever seen the Pilot episode of “Static Shock”? Yeah. It kind of happened like that. Something went wrong in our local labs, and… something got into the air, I really didn’t get a good look at it so I’m not sure what it was, and it pretty much got everyone in the town. The weird thing, though, is that it happened all over the world. I don’t know if it was planned or not, but a lot of people actually died. I think they were like… imperfections, or something. Maybe it was the scientists trying to speed up the process of natural selection? Who knows. I sure as hell don’t. But, I think you guys need the whole story to even partially understand why I’m gonna die.

Chapter 1: When it All Went Wrong
“Jet! You’ve got school in 5 minutes! Get your ass down here!” a rather masculine voice commanded. That’s my dad. He’s rather… how should I say this? Jackassy? Sounds good enough. Can’t blame him, though; our mom “died” a few years ago. Or that’s what he said. I was in Kansas visiting my relatives at the time. Come to think of it, he was the one who suggested I go spend time with them. Odd. Anyway, when I came back, mom was gone and dad was mad as hell. He kept telling me he was mad that mom suddenly fell ill and he was helpless. He was obviously mad that she left him. But whatever, I just went along with it. I think he thinks I’m oblivious, or gullible, or that I have the intelligence of an adult on one of those teen sitcoms you see all the time.
“Yeah yeah.” I wasn’t in the mood to go to school. Well, at least not then. I had a project on the French Revolution due, for Art class strangely enough, and I hadn’t finished it. We had to depict our views on what the French Revolution meant. It was supposed to be some sort of exercise or something. The teacher said he wouldn’t accept it if it was late, and that it counted for a third of our final grade. Yeah. Art is pretty intense when it comes to grading.
Another reason was that I just had a bad feeling about it. I broke up with my girlfriend, Cassie, a few days ago, and she’s… well… popular. And… well... I’m… not. At my high school, if you were lucky enough to date a popular girl, then you do not, under any circumstances, dump her. She could ruin your life. I intelligently did it at the end of the day on Friday, so she could cool down over the weekend. I figured it was the smart thing to do. But, then again, that was when I didn’t know she could make it so she could release the monkey habitat from the local zoo in my room.
Just to be clear, when I say “monkey habitat from the local zoo”, I mean “kindergarteners from the elementary school”.
“JET! YOU’RE GOING TO MISS THE BUS IF YOU DON’T GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE IN THE NEXT THIRTY SECONDS, AND I’M SURE AS HELL NOT GOING TO DRIVE YOU!” My dad always shouts like that. Part of me wants to believe it’s because he cares, but the other part just wants to believe he’s a jerk. Oh well. I guess if I miss the bus, I can just take the day off from school.
“AND YOU ARE NOT MISSING SCHOOL!”
Damn. Plan foiled.
I decided it was best for me to just suck it up and deal with a failing grade in Art and a miserable school life, so I threw on one of my green shirts and tossed a hoodie over it. It’s not cold or anything, it can just zip all the way to the top of the hood, so I can just hide in it if need be. Shuffling through my pants collection, I found a ripped pair and just slipped into them. I didn’t really care if I looked like I dressed myself in the dark, mostly because maybe Cassie’s squad could just laugh at me instead of making my life miserable.
“JET!” my dad was getting more and more annoyed with me. He stomped his way up to my room and literally kicked my door in. There he was, his muscular physique standing in my doorway, his black hair buzzed, and his five o’clock shadow extremely noticeable. When I say muscular, I really mean it. His muscles looked like they were going to rip his white shirt, and he wasn’t even flexing. The logo on his shirt that read “PLANET FITNESS” was jutting out at me, thanks to his massive pecs, and it looked like I had put on those 3D glasses you get at the movies. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I mean, he obviously did steroids, but I wasn’t sure if I hated it or not. Maybe I just love that as long as he’s on those, I’m never going to get a new mom, which is a good enough reason for me; I don’t want a new mom.
With that sharp face of his, him shooting daggers at me seemed more intimidating than the last level bosses on any Final Fantasy game. He stomped his way over to me and grabbed me by my torso and threw me over his shoulder, holding me up there by my back. I hadn’t even put my shoes or socks on. He didn’t care. He stomped his way back down the stairs and out the front door of our house. The bus was right there waiting for me. The driver gave my dad a puzzled look, while the people on the bus either laughed or just looked away in fear of making fun of me, since they figured I could just get my dad to beat them up for me or something. Yeah, like I’d ever let my dad of all people fight my battles.
“Morning Mr. Tyler,” the bus driver swung the door open and tipped his hat to my dad, who had decided I couldn’t walk at the moment and just walked onto the bus and threw me down in my seat.
“Morning,” he said as he walked back out of the bus. The kids around me all stared at me, and then my dad. Come to think of it, no one had even seen my dad before. With good reason. I just gave them a shrug and a sigh, as if to say “Yeah, that’s my dad. No further questions.”
The bus drive to school was normal. Which was odd, since Cassie is on my bus. My dad had placed me in the front, so maybe she didn’t see me. Or maybe she was just intimidated by my dad and didn’t want to have to deal with that if she were to make my life a living nightmare. Either way, I was glad. The less I see of her and her squad, the better.
The bus stopped and we all got off at school. It was completely run down; roaches in the halls, kids in the crawlspaces, water spots on the walls, the works. It barely even had a roof; most of it was just steel sheets and duct tape. If you ask me, they should’ve just skipped the sheets and only used duct tape. It would’ve been safer that way; we wouldn’t have to worry about the steel falling on our heads and giving us concussions. We all joke that it was built in the Dark Ages, having the distinct honor of being the first building built in this town, but it was actually built in the mid-1900s. I still think it has the honor of being the first building to be built in this town.
We all acted like mindless drones as we entered the school. The doors weren’t there, so we all just walked in a straight line with our backpacks slung over our shoulders and our heads down, eyes looking at our feet. There wasn’t much to talk about on Mondays, mostly because everyone was still half asleep. I didn’t see any sign of Cassie’s squad, so that was good. I’d still opt to see them over going to Art class today, though.
“Hey, Jet?” At first, I wasn’t sure who had said that. But when I remembered the voice, I arched an eyebrow and turned around. Cassie.
“…Hi?” I wasn’t sure how to respond. She didn’t seem bitter anymore, but I wasn’t expecting her to talk to me already. And she didn’t even say a snarky comment or anything.
Cassie giggled into her hand and smiled, “What’s wrong?”
“Err… what do you mean?” Still not liking the looks of this.
“You seem tense.” She put her hands on my shoulders and turned my about-face and began to rub. Ironically, this just made me tenser. Call me crazy, but I didn’t like the idea of having my ex give me a shoulder rub.
“Yeah…” I still arched my eyebrow, even though I wasn’t looking at her anymore. “Because you haven’t freaked out at me yet. I’m kinda scared, actually.”
“Oh Jet,” Cassie giggled again and stopped rubbing. She walked in front of me and turned around so our eyes locked. She walked up to me; close enough that our noses almost touched. It was way too close for comfort. “You should be,” she whispered. Smiling again, she gave me a light kiss on the lips and walked away. As she walked down the hall, I stood there petrified. I swallowed nervously, but figured, ‘what’s the worse she could do to me?’ Chuckling as nervously as I swallowed, I walked down another hallway. Until I noticed that my legs were pretty much replaced with Jell-O; I could hardly get anywhere with them wobbling. I was scared. I was nervous. I knew the worse she could do to me. And I had Art first period. Talk about a bad morning.
Looking around my art room, I noticed all the projects that were completed. They were rather mediocre. And that’s coming from a mediocre artist.
I won’t bore you with the details, since you probably just want to get to the part where I get powers. Aside from me getting yelled at, and a power outage happening for a couple seconds, nothing happened. I’ll just fast forward a bit.
Lunch was… interesting. I sat with my friends, of course, and was going to have my normal lunch, but my dad dropped me on the bus before I could put my backpack on, which was where my lunchbox was. Instead of eating, I just talked with some people about how I’m “a dead man” and that they “called dibs on my things”. Just as I was explaining that nothing was going to happen, which was to assure myself as well as them, someone from the popular table stood up with an open milk bottle in hand.
“FOOD FIGHT!” he shouted. I could see Cassie sitting next to him, giggling at me. Great, I thought. The guy was wearing his football jacket, and looked like a stereotypical jock. Perfect muscles, perfect hair, perfect teeth, perfect IQ of 0. He shot a wicked grin at me and flung the bottle straight at me. As it twirled in the air, milk began sputtering out and rained down on the students between him and me. When it finally got to me, it was almost empty and just managed to get my shirt a little damp, though the bottle did hit me in the head and gave me a minor headache. But that was mostly due to the annoyance of it. As soon as the bottle hit the floor, the rest of the students launched to their feet, food and beverage in hand.
“FOOD FIGHT!” they shouted in unison. It was like watching a cheesy high school movie. Food began flying through the air, and in an attempt to not get hit, I hid under the table. Sure, it may have been cowardly, but I didn’t feel like being covered in today’s mystery meat, especially with no change of clothes. After a few minutes, the food fight seemed to dwindle, and the teachers patrolling the hall and lunchroom were able to put a stop to it.
“You can come out now,” Ryan chuckled at me, “Can’t believe ya missed it!”
“Wha’happened?” I asked as I placed my hands on the table top and pulled myself up. After pulling my seat towards me, I took a load off and scanned the cafeteria. It looked like D-Day had just been reenacted, but with food and drinks instead of bullets and blood. It was a complete wreck.
“Yyeah,” Ryan laughed, “It was awesome.”
“I bet.” For some reason, I wasn’t really in the mood to talk that much. Probably because my attention was focused more on Cassie and her friends getting yelled at by a group of teachers. Karma’s a bitch.
“Jet! Ryan!” Mr. Howard, the gym teacher, pointed a finger through the crowd at us. Ryan and I exchanged looks, and then reluctantly got up from our table and trudged over to Mr. Howard. I mean, he was already mad at us, at least by the looks of it, so what do we have to lose to make him madder?
“Yes?” Ryan asked. Both of us really didn’t know what was going on, but I suspected Cassie planned it so that the blame would be put on us as well.
“Cassie here told us that you two were also involved in the food fight,” another teacher, Mrs. Jay, chimed in, wearing the same glare that Mr. Howard was. She glared at me, and then Ryan, crossed her arms, and then looked at me again with an arched eyebrow. “Is this true?”
“Well w-“
“Why’re you asking them?” Mr. Howard cut-in, interrupting me completely. I sighed, but he seemed to just disregard that as well. He never did like me; it was probably because I got fed up with doing push-ups. One day, I brought in 100 push-up ice creams and gave them to him when he asked me to give him 100 push-ups. That was probably when I got on his bad side. In hindsight, it was totally worth it.
“I’d just give ‘em detention right now,” Mr. Howard jerked a thumb toward Cassie and the guy who started the food fight, “Them too. The four of ‘em deserve to be here this afternoon cleaning this place up.”
“How is that fair at all?!” Mr. King seemed to be the only one who wanted to stand up for us. Having one teacher on our side was better than having no teachers, I guess. Even if this was his first year of teaching here. “These boys didn’t do anything wrong! Why should they be punished?!”
Mr. Howard sniffed, “And do you have proof that they didn’t do it?”
Mr. King seemed to stumble for a moment. I didn’t notice him in the cafeteria taking patrol, so he was probably outside, which wasn’t good for him. “Well… no… but they’re innocent until proven guilty!”
“Unfortunately,” Ryan sighed, “That’s not how it works around here.”
“Boy’s right,” Mr. Howard grinned. He looked at me out of one eye and swiped his thumb over the tip of his nose arrogantly, “’Round here, it’s guilty until proven innocent!”
“How is that fair at all?!” Mr. King pleaded. Boy, he really wasn’t getting the picture, was he?
“How is life fair?” Mr. Howard retorted. “Until you come up with an answer for that, these boys have detention! Immediately after school!” He turned to Cassie and her friend, “You two as well!”
“Mrs. Jay!” I shouted. Mondays after school were my “lock myself in my room watching cartoons until dad gets angry enough to punch a hole in my door” day. I didn’t want to miss that.
“Sorry Jet and Ryan,” she sighed. From what I remember of her class, she didn’t take a liking to me too much, so it was surprising to see her genuinely sorry. “Mr. Howard has more power than I do with the school board. He’s able to give out detentions whenever he sees fit.”
“But he’s just a gym teacher!” Ryan exclaimed, arms in the air, “They aren’t even real teachers!”
“Quiet, boy,” Mr. Howard glared, “Before I change my mind and give you all an entire DAY of detention!”
“Quit while you’re ahead, Ryan,” I rolled my eyes. I didn’t like it any more than he did, but at least Cassie and her friend were able to suffer as well. “We’ll be here, you can count on it. I don’t know about those two, though,” I jerked my thumb in the direction of Cassie and her friend, not paying any attention to them other than that. I had a feeling that Cassie was sticking her tongue out at me and her friend was flipping me off, but it’s not like they didn’t ask for it. They started a food fight with teachers in the cafeteria for crying out loud; you have a better chance at stealing home plate in a major league baseball game than getting away with starting a food fight in a room full of teachers.
The rest of the day was uneventful. Ryan and I were talking about our punishment, another power outage happened, and some announcement came over the PA system saying the labs would be experimenting with something later in the day and that we should take some precautions to avoid it or some hogwash like that. I wasn’t really paying attention.
If you were wondering, this is where you can start to pay attention.
After school, Ryan and I went to the cafeteria as promised. We scanned the room, and noticed everything had crusted over. The marinara sauce from the pasta today and the pudding from desert had fused together with a pile of milk into an amalgamation of complete grossness on the wall. It didn’t even have a distinct primary color; it was just a combination of thick redness, goopy chocolateness and thin whiteness. It didn’t smell too good, either. And to make it worse, that was all over the walls. In addition to this, there was the actual pasta stuck to the walls, meat splattered on the windows, mashed potatoes dripping off the ceiling, and pie fillings and crusts below our feet; you could hardly get anywhere without stepping in Pillsbury pie crust. It was a mess.
“Brooms and Windex over there,” the janitor, Mr. Long, pointed to the back wall. The brooms had clumps of dirt in between the hairs, and the wooden handles had slivers of wood jutting out every which way. “Lock up when you’re done,” he tossed me the key and walked out of the cafeteria. I think he was laughing, too.
“Where the hell are Cassie and that jerk?” Ryan asked, walking over to the brooms. He weighed them in his hands and tossed one to me, which I refused to catch, at risk of getting a splinter.
“Who knows,” I bent down to get the broom, “Probably aren’t even gonna sh-“
“We’re here,” Cassie swung the door open. Behind her was the guy who started the food fight, and seeing that I was bent down, he decided it’d be hilarious to kick my ass. Literally. I fell face first in a pile of mashed potatoes that had fallen off the ceiling that had merged together with a cherry pie filling.
I got up from the floor and wiped the potatoes from my eyes and glared at the kid, and then Cassie. “Joy, now the party can really start.”
“Grab a broom,” Ryan grabbed a roll of paper towels from the counter and tossed them over to me, and then started sweeping.
“Thanks, dude.” I ripped a section of towel off the roll and wiped my face, getting everything off of my face and clothes. When the kid came back my way, I opened the towel up in my hand discreetly and gave him a pat on the back with the hand the towel was in. I don’t think he noticed the back of his jacket was covered in potatoes and cherry, which just made it funnier.
“Jet and I’ll take this side,” Ryan pointed the tip of his broom handle toward one side of the cafeteria, “You guys take that one.”
“Whatever,” Cassie shrugged, “As long as it’ll make clean-up faster.” She grabbed her friend’s jacket and immediately flinched. “EW! What the hell is that on your jacket?!”
While Ryan and I exchanged a fist bump and laughed under our breath, her friend grabbed his jacket off his back and swung it around in front of him. When he saw the mess I had made on the back of it, he threw it on the ground and stomped over to me. “You think this is funny?!” he asked, obviously rhetorically.
“Nah, not really,” Ryan shrugged. He planted his broom on the ground behind him and swung it forward. The force was enough to bring the grime from the floor with it, and it flung straight into the jock’s face. “I thought that was funny, though.”
Irate, the jock wiped the food from his eyes and gave Ryan a full-body tackle over a table. After going over, Ryan conked his head on the window and narrowed his eyes in pain. The jock got up and spat on the ground beside him, scoffing at the ease of it all. Ryan staggered to his feet and rubbed the back of his head, and felt something rather odd. He brought his hand in front of his face and quirked an eyebrow at the red on his fingertips. He wasn’t sure if it was meat sauce or blood, but it looked rather appetizing. That convinced him it was blood. Though there was a crack in the window from where his head hit, no one paid much attention to it, and I figured I could just duct tape it later.
“Need a band-aid or something?” I asked, hoping he’d say no. I really had no clue where to get a band-aid at the moment.
“Naw, I’m good,” he chuckled. He seemed to always laugh, or at least chuckle, at the most inappropriate moments. It might’ve just been his way of relieving stress, but I don’t really know; I just usually assumed he was always high.
“You know,” I looked at the jock, though he wasn’t even looking at me. “Ryan and I don’t even know your name.”
“And?” he asked back.
“What is it?” I felt like this’d go around in circle. I was hoping I was wrong; I wasn’t in the mood to play a game with him.
“Spencer,” he turned his nose up in the air and scoffed, walking to the other side of the cafeteria with Cassie.
“Oh, okay,” I rolled my eyes. “I was hoping for something exotic. Like Gizmo.”
“You making fun of me?” he turned around and stomped toward me. Here we go again.
“No, it’s just that your name is rather… typical for a jock. May I call you Gizmo?” I looked at Ryan, who wasn’t looking at Spencer and I having the exchange, though he was laughing all the same.
“You may call me Spencer,” he spat in front of my feet and grinned, “Nothing else.”
“Oh, okay. That’s cool,” I shrugged. He apparently got bored of the conversation, since he didn’t say anything after that and just walked back to Cassie.
“Er- dude?” Ryan walked over to me and tapped my shoulder. “What’s that?”
“What’s what?” I asked. He pointed toward the window, and at first I just thought he was wondering what type of meat the mystery meat was. When I looked closer, I noticed… fog, it seemed like. No, it wasn’t fog; it had a color. And an odor, it seemed. To tell you the truth, the food we were cleaning up smelled better than it. As it drifted toward us, I began to recall the announcement made about the labs testing something out and how we should take precautions to make sure we’re safe.
“Crap,” I threw my broom on the floor and ran to the doors to close them. “That stuff’s coming from the labs. We don’t know what that is, or what it could do to us. Lock the doors and close the windows, now!” Looking at the other side of the cafeteria, I saw Cassie and Spencer flirting. Of course. I had no time for that, though, because even though I didn’t like either of them, I didn’t want them to be exposed to that stuff. “Hey!” I shouted to them.
“What?” Cassie snapped. “Can’t you see we’re in the middle of something?”
“Something went wrong in the labs,” I explained, “Whatever it is, it’s in the air. It’s drifting here now; close the win… dows…” I blinked and my voice trailed off. The crack. I hadn’t closed it yet, and it was going to seep through. “RYAN!”
“Wha?” he looked over at me. I pointed quickly at the crack in the window, though at first he didn’t know what I was pointing at. He turned around and noticed the crack as well, and that the fog was getting closer and closer to the window. “Oh, that.”
“THAT’S your response?!” I almost facepalmed. I couldn’t believe he was so calm about it.
“Yeah, what else would it be?” he reached into his back pocket and spun out a roll of duct tape on his finger. He grabbed the end and ripped a section off and went to place it on the crack. Too late. The fog had started to seep through the crack already, and had filled the air around Ryan. In an instant, he collapsed face first.
“RYAN!” I started to dart toward him, but realized that if I did, I’d just be subjected to the fog even faster, but I also know that if I didn’t close the crack in the window, then Cassie, Spencer and I would all be subjected to it. Inside it was killing me that I made this choice, but I decided to go for it. Maybe if I saved them, then they’d start to like me? Yeah, like that’d happen. Oh well, it was still pretty cool to act like a hero. I sprinted toward Ryan and grabbed the duct tape roll off of his finger and went to tear a section off, until I realized that it was empty. I silently cussed to Ryan for being useless, and began to get drowsy.
“G…” I blinked, “Get out of… of here…” I tried to warn Cassie and Spencer, though I wasn’t able to communicate loud enough. Luckily, though, I had gotten their attention. But, you know, after I collapsed on the floor.

Chapter 2: Catching Up is Hard to Do
“Hehehe… silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!”
“I think he’s awake,” a male voice announced. I twitched my body a bit, signifying that I still wanted to sleep. It took a few seconds to click, but I had realized I never heard that voice in my life. Springing my back up, I made a 90 degree angle between my torso and my legs since I had been sleeping on the ground. Looking around, I didn’t see anyone, so I wondered if the voice was just in my head.
“Yep, definitely awake,” the male voice took note. I bent my head back to see someone standing over me taking notes, though I wasn’t sure what for. He wore medium-cut dirty blond hair and rectangular glasses in a black frame. His skin tone was fairly tan, and he seemed to be muscular. After correcting his glasses, he clicked his pen closed and placed it in his shirt pocket.
“Umm… who’re you?”
“For now,” he grabbed me by my shirt collar and lifted me to my feet, “You may call me Al.”
“Err… okay Al…” I rubbed my head, wondering what the hell was going on. Looking around, I noticed I was now in the middle of town; it must’ve been miles from the school.
“I take it you’re wondering what’s going on here, correct?” Al walked in the opposite direction of me, expecting me to follow him. I seemed to have no other choice, so I walked with him.
“Yeah. The last thing I remember was being knocked out by some fog that was released by the labs.”
“Interesting,” he nodded his head and took another note. “Anyway, all will be explained shortly.”
“Why do I get the feeling this is going to be really cliché?” I rolled my eyes.
“Probably will be,” Al shrugged, “Depending on your definition of ‘cliché’.” After a few minutes of awkward silence, Al had stopped walking and placed his arm in front of my chest in order to stop me as well.
“It’s a…” I tilted my head. The building didn’t even have a front door; it was just all walls. The only thing that was out of the ordinary was a box on the side of it, and a small pad underneath that. I wasn’t really sure what we were standing in front of at the moment, but I had a feeling that this is where things would get borderline cliché.
“Hideout,” Al explained. Looks like I was right. Al flipped a lid on a box and began to type something. Probably some sort of passcode. After he had finished, a hand-ID scanner appeared below it on the pad and, to my surprise, he placed my hand on it. Within a few moments, needles came out of the fingertips of the scanner and poked mine hard enough to pierce the skin, which allowed blood to trickle down my fingers and to my palm.
“Data and DNA match stored,” it announced. I retracted my hand and looked at the pricks on my fingers and just shrugged it off. Hopefully they had band-aids in there or something.
“Sorry ‘bout that,” Al apologized and entered immediately entered a new passcode and placed his hand on the scanner.
“Data match verified,” the scanner announced again. The wall slid to the left to reveal a golden door with a vault handle for a doorknob. After a moment of waiting, the vault handle spun around and the door swung open.
“Just wanted to get a data and DNA sample from ya as soon as I could,” he walked down the hallway the door had revealed. This was getting interesting. Figuring I was obliged to walk down with him since my data and DNA was already stored in the system, I followed him. The hallway seemed to be worn out compared to the magnificent door that was guarding it. The bricks had graffiti on them, some were even missing, and the cement was beginning to give way as well. Seemed like this place was as safe as my school. When we finally got to the end of the hallway, a door stood in our way again. This time, there were no passcode boxes or scanner pads visible. The door was made of steel and it was completely bolted shut; not even a doorknob.
“Once upon a midnight shine…” a voice from the other side announced. I was unable to tell if it was a boy or girl, due to the thickness of the door, but I doubt it mattered.
“I was left alone, to ponder, to pine,” Al added to the sentence. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but then again, I didn’t know anything that was going on at the time, so that wasn’t surprising. It seemed like this was a password to verify that you’re actually the person you say you are.
“Out in the forest, something seemed to be troubling,” the voice continued. Pretty long password.
“Pout alone in the world itself, for I have discovered problems were doubling.”
“But you may not pass; you may be foe, for you may be the midnight crow.”
“Surely you jest; I am certainly in the know.” After that, the voice had stopped reciting lines, and instead, gears and locks were being turned and unlatched respectively. In an instant, the monstrous door opened up gradually, and after a few seconds, it had revealed a room that must’ve been the size of my entire school. The walls were decorated in new-age designs, and the entire room was outlined in the same gold the door was made of. On the walls, you could see maps and diagrams drawn onto the bricks, but they were hardly bumpy in design and seemed to have just been drawn on paper. The floor was made out of slick obsidian, and each tile was outfitted with a different design. To either side of me were supercomputers that were running, what seemed to be, round-the-clock surveillance and recon. In the back of the room were more doors, each outfitted in a design that replicated the ones on the tiles; though I can’t imagine what they were used for.
“I see you’ve brought him,” a female announced. Since she was the only one in the room, she must’ve been the one reciting the password. She looked like a typical cheerleader at my school; long blond hair, shimmering green eyes, ruffled miniskirt, an extremely tight-fit shirt, long legs, and a large bust. Though, it was interesting; she didn’t seem to be a stereotypical dumb blond.
“Yeah,” Al pushed me into the arms of the cheerleader, though she didn’t seem too thrilled about it, so she just grabbed my arm and dragged me to the back of the room. The room seemed to extend farther than it led on, since it was as long as the hallway Al and I had just walked through. At the backend of the room was a door that depicted a brain insignia laser-etched into it, though I had no clue what for. The girl placed her hand on the scanner pad that her door was outfitted with. And when I say her door, I just mean her door; the others had other means of entering, like multiple locks, or a number pad, or an Etcha-Sketch. After a moment, the scanner recognized her hand and the door swung open. Immediately after her and I stepped foot into it, the door shut quickly and the locks on the inside had locked themselves.
The room was… different. It couldn’t have been larger than a walk-in closet, but she seemed to make it work to what she needed. The walls were painted solid white, and you’d expect nothing to be hanging on them, right? Wrong. They were tricked out in Taylor Lautner posters and pictures of him. All shirtless, of course. This seemed to be a joke or something when compared to the tube in the middle of the floor. It shot straight up, top to bottom, like it was a support beam. Connected to the tube was a Netbook computer, though I wasn’t sure why. Oh yeah, the bed. That matched the walls. You know, in the sense that the covers and blankets and pillows had Taylor Lautner on them.
“Step in,” the girl commanded. She turned the Netbook on, and it seemed the tube was synced into it, since it opened at the same time the computer was powered on. The pad on the floor inside the tube was outfitted in intricate wiring design which lit up a bright blue color once the tube was on. I seemed to not have a choice, so I just stepped into the tube and waited.
“Analyzing…” a voice announced. It was computerized, so I assumed it was the computer. Seconds after it announced that, the tube lit up in a blinding blue light which made me shield my eyes quickly. Luckily, it only lasted for a couple seconds, and I brought my arms down from my face right after.
“Jet Ethan Tyler…” the girl nodded, “You are aware that the first letter of each of your names sp-“
“I know, I know,” I rolled my eyes as I cut her off, “My first name is Jet and the first letters of my first name, middle name and last name also spell Jet. Get on with whatever you’re going to do, please.”
“Hmm…” she scanned the Netbook intently, looking for anything she could, it seemed like. It was really boring, actually. I just stood there tapping my foot while she looked at her computer.
“And the point of this scan would be t-“
“Jet Ethan Tyler,” she repeated, cutting me off. “Age: 16. Height: 6’ 1”. Weight: 158lbs. D.O.B: 12/21/93. Ethnicity: Caucasian. Hair color: White. Eye color: Blue. Favorite color: Blue. Father: Lucas Jacob Tyler. Mother: Crystal Jade Tyler. Skills: None. Sense of humor: None.”
“Hey!” I interjected, “I have a fine sense of humor!”
“Hmm… yep, says right here.”
“What? That I have a good sense of humor?”
“No,” her eyes glared up at me, “That you’re annoying.”
“Oh, har har,” I rolled my eyes. “Just get on with the scan.”
“Powers-“
“Whoa whoa whoa,” I grinned, “Powers? I like the sound of that.”
“Al didn’t brief you on everything, did he?” she sighed. “Looks like that’ll be my job…”
“He didn’t tell me anything. I just followed him here,” I admitted. She rubbed her temples in annoyance; I could tell she didn’t get along with that guy, or he at least bugged her. Geez, who didn’t bug her?
“Well, you see…” she explained, “That fog was released worldwide. It was developed by the world’s top scientists in an attempt to speed up the process of natural selection. So far, no one knows why aside from them.”
“And where do my powers come in?” I interrupted.
“I was getting to that,” she snapped. “The fog had different affects on different people. For some, it didn’t do anything. For some, it bestowed powers. Well, I should say ‘abilities’. Al hates the word ‘powers’, he thinks it makes us sound too superhero-y.”
“So that’s it?” I asked. “We got powers? The end?”
“Unfortunately…” she looked at me apologetically for some reason I couldn’t understand. She inhaled deeply and then exhaled silently through her nose. “No, it’s not the end. I wish it were that simple. While this doesn’t relate to our abilities, the fog also… it also killed people.” My eyes grew wide and I could feel my jaw almost drop; though it didn’t. My heart sank into my chest, though. They died? What if Ryan died? What if Cassie died? What about Mr. King? Or Mr. Long? Or even my own father? Where did these people even come from? I never saw them in town before. Did they migrate here? Am I the last survivor of my town? I mean, I didn’t see anyone when I woke up, so that was possible.
“They…” I gulped. Once it went down, it felt like I had just swallowed a rock. “Died?”
“Yes. I had gone to your town a day before Al did, to check for any survivors,” she explained. I was hoping she would give me good news. “You would’ve been here yesterday, but you were muttering something in your sleep about unicorns and rainbows or something. I didn’t want to disturb you.”
“Did you find any survivors?” I asked hopefully. I can’t imagine how I’d feel if I was the last person alive in my town.
“Yes. After taking pulses from everyone in the town, Clockwork reported back that only fifteen people weren’t alive.”
“Err…” I scratched my head. I wasn’t sure what to ask about; Clockwork, or who the fifteen were.
“Clockwork is a member here. He’s out scouting now, but he’ll be back soon. And no one you know died. I don’t know if they acquired powers, though,” she explained to me. That was reassuring, I thought. Hopefully at least Ryan got powers; we’d be able to kick so many asses together.
“Okay, thank you for the report,” I gave a faint smile of gratitude. After a moment, I perked my head up and looked at her again, “Oh, I forgot my power i-“
“Cryokinesis.” I blinked like an idiot; I think she thought I knew what that meant. She rolled her eyes at me, “Power over ice,” she explained. “And before you ask, no, I don’t know if that also includes water.”
“Whoa…” I grinned. Power over ice? Sweet. I could do so much with that. “Wait- so am I like… made of ice now?”
“In the sense that you can break, no. In the sense that your body has an unlimited supply of ice at its disposal that you can use whenever you should choose for anything you wish, yes.” She looked at the Netbook again and began fiddling around with it; I wasn’t really paying attention to what she was doing, I was too stoked to have ice powers. “Now, I understand that hearing that may be a bit overwhelming, but just bear with me…” I was no longer paying attention to what she was telling me. Something about how I may not be able to handle it, I think. She may have just been giving me that Spider Man speech; I wasn’t entirely sure. Wanting to test this out, I placed my hand on the tube and breathed deeply, but calmly. I closed my eyes and concentrated on one thing: Ice. I wanted to freeze the tube over and shatter it. I felt a slight tingling sensation coming out of the tips of my fingers, and then from the palm of my hand. I shot my eyes open and looked on as my hand was frozen to the tube, and was seemingly no longer visible; it had spread. The girl was right, my body was technically made of ice now, I mean, my hand at that instant was spreading throughout the tube and encasing it in ice. After a moment, I pulled my hand free, and the tube immediately shattered afterward.
“Sorry,” I apologized as I stepped out of the tube, looking at my hand. It wasn’t cold or anything, and it had turned back to normal almost immediately.
“Well, looks like I need a new tube…” the girl sighed, “But, at least you have some control over your powers. Most people who have a kinesis power take longer than a few seconds after discovery to control it.”
“You mean more people here are like me?” I was rather excited about that; seemed like I’d have some sparring partners. The girl smirked at me, like she was saying “Oh please.” She diverted her attention to a piece of glass that was part of the tube I destroyed, though she didn’t do anything for a moment. After a second or two, she extended her hand out, and the glass began to levitate in mid-air. Something went wrong, though. As fast as it got up, it flew itself straight toward her. My eyes opened wide and I extended my hand to freeze over the shard. Luckily, it worked, and the shard shattered as I threw it across the room.
“Sorry…” she put her hand on her forehead in pain, “I… I’m not sure if I should do that or not.”
“Telekinesis?” I asked. She nodded in agreement and walked over to the door, unlatching all the locks.
“C’mon, you should meet some people!” Her voice had changed. Before, it was more serious and monotonous. Now, it was peppy and rather high-pitched. She didn’t seem to be as smart, either. It was like she was more carefree now.
“Errr… okay…” I quirked an eyebrow and followed her, thinking it was the only thing I could do.
“You can call me GPA, by the way,” the girl said cheerfully.
“GPA?” I scratched my head but shrugged off the name. I’ll ask later. “Okay, GPA.” As soon as her and I exited the room, she pointed at Al who was down the hall, working on something I wasn’t able to see.
“That’s Al, but you already know him. Well, actually, his ‘name’ isn’t really Al, he just tells that to people. We gave him the name Smith, since he has power over metal. He’s actually wearing something I developed.” She turned around to me and smiled proudly at her accomplishment she was telling me. “It’s a type of armor that replicates a human. He’s actually…” her eyes darted back and forth for a moment, and then she leaned in toward me. “Made of gold,” she whispered.
“Really?” I asked. It sounded kinda cool and kinda lame at the same time. I mean, that’s not really a helpful power, but being made out of a type of metal would be cool. I guess. He seemed so much lamer to me now.
“Yeah.” She turned to her left and looked at the door, and then turned to the right and looked at that door. Placing her finger on her lip, she contemplated on what to do. She snapped her fingers and smiled, and then knocked on the door to the left. This door had an insignia of a paintbrush, and was the door with the Etcha-Sketch lockpad that I told you about before.
“Hold on…” a male grumbled. Obviously he wasn’t in the mood to be disturbed. He opened the door and looked at GPA, and then me. “Ugh, newbie?” he asked. The male who stood in the doorway was as tall as I was, though he seemed to be a year or two older. He had long black hair that hung down in front of his face, with the bangs covering one of his eyes. His build was similar to mine as well; lean, but not muscular at all. The clothing choice of his was something I’d never wear, though. All black? Yeah, I’ll pass.
“Oh don’t worry about it,” she giggled. “This is Van,” she explained to me.
“I can introduce myself, GPA,” Van rolled his eyes.
“No silly, GPA is my name!” she playfully slapped him on the chest and laughed.
“She do this often?” I asked, quirking an eyebrow.
“More than you’d expect newbie,” Van told me. “What do you want, anyway? I was in the middle of something.”
“Oh! I just wanted to introduce you two!” GPA explained, “That’s all!” she leaned in toward me and pointed to Van. “He has such a cool power!” she whispered.
“I can hear you…” Van sighed.
“Is your power super hearing or something?” I joked. He didn’t seem to be in the mood to joke, though, since he just wore a straight face.
“Watch.” He stepped out of his room and pushed GPA and I aside. Van stood in the middle of the hall and raised his left hand, and then extended his index finger. He traced an outline of something in mid-air. Strangely enough, the outline began to glow brilliantly, and when he was finished, the image exploded with color, as well as turning three dimensional. He had sketched out a flower and handed it to GPA, who let out a high pitched squeal.
“So you’re the greatest romantic ever?” I chuckled. Still, he didn’t seem like he was in a laughing mood. Fed up with my jokes, he walked over to me and placed his left index finger a millimeter from my face and began to trace something. When he was done, GPA began to laugh uncontrollably and he smirked at his apparent handy-work. I turned to a door and looked at my reflection. Same white hair, same blue eyes, not so same nose. Apparently, he thought it was funny to change my regular nose into a pig snout.
“Anything I trace in the air with my left index finger will come to life. Additionally, I may make changes to any human with the same finger. They effects go away,” he grabbed my shoulder and spun me around. He placed his right hand above my face and brought it across the air in front of it. I felt a change, and when I looked back in the reflection, my nose was back to normal.
“When you erase them?” I asked.
“Correct,” he grinned. “It’s rather handy, if you ask me. I get to play God.”
“If only you could turn water into wine,” I grinned back.
“That was Jesus, you idiot,” Van rolled his eyes. Getting under his skin would be fun, I could tell.
“My point still stands,” I walked down the hallway, examining the rest of the doors. One of them had a gun insignia on it, another had a clock, and another had a line. Including these, as well as GPA’s, Van’s, and Smith’s, which had an insignia of an anvil on it, there were seven doors. One, however, had no insignia on it, so I took it to assume it was for me.
“You know,” Al said. He had somehow appeared right behind me, even though I didn’t hear his footsteps. “You don’t have a name yet.”
“What?” I turned my head to face him, “It’s Jet.”
“No, not that name,” Al shook his head, “A codename. Like GPA, or Van, or Clockwork.”
“Or Smith?” I chuckled. That obviously struck a nerve in him, since he glared at me after I said it. “Right… Al’s better… sorry.”
“Anyway, I’ve received GPA’s data report. Seems like you’re Cryokinetic. Your name should mirror your power in some way.”
“You know,” Van chimed in, “If he was a girl, we could just replace the ‘C’ in Celsius with a ‘K’ and call him ‘Kelsius’.”
“Yeah, thankfully I have a Y chromosome,” I told him.
“Pity,” Van shrugged, “I really wanted to call you that.”
“Quiet Van,” Al commanded. If it wasn’t clear to me before, it was now: He was the leader.
“Well, what about Absolute Zero?” I suggested.
“You kidding?” Van scoffed, “Way too cool for you.”
“Too long,” Al shook his head, “Needs to be one word.”
“What about like… Azure?” I suggested again.
“Azure?” Al quirked an eyebrow. It seemed he was rather intrigued at the name. Either that or he was wondering what the hell I was thinking of when I suggested that name.
“Sounds girly,” Van chuckled, “I like it.”
“I don’t get it,” Al admitted.
“Azure. Like, the first two letters of that are the first two letters of ‘Absolute Zero’, and blue is my favorite color,” I explained to them. “I could like, have a tattoo of a Z across my neck.” I pointed to my neck and waved my finger over the place the tattoo would be. “And for my costume, I was thinking I could-“
“Costume?” Al snapped, “Look, this may be a game to you, but it isn’t to any of us. This isn’t a DC or Marvel universe; it’s real life. It’s happening right now. We aren’t superheroes, so stop pretending like we are. We don’t wear spandex, we don’t wear tights, and we don’t go around saving citizens. We’re experiments. Guinea pigs. That’s all we are, and for the rest of our lives, until we find a cure or something, that’s all we’re ever going to be. For some unexplained reason, scientists all over the world decided to unnaturally speed up the process of natural selection, using that colored fog. It hit everyone, no matter what they did to stop it from getting to them. The people who died were imperfect. The people who lived but had no changes are average. The people with abilities. No- the people with curses. Us. We are in some way, shape, or form, perfect beings. Whether it is in a talent, or in looks, or in intellect. That is what we are, and we cannot change that. This is an all out brawl. A fight to the death. Only one will stand. The perfect perfection. The prize, for gaining such a… such a despicable honor? The person that wins gets the honor to be an experiment for the rest of his or her life. The scientists will try there hardest to recreate the perfect perfection. They want an ideal world, and that’s complete insanity. They think life is something you can just toy with, willy nilly. They think it’s a game. So do you. GPA could’ve killed you when she first saw you, and I could’ve killed you when I saw you. We didn’t need to wait for you to wake up. We weren’t supposed to. At this moment in time, I’m regretting my decision already. If you have the same mindset as the scientists, then why not just give yourself up now? Or hell, why not kill yourself? It’ll save one of us the trouble at the end of it all. So, tell me this, ‘Azure’, do you still want to don those skin-tight spandex and the Z tattoo when you know you could die at any minute and you should be using your time on more trivial matters? When you know this will never be what you thought a life with these kinds of abilities will be?”
“Err…” I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. I had no idea the stakes for this was that high; that this is the reason why I had this… curse. It was way too much to handle in one sitting.
“Never mind,” Al turned around and walked back to the computers, “Your name is Azure now. Put your hand on the door. It will engrave your symbol on it and design the room accordingly. Feel free to make changes.” I wanted to say sorry for thinking this was just a game, but I wasn’t sure how. I didn’t even know if he’d accept it or not, so I just sighed and placed my hand on the door. Almost instantaneously, my hand expanded and the door had become encased in ice. Near the top, a “Z” became engraved; guess that was my symbol. Before going into my room, I moved my head around to view the other doors. I hadn’t seen the people who were living in them, and had begin to wonder what they could do.
“The line,” GPA said rather suddenly, it actually almost made me jump. Her voice had changed back to the one I had first heard; she seemed more intelligent now. “Is a laser. The guy who lives there has laser vision. The clock,” she knocked her knuckle on the door with the clock engraved into it, “Is for Clockwork, who I told you about before. And the gun… well…” her voice started to trail off, like she didn’t want to talk about it.
“Well?” I asked. This kid who lived behind the gun must’ve been a loose cannon or something if GPA didn’t even want to mention it.
“You… don’t really want to meet him. He’s different than us. Actually, no, you probably do want to meet him. It’s that you shouldn’t. He’s… special. If you get him angry-“
“I won’t like him?” I smirked at the slight reference I made, though GPA wasn’t in the mood for jokes or anything like that, much like Van. If this was the atmosphere around here, I knew I wouldn’t like it too much.
“Just go get some sleep,” GPA walked away from me and toward the computers and Al, “Though; I don’t think you’ll be tired. You’ve been asleep for an entire month.”
Chapter 3: Shooter’s Little Problem
My room was decorated plainly inside; ice blue wallpaper. Aside from a regular twin-sized bed with sheets that matched the wallpaper, I had nothing else in it. I would’ve liked an Xbox 360, or even a foosball table, but I figured Al would just go off on me again for thinking this was just a game, so I decided to not even bother to do anything to my room. I lied on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, thinking about everything that had changed in such a short amount of time, and if my friends had developed these abilities as well; or even if my “enemies” had. Spencer and Cassie with abilities was a rather frightening thought, though it wouldn’t surprise me in the least; they seemed to be perfect. But then again, I didn’t think I was perfect, so maybe it wasn’t that easy to get “chosen”.
Someone knocked on my door a few times, breaking my concentration. “C’mon Azure, meeting time,” GPA told me. Looks like I’ll finally be able to meet the rest of the team and get some answers.
I walked out of my room and into the main room; you know, the one with the supercomputers. There was a line of people standing parallel to a sidewall of the room, with Al standing in front of them, arms behind his back.
“Allow me to formerly introduce everyone. First; my name is Smith, however, I prefer Al, so please call me that. I have power over all metals and metalloids, with an added bonus of being able to transform my body into whatever metal I should choose.” He gave me a slight nod, and gestured to the rest of the line. He had either forgotten about yelling at me yesterday, or he just did this because it was a formality and was actually still mad at me. I didn’t pay attention to the next couple introductions; it was just GPA and Van, and since I already knew them and their powers, I figured I didn’t need to listen to Al.
“And now, this is-“
“The man, the myth, and the legend.” A male with ragged brown hair gave me a conceited smirk and jabbed his thumb into his chest. He was the shortest of everyone here, he couldn’t have been more than 5’ 6”, and he looked like he was somewhere between 12 and 14. He wore circular goggles with a blue tinted lens and a golden colored band. His shirt was tattered, and the overalls he wore over it had broken, with only one strap still being intact; the other was slumped down by his side, and was missing a button. The bottom half of the overalls were tattered, revealing scrapes and scratches all over his legs. This kid looked like he had been to Hell and back.
“And the most modest you guys, I can see,” I rolled my eyes. Truth be told, I was rather jealous of him. I just had a feeling that he was someone to be jealous of.
“Hey! I’m Clockwork! I have a right to be conceited every now and then!”
“YOU’RE Clockwork?” I couldn’t believe it. The person I heard so much about since I got here… he was only a kid!
“Got a problem?!” he growled, bearing his teeth and balling his fists.
“Just pictured you more…” I twirled my hand, trying to collect my thoughts, thinking of a word to describe what I thought of him. “…Robust?”
“Even though he has already introduced himself…” Al rubbed his temples in annoyance. Seemed like he wasn’t fond of anyone on this team. “That’s Clockwork. He can distort time and space in a confined area. In other words…”
“I can speed up time, or slow it down. Or even…” Clockwork wore a smug expression as he explained what he could do, “Time travel.” This kid was good, he was important, and he knew it.
“Okay, getting off of Clockwork for a moment…” Al jerked his thumb to the guy next to Clockwork. He seemed much older than the rest of us; probably 22, or older. He had mounds of gel his dark brown hair so it stuck out in every direction imaginable, and it looked like he either wasn’t a fan of shaving, or he was just lazy, since he had a rather scraggily beard. His clothes also seemed more mature and sophisticated than the others, as he boasted a suit and tie, for whatever reason; it looked like he was going to a wedding.
“This guy here, he can shoot lasers out of his eyes,” Al explained. The guy just nodded nonchalantly with a smirk on his face.
“What’s his name?” I questioned. I couldn’t really think of any name that could fit him.
“Cliché.” I quirked an eyebrow once Al said that. Was he being serious? Or did he have a joking side to him as well?
“Oh, makes sense,” I played along. Wasn’t sure what else to do.
“Gee, that never gets old, does it?” The guy rolled his eyes. His voice seemed rough and defined; after putting it together with his look; he seemed like a stereotypical guy that’s classified as “tall, tan and handsome”. “Azure, my name is X. The people here love to joke about how I have the most cliché power around here, so they just love to call me Cliché.”
“Right,” Al seemed to disregard him. Perhaps there was a little bad blood? Eh, I’ll ask about that later. “And that’s the team.”
“Wait-“ I stopped Al from continuing what he was going to say. The man behind the gun door wasn’t around. “What about… well… I don’t know his name, but, that guy who lives behind the door with the gun on it?”
“Oh…” Al nodded his head like he expected me to ask that. “Right, him. Well, he’s not like us. He doesn’t like people too much. Well… I guess he does… but he just doesn’t pay attention to most of them. Not even us.”
“Can’t I just see him for the sake of seeing him?” After I asked that, Al didn’t seem to have a response. It wasn’t that great of a question, I know, but for some reason, he just couldn’t think of a reason why I couldn’t see him. After a moment of contemplation, he turned to GPA and quirked an eyebrow, silently asking if it was okay. She just shrugged, leading to a sigh from Al, and he led me to the room.
After a few knocks on the door with no answer, Al pressed his cheek against the door. “Shooter? You have a new friend.” Slowly, the door began to open. The person opening it, Shooter I presume, was looking away. When I let myself in, Shooter paid no attention to me, and instead walked back to what I assume was a type of play area for him, though the only thing he had to play with were colored blocks. I studied him closely, and came to a conclusion about him; though I didn’t like it too much.
“He’s… umm…” Al stammered trying to think of how he could explain Shooter to me. Didn’t matter, since I already knew.
“Autistic,” I whispered under my breath. I turned my head toward Al, “One of my cousins acts the same way.”
“Well, maybe you can be his first friend,” Al shrugged. “We took him in, but aside from telling him when it was time to eat, I don’t think any of us have ever spoken to him. None of us had any real experience with autism, so we figured it was best to let him do his own thing and not to interfere; we didn’t want to make him feel uncomfortable or anything.”
“Ironic,” I look back at Shooter, who was still playing with the blocks. He wasn’t really building anything specific, he was just playing. “That’s probably the one thing you did make him.” I took in a deep breath and walked over to him, hoping I wouldn’t make him angry or anything. I knew I wouldn’t, just on the off chance that I did, I was prepared for the worst. I crouched down on the opposite side of him and tried to catch his gaze.
“Hello,” I smiled. He still didn’t pay much attention, though; he just played with his blocks. “Blocks, eh?”
No response.
“My name is Azure. But, I would prefer it if you could call me Jet. If that’s alright with you.”
No response again.
“Your name is Shooter, correct?”
No response.
“You know, Shooter,” I got up and walked over to him and knelt down beside him. “Out of everyone here,” I whispered, “You’re my favorite. But don’t tell anyone, okay?” After saying that, I decided it was best to leave him alone, at least for now. I’d probably try again later. It took my cousin ages until he finally acknowledged me, but when he did, I felt like it was worth it.
“Bye Shooter,” Al waved as he shut the door after I left. “We’ll let you know when it’s time to eat.” After Al shut the door, we all just stood in a circle outside in the hallway looking at each other awkwardly. I didn’t think it’d be an awkward moment, and I’m not sure what caused it, but it was awkward nonetheless.
“What can he do?” I finally broke the silence.
“You know when you were little, you used to extend your index finger and point your thumb upward and curl your other fingers in toward you palm and pretend it was a gun?” X asked me in response.
“Yeah, why?”
“When he does it,” Van cut-in, “It’s real.”
Chapter 4: Ask and You Shall Not Receive
Al, GPA, Van, Clockwork, X, Shooter, and me. Apparently, along with 93 others, we are perfect. But why? What makes a person perfect? Why were we the ones chosen, and not some prissy popular clique? It was time for answers. And I knew they weren’t telling me the whole story.
When I exited my room, the first person I saw was GPA. Of course. She was working on a supercomputer, and man were they huge. The monitors alone were taller than any wall in my school, and the keyboard was as long as the monitor was tall. And don’t even get me started on the computer itself.
“So GPA,” I started. After a quick nap, I felt rejuvenated and ready for answers. “Answer time.”
“That depends,” she said, not looking away from the monitor. From what I could see, she was either tracking a Pizza Hut van because the pizza was 30 minutes late, or she was trying to crack some cryptic code. “What questions do you have?”
“Just give me everything. I can handle it.”
“Doubt it,” X walked over to us, still in his suit. “Not many people can. Few of the older kids here cracked. It’s pretty intense.”
“Yeah,” Van swung himself around in a swivel chair. “If not even the vets could make it through the answers, what makes you think a newbie like yourself can?”
“I don’t suppose have a mastery over Cryokinesis seconds after finding out about it makes me any different, right?” I quirked an eyebrow. Van and X exchanged looks and scoffed.
“An increased factor of luck doesn’t make you special,” Van explained.
“You were asleep for a month. You had extra time, anyway,” X added. “No one else did. We had to either learn on the job, or practice until we were on the verge of fainting. And that’s not even for the people who have kinesis powers.”
“Fine, one answer at a time sound better?” I glared at both of them. They both looked at each other and shrugged.
“Why not?” Van asked, and then turned to GPA. “Might as well tell him why he was asleep for a month.”
“Yeah,” I interjected, “Why didn’t I die? Or, why was I asleep for that long anyway if you guys were only asleep for a day or two?”
“Well…” GPA swung around in her swivel chair and arched her back and placed her elbows on her knees, interlocking her fingers and placing her hands underneath her chin. “We only just recently discovered this, but… okay, to start; the colored fog entered our body system and locked itself into our DNA. In order to determine an imperfect, an average or a perfect, the fog acted as an amplifier of sorts. It takes some sort of gene, whether it is dormant or not and completely mutates it. If it doesn’t work, then the DNA will break, the fog will be released into your blood stream, and it will stop your heart. If it just flat out doesn’t happen, then the fog will remain dormant in your DNA and will be passed onto your children. If it does work, then you’ll have these abilities. Now, normally, you’ll wake up in a few hours, or a couple days. As you sleep, the fog will act as nourishment as well, in order to keep you alive. It will pump energy into your blood stream and hydrate your body as much as it needs to be. It will do this for however long you’re asleep.”
“Okay,” I broke in, “But what does that have to do with me being asleep for so long?”
“I was getting to that…” she glared. I gave her an apologetic look, but she just rolled her eyes. “Anyway, the fog will also act as a transmitter. The scientists want to know where their test subjects are, how they’re doing, and how many there are left. A few days ago, I was able to briefly hack into the mainframe at a lab and take a peek at the tracker. There are, or were, 94 red dots. The other 6 were blue. This is where you come in, and I believe it has something to do with you sleeping for so long. I noticed a blue dot in the area near here. Clockwork was still doing recon throughout the country, unfortunately, so I took it upon myself to scout the area. I found the blue dot, you, sleeping in the middle of town. I didn’t take much note of this, and figured you were just a late bloomer, so I left and reported back to Al. He went back the next day, and you had woken up.”
“Again,” I cut in, “What about me sleeping for a month? This is kinda getting more complicated than it needs to be.”
“Oh?” X smirked, “Didn’t you say you could handle this?”
“Well… I can but-“
“Face it,” Van interrupted, “You can’t handle what she’s telling you. You’re just like the others,” he shook his head. “Weak,” he said under his breath. “Can’t believe you were chosen…”
“Chosen?” I asked. He didn’t seem to pay any regard to me, so I turned to GPA. “What’s he mean?”
“If you stopped interrupting me every five seconds…” her eyebrow twitched and she clenched her teeth. “Then maybe you’d know by now…”
“Okay, sorry. No more interrupting,” I apologized.
“Good,” she sighed of relief. “Your dot was blue, and you were asleep for a month. I didn’t think it was a coincidence. When you displayed perfect control of a kinesis ability, I knew the situation. Well, part of it. Al had told me to not hack into a lab computer again, since they could back trace it and shut us down for not ‘playing by their rules’, so I snuck on after he was asleep. I was able to sneak a peek into a confidential file, and I found something… interesting. The 6 people, the blue dots, are each from different countries. They are deemed to be ‘perfect perfections’. Not the perfect perfection, just a perfect perfection. Apparently, the 6 perfect perfections are technically the only people that need to fight, as the scientists do not care about the rest of us. The one perfect perfection who comes out on top is the winner, and the scientists will have their perfect perfection specimen. This is still left unconfirmed, though I believe the connection between this, and you sleeping for a month, is that while you were asleep, you subconsciously trained yourself for battle. You need to be completely prepared for anything, so taking a month off to train was the only way you could be ready in time to fight the other 5. I still have no idea what makes someone a perfect perfection, though, so please don’t ask me that.”
I blinked at her like she was crazy. Me? A perfect perfection? What made me so perfect? Nothing about me is perfect. Does that constitute perfection? Man, I hate getting answers. You get too many questions afterward. After a moment of letting everything soak in, I pulled over a swivel chair and sat down in it, exhaling deeply. “Okay…”
“Told ya,” Van scoffed, “Newbie can’t handle anything.”
“Easy for you to say,” I snapped. “You don’t need to fight!”
“You know…” GPA said, “He’s got a point. You shouldn’t be so hard on him. He may be a newbie, and he may not know as much as we do, but… at the end of the day, out of all of us, he’s the only one that really matters.”
“Like hell he does!” Van shouted, “That kid would be dead if it wasn’t for us! We’re more important than him! If he were to face all of us in a battle, he’d lose! We don’t need him with us to be good, we’re good anyway!”
“Van…” X rubbed his temples, “Let it go.”
“No,” Van snapped at him, “I’m not letting it go! This kid doesn’t know his worth! He thinks he’s better than the people here!”
“When the hell did I say that?!” I shouted back. “I just said that you guys don’t need to fight! Sure, you can if you want to, but you aren’t competing for being the perfect perfection!”
“Oh,” Van chuckled and grinned wickedly, “That is where you are so wrong. You perfections may be who the scientists are betting on, but that doesn’t make you strong enough to do it! I’m much stronger than you!”
“Prove it!” I sprang to my feet and threw my arms down, commanding them to encase themselves in ice. I held one arm up in front of me with my palm facing outward toward Van, ready to freeze him at any moment. He sprang to his feet as well and flung out his left index finger and began tracing rapidly. After a moment, the item he made materialized itself and he caught it in his hands, pointing it straight at me. He had made a flamethrower.
“Look!” GPA stepped between us and pushed her hands against our chests, “Stop it! I don’t like being a mediator, but you two need to calm down! Van, you’re as important as Azure, but you DO NOT NEED TO FIGHT. I am not taking sides, but that is the truth. Sure, you can fight if you want to, but you don’t need to. Azure needs to fight! Understand that!”
Van wiped his flamethrower with his right palm and stormed passed me to his room. “This isn’t over, newbie.”
“Whatever you say,” I rolled my eyes. After he left, I turned back to GPA, who had since sat back down. “Any word on my friends or my dad?”
“Dunno,” she shrugged. “The tracking only tells you where a person is; not who that person is.”
“Bummer,” I skimmed my foot over the ground and sighed. I wasn’t sure what to do, now. I could either leave here and go looking for them, but endanger myself as well, or I could stay here and endanger them.
“If you really want to see them,” X sighed. “I’ll go with you for back-up.”
“X,” GPA said sternly, “You know Al has a policy about only letting Clockwork do recon and scouting unless you have his permission. And you aren’t getting his permission, I can assure you that.”
“What Al doesn’t know…” X smirked. He ripped off his suit to reveal a skintight obsidian body suit; out of his pants pocket, he grabbed a pair of glasses and whipped them on. “Won’t hurt him.”
“You get to wear a costume?” I quirked my eyebrow, “Doesn’t Al hate that?”
“Like I said,” X shrugged. He walked to the door and swung it open. “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. GPA, cover for us.”
“Bu-“
“Thanks!” X and I ran off through the door, waving back at her.
“Wait!” she tossed me what looked like a business card. On it, though, were lines of… something. I wasn’t sure if it was poetry or a song. “That’s your password. When you come back, recite it and we’ll let you in.”
“Huh…” I looked over the card. “It’s different than Al’s.”
“If we had everyone use the same one, we’d never know who was in here or who was out there, thanks to the steel door completely blocking out what the person actually sounds like. This way, if someone were to recite a password while the person that password is assigned to is in here, then we’ll know it’s an enemy.”
“Clever,” I told her. She shot me a smile that seemed arrogant, but also seemed like a thank you as well.
When X and I emerged from the hideout, or safe house, whatever you want to call it, we walked into the middle of town. Looking around, everything seemed… normal. No chaos was brewing, which was nice, since I figured we’d’ve walked into a middle of a battle or something. The sun was shining brightly, the sky was clear and a vibrant blue color and birds flew over head in a V formation, chirping away. It seemed almost too good to be true.
“We have to get back…” X warned me as he stumbled backward and headed for the hideout.
“What?” I asked him. “Why? Nothing’s wrong.” I was rather weary as to why he thought there’d be danger.
“That’s why we need to get back,” he grabbed my arm, “This isn’t our world.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s-“
“Fake?” a voice asked. I couldn’t make out the direction it was coming from because it echoed throughout the entire area. It was a male, though, I was sure of that. Right when I began to understand, the sky above us began to digitalize away, and revealed an area filled with darkness. We were standing on a lone platform, which seemed like the “Final Destination” level in Super Smash Bros. Melee. It was just floating on nothing.
“Crap…” X stared off into the distance, squinting his eyes to try and see an escape. “The good news is, just this part is like this; we can still get back to the hideout.”
“…And the bad news?” I began to tremble. I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it out alive or not today.
“There’s no bridge between here and there,” he turned his head in the opposite direction and glared. “We’ll have to fight our way back.”
“Good luck!” the source of the voice crashed onto the platform from up above, smashing his knuckles on the ground. He staggered to his feet and shot us an evil grin, “You won’t be making it out alive!”
“S…Spencer?” I tilted my head. “Is that seriously you?”
“JET!” he snarled. “You’ll pay!” His appearance seemed to be completely altered. Instead of looking like a regular football player, he looked like The Hulk. His frame was as big as me, and his muscles were larger than two of my heads; it put my dad to shame. Though, something was odd about his appearance… he had an electronic battery pack strapped to his shoulders that hooked up on his chest. There were veins on the pack that seemed to surge energy throughout his body. In addition to this, he was wearing robotic leg guards, which pretty much looked like a jail cell for his legs; it was a few metallic rods sprouting from his torso which had connected near his feet. They seemed to be in sync with his leg movements, and they too were surging with energy, so much so that it seemed impossible to touch him. The same contraptions were on his arms.
“Jesus Christ dude…” I stared at him in awe, “What the hell happened?”
“Something magnificent!” he cackled. “I woke up just a few days ago, and I felt fantastic! I was able to control any electronic device I wanted, and bend them to my will! Unfortunately, I hated being able to do that. I saw this guy with super strength, so I used my powers to kill him. I was able to absorb his powers, and now, I’m unstoppable! My robotic casings will protect me from any attacks, this battery pack will supply me with unlimited energy, optimizing my strength, and my muscles will rip you to shreds!”
He pushed a button on the strap over his chest, and the battery pack began to spurt out fire. Lifting him off of his feet, the pack had turned into a jetpack. After balling a fist, he zipped straight toward me. I wiped my hands over the air around me to create an ice shield, but it didn’t seem to be too effective. Luckily, it gave me a moment to dodge him and shoot up an ice pillar onto his chest. The jetpack flew him upward, though he used that to his advantage by twirling around in the air and dive-bombing back at me. I summoned an ice shield again and rolled out of the way, but the shock was too great. His fist slammed down with tremendous force, almost shattering the platform we were standing on. The shockwave resonated from that area and hit both X and I, knocking us to our feet.
“Dammit…” X removed his glasses and shut his eyes for a moment. Afterward, he shot them open and lasers fired out of his irises with extreme speed, hitting him in his chest cavity and breaking the battery pack.
“Aren’t you just a little pest?” Spencer growled. He diverted his attention from me and ran toward X with his fists flying in back of him. After a few steps, Spencer jumped into the air and flung his arms in front of him with his fists clenched tight. Had X not rolled away, Spencer’s fists would’ve obliterated his head completely.
X rolled up a sleeve of his body suit and pressed something that looked like a watch. He muttered something into it, though I couldn’t hear him. After he was done, he ran over to me and acted like a human shield.
“Get down!” he shouted. Immediately following that command, he shot lasers into the ground of the platform to detach the area we were on from the area Spencer was on. Though it only distracted him for a couple seconds that was all we needed, apparently. In an instant, a rift began to open up in front of us, and Clockwork appeared from it.
“Let’s go!” Clockwork grabbed our hands, and shoved us through the rift. Spencer came crashing into the back of it and slammed his fist through it, though it didn’t matter; X, Clockwork and I were already gone.
The rift reopened in the hideout, and the three of us fell flat on our faces.
“Okay… ow…” I got to my feet groggily and rubbed my forehead, “What the hell was that?”
“Clockwork saving your asses!” Al shouted from behind us. X and I turned our heads and smiled nervously.
“Right…” X rubbed the back of his head, “Sorry…”
“You’re supposed to be responsible, X!” Al shouted, “What the hell were you thinking?! You and Azure almost got killed!”
“Al, it’s not his fault,” I attempted to reason with him. Hopefully it would work. “I wanted to look for my friends and my dad. I knew the risks, and I wanted to go alone. X came with me for back-up.”
“And what the hell-“ Al pointed to X’s skintight suit, “IS THIS?! This isn’t a game! Wear normal clothing!”
“This is me wanting to wear something I want to wear!” X shouted back. “That suit wasn’t me! This is! You can’t control our lives as much as you think you can!”
“If it weren’t for me, you guys would be out on your own! You’d be fending for yourselves!” Al clenched his teeth and got steaming with anger, so much so that his real skin was showing through his human suit; you could clearly see his shimmering golden body, which was steaming red with anger and frustration. “Get to your room!”
“I’m not a child!” X clenched his fist, “You keep thinking you’re above everyone else! You aren’t! You may have founded this place, but you have the worst power out of all of us!”
“DON’T USE THAT WORD!” Al kicked a chair out of his way, “IT’S NOT A POWER! IT’S A CURSE!”
“NO!” X grabbed Al’s collar and pulled him in close, “You have the curse,” he whispered, “We have the powers.”
Al darted his eyes back and forth, trying to think of something to say. When he couldn’t think of anything, he stumbled on his words, and just decided to scoff. He pushed himself off of X and walked back to his room, speechless.
“…So,” I broke the silence, “Clockwork, how’d you do that?”
“X told me to wait three seconds, and then go back in time three seconds,” Clockwork explained. “I can choose if time stops as I travel through it. If I don’t, then time continues to move forward while I move backward. Like a treadmill. I waited three seconds, and then traveled back in time that amount of time, so I ended up in the exact time period it was when I originally left; it was like I teleported. I was also able to travel forward in time, even though I can’t normally do that because the future hasn’t happened yet, but because I didn’t slow time down, I was able to travel into the exact time that I had originally left here.”
“So wouldn’t that mean you would just go back in time again?” I questioned. I never really understood time travel, I just went by whatever Back to the Future goes by.
“No, because I saved you before X gave me the call, so I’d have no one to go back in time to save. Aside from Spencer remembering you were there, it was like you two never left.”
“Oh,” I looked at X, who was still in a fit of rage, though he wasn’t showing it. “That’s cool.”

Chapter 5: I Could Go for Some Power Right About Now
Everything was moving too fast. I have to eventually fight Spencer? That won’t turn out too well for me. Especially since I have no abilities other than ice ones and he can just punch through that. I need more. I need to be strong. But who do I kill? Go for a perfect perfection? No, if they’re as strong as Spencer was, then that’s just a death sentence for me. Looks like I’ll have to kill a normal perfect. Now, I just need to find out whom…
After a moment of debating, I rose from my bed and decided to go ask GPA for some help. She should know what I can do, right? Well, unless she acts like a dumb blonde again like what she did after the first time I met her. That wouldn’t be too helpful.
As I walked down the hallway, I began to think of the abilities I could have, and how much fun it’ll be to destroy Spencer with them. I could finally get back at him for the food fight. I mean, sure, that’s a really petty reason to kill someone, but the stakes are higher now that we have these; if we didn’t have these abilities, I’d probably just pants him in the hall or something.
I began to notice that not many people were up and about. Not even GPA. So much for asking her questions. Everyone was in their rooms, it seemed; which was understandable, since it was 7 in the morning. I figured since there was nothing to do, I could either go back to sleep, or fiddle around with the computer. Fiddling around with the computer seemed more appealing to me at the time.
Grabbing a swivel chair, I swung it around to me and sat right down in it, spinning around to face the monitor of one of the computers. It seemed the computer was recently in use, since it was just on standby, so I was able to just shake the mouse once and get on. I sifted through the files, finding things like “Advanced Molecular Theory” and “Genetic Drifts in the Area” and the like. Boring. I didn’t care about any of that, I just wanted to make it out alive and to do that; I needed power. After looking around the desktop for a few minutes, I came across a file that said “JET”.
Interesting.
After debating with myself on whether or not to open the file, I decided that I was being a complete idiot in that argument, so I opened. Pictures of my friends, my dad, and the people I don’t like, and shockingly enough, my mom, all popped up on the screen. For each person, there was a file that went along with them, that included their name, their affiliation with me, age, ethnicity, country of origin whether or not they had abilities, and status. Well, actually, I clicked on Ryan’s image first, and his file had all of this, so I just assumed everyone else did.
RYAN EZEKIEL MILLER
AFFILIATION: FRIEND
AGE: 17
ETHNICITY: CAUCASIAN
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
ABILITIES: TO BE DETERMINED
STATUS: TO BE DETERMINED
…To be determined? Is he in trouble or something? Did Spencer get to him? But, then again, his abilities say the same thing, so that calmed my nerves some.
CASSIE DREW TIBERIUS
AFFILIATION: EX-GIRLFRIEND/ENEMY
AGE: 16
ETHNICITY: CAUCASIAN
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
ABILITIES: NEGATIVE
STATUS: ACTIVE
Well, I suppose after this is all over, the one thing I can look forward to is even more torture from Cassie!
ROSE YU
AFFILIATION: FRIEND
AGE: 15
ETHNICITY: CHINESE
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: CHINA
ABILITIES: NEGATIVE
STATUS: TO BE DETERMINED
Another to be determined? And this time from Rose? She wouldn’t harm a fly! And a fly wouldn’t harm her, either! Well... I suppose the fly would if it had abilities and was able to kill her in order to get to me. But, I digress.
SPENCER AMILIO RODRIGUEZ
AFFILIATION: EX-GIRLFRIEND’S BOYFRIEND/ENEMY
AGE: 18
ETHNICITY: SPANISH
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: SPAIN
ABILITIES: POSITIVE
STATUS: ACTIVE
After reading Spencer’s profile, I recalled GPA telling me about the perfect perfections. If I wasn’t sure before, I am now: Spencer is a perfect perfection. Europe’s perfect perfection, to be precise. Now I just need to find out South America’s, Asia’s, Africa’s and Australia’s, and I’ll be set.
CRYSTAL JADE TYLER
AFFILIATION: MOTHER
AGE: 37
ETHNICITY: NORWEGIAN
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: NORWAY
ABILITIES: NEGATIVE
STATUS: ACTIVE
LUCAS JACOB TYLER
AFFILIATION: FATHER
AGE: 39
ETHNICITY: CAUCASIAN
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
ABILITIES: POSTIVE
STATUS: DEAD
“What are you doing?” Al snapped. Startled, I literally jumped out of my chair and landed on the floor facing him. He had just gotten out of bed, and it was quite apparent. His hair was a mess, and his body suit seemed to either be degrading or was dirty, since it was becoming transparent and his golden skin was shining through.
“I should ask you guys the same thing,” I retorted. “You keep files on everyone I know?”
“We do that for everyone,” Al explained. “It’s so we know who the people are affiliated with and what’s going on with them.”
“And what about this?” I slammed my hand against the monitor, pointing a finger at my dad’s file. “He DIED?! Why wasn’t I informed about this!? He’s my DAD!”
“Because…” Al sighed, “We knew your emotions would control you.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” I glared.
“Because…” Al gulped. “Because Spencer was the one who killed him. Your dad had super strength; we observed him for quite some time. We wanted to recruit him, but he was too temperamental. Spencer found him, and admired his strength. Without giving it a second thought, Spencer killed him and absorbed his abilities. We didn’t tell you because we knew you’d get in over your head, and you’d go into battle with Spencer, and you would get killed just like your dad.”
I was furious. They were still keeping secrets from me? How do I know anything they tell me is the truth, then? What’s stopping me from just leaving them now and just doing this by myself? Nothing. That’s what. I have no reason to stay here.
“Screw this,” I slammed the swivel chair into the keyboard of the computer and stomped passed Al. “I’m out.”
“You’re ‘out’?” Al gave me a dumbfounded look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m done with this,” I turned around and faced him again, this time wearing an enraged expression. “You guys can’t tell me anything for whatever reason. There’s no reason why I should stay here if everything you’re going to tell me is a lie!”
“We’re lying to protect you,” GPA emerged through her bedroom, looking about as good as Al was. “No one can control their emotions, and if anyone found out their dad got killed by the hands of their ‘enemy’, they’d do everything in their power to avenge him. You would go out to find Spencer, and either die trying, or he’d kill you. Like last time. They only reason you survived was because of Clockwork and X. You wouldn’t last two seconds by yourself.”
“Don’t care,” I walked passed GPA, bumping her shoulder. “All I need to do is kill someone. I gain their powers, and then Spencer and I are on equal footing.”
“Is that seriously your plan?” Al’s jaw almost dropped. He seemed like he was going to either laugh or give the biggest sigh in the world.
“Yep,” I walked by her and to my room. “You guys won’t give me any help, so staying here is the same as being on my own.”
“Pfft,” Van appeared from the shadows and wore a smug facial expression. “Knew ya couldn’t do it, newbie.”
“Can it,” I glared at him. If any part of me wanted to stay, it was getting killed by him. “Before I turn you into a snow cone.”
“Tough words for someone who got rescued by Clockwork,” he smirked.
That did it. He got on my nerves for the last time. I shot my arm out, extending the ice to his chest and grabbed his collar. I retracted the ice, bolting him toward me. He stopped in front of my face, and my balled his was being encased in ice. This was my chance. I slugged him across the left side of the face and let go of his collar so he was sent flying down the hallway. His left cheek was now covered in ice, but he just grinned wickedly at me and quickly traced out a flamethrower. He pointed it right at me and fired. Literally.
“Quit it,” X commanded. He shot a beam at the flamethrower, knocking it out of Van’s hand right before the flame hit me. “No need to destroy this place.”
“Why?” Al snapped. “You think this is all a joke anyway.”
“Are you seriously still on that?” X sighed. “You’re lucky I don’t quit with him.”
“Why don’t you?” Al waved him off. “Nothing stopping you.”
“I am,” I stepped in. “I’m going by myself. No one else. That’s an order.”
“Order?” Al laughed. “Hilarious. You’re giving orders.”
“I am,” I glared at him with an icicle for an arm pointed straight at him. “Problem?”
“No no,” Al shook his head nervously. “You X?”
“If you ask me,” X shrugged, “He should’ve been leader since the moment he got here. Most powerful ability deserves the most powerful position, no?”
“No,” I turned my other arm into an icicle and extended it toward X, placing it under his chin. “I’m leaving. Pretend I never even came here in the first place. No leader swap, no power comparisons, no being sad, and,” I glared at Van, “No being happy.”
“But Azure-“
“No,” Al said sternly, cutting GPA off. “If he wants to leave, fine. I don’t think anyone here trusted him to begin with.”
After that, I walked into my room and began to wonder why I didn’t just leave; I didn’t have anything in my room worth keeping. Actually- scratch that. I didn’t have anything in my room, period. Well, aside from that bed and my clothes. Figuring it would’ve been embarrassing to walk out with nothing, I tied the bed sheets up and placed my clothes in them. As I opened the door, bed sheets packed and in hand, someone was standing in front of me, stopping me from leaving.
“J… Je… Jet?” Shoot looked at me wide eyed with his lip quivering. “Why are you leaving?”
“Because no one here is any help,” I placed my hand on his shoulder. I silently sighed, as I didn’t want him to think he was an annoyance or anything, I just couldn’t take anymore of this.
“I thought you wanted him to leave,” GPA whispered to Al.
“If he can’t say goodbye to Shooter, he doesn’t deserve to leave,” Al whispered back. “He’ll be dead within the hour.”
“Please… Jet…” Shooter was looking right at me. It was the first time he did since I got here. “You’re my fr… friend…”
“I know,” I sighed. I took my hand off his shoulder and walked past him.
“Awwwwwww, JET!” GPA exclaimed, throwing her arms around me. It seemed like her powers reacted to her emotions; she was intelligent when she didn’t have any, and was a normal airhead when she did.
“Not to be rude, but get off,” I shoved GPA off of me and brushed my clothes off. “I told you no feeling sad. I was never here, and I will never come back. Got that?”
“F-fine…” GPA sniffed, wiping a tear from her eye. As she silently wept, I walked by Al, who, as expected, paid no mind to me at all. He was either still steamed about me thinking this was all a joke by suggesting my costume idea, or he was just ticked off that X would’ve preferred me as a leader. Or maybe he’s just always a prick.
While approaching the giant door, I looked it up and down, thinking that there was no turning back as soon as I stepped into that hallway and out the golden door. If I leave, I leave. Just what I wanted. I took in a deep breath and pushed the door open, and then shut it close as I entered the exiting hallway. Though the door was thick, I was still able to clearly make out the sobbing of Shooter. As I walked down the hallway, it got fainter and fainter, until I was unable to hear it at all. I’m finally free.
Chapter 6: Vacationing in the Past
“Where do you think you’re going?” a voice asked from behind me. Not even three seconds out of that place, and already someone wants to talk to me.
“Look, I told you guys, I’m through with you.” I didn’t bother to turn around, instead I just kept walking. Hopefully the person behind me would just go away out of boredom.
“You may be through with them, and they may be through with you…” a hand was placed on my shoulder and it flung me around to face the source of the voice eye-to-eye. “But I’m not through with you, and you sure as hell aren’t through with me.”
“Clockwork…” I sighed. “What could you possibly want?”
“To go with you,” he told me quite matter-of-factly. It didn’t seem like a request. It seemed like he was actually ordering me.
“Too bad,” I turned around and looked at the pavement below me. I shot my hand out and covered the area below my feet in ice. I hopped on and as I kept extending the ice, I slid across in hopes that I’d lose Clockwork faster.
“Too slow,” a rift appeared in front of me and he stepped out. “You forgot I could do that, didn’t you?” he smirked.
“Don’t care if you can do it or not,” I slid around him, “Still not paying attention to you.” That seemed to stop him, since I was able to slide past without a struggle or anything. He hadn’t appeared in front of me for a few seconds, so I was hoping that would mean he gave up.
All of a sudden, I felt a tug on the back of my shirt. The ice I was shooting snapped in half and I fell down, conking the back of my head on the ice. Clockwork stood over me, shaking his head.
“What am I going to do with you?” he asked, obviously rhetorically.
“Let me go?” I raised my head and rubbed the back. That kid is good, but he’s also a pain in the ass.
“Actually,” he raised me up to my feet by my shirt. He was stronger than he looked, that’s for sure. “I have some things to tell you, and then I have somewhere I’d like to take you.”
“And then will you leave me alone?” I rolled my eyes, hoping for a yes.
“If you want me to, sure,” he shrugged. “But I doubt you will after I’m through with you.”
“Okay,” I turned around to face him and crossed my arms. “Talk.”
“Well, what I have to tell you has to do with my powers…” he sat down on the ice, cross-legged. He stared up at me and took in a breath, “I can only go to a time period that has happened, which I believe I already told you. If I didn’t, then now you know. In the chosen time period, I can go to any destination I choose; it doesn’t matter if I visited that place or not. However… there are a few… draw backs, you could say, to being able to do that. Firstly, my time travel doesn’t work like a flux capacitor inside a DeLorean. I age when I time travel. It’s weird, I know, but I do. I don’t look it, because I only travel in small intervals, but trust me; I will age. Take, for example, when I got you and X out of Spencer’s grasp.”
“Must you use that as the example?” I broke in.
“Yes,” he glared, “Now quiet, it’s story time,” he cleared his throat and took in another breath. “Time acts normally around me. Where I go, that rift, time doesn’t stop. I went back three seconds, and time was still traveling three seconds forward inside the rift, but I was going backward. When I ended up at the destination, nothing had changed, because I was going against time, not with it. When I went back to my original time period, three seconds into the future, I became three seconds older than I was before, because I was traveling with the time. It’s a real burden, but I’ve never traveled farther than a few minutes, so it doesn’t matter too much.”
“So you can’t go back to see Jesus perform Houdini tricks?” I scoffed, “Lame.”
“When the hell did you get so snarky?” Clockwork snapped at me.
“Dunno,” I shrugged. Truth was, I really didn’t. It might just be because I become really irritable when I’m annoyed, but I won’t tell him that.
“Anyway, to answer your question, I technically could, but I’d have to live there or die coming back. But, this is beside the point. Getting to the other burden: I can’t interfere with anything. Because if Ashton Kutcher has taught anyone anything, it’s that the butterfly effect will screw you over. Big time. I had GPA alter my abilities to make it so I wouldn’t be able to touch anything in the past, so that wouldn’t become a problem.”
“So, let me get this straight…” I sighed, “Your powers are pretty much EXACTLY like that memory bowl that Dumbledore has in the Harry Potter series, except you, and I assume anyone else that goes with you, will age when they come back.”
“If you want to dumb it down that much, then sure.”
“Looks like they just gave you a Whopper without the cheese,” I sighed again. His powers are going to be useless no matter how I look at it.
“Which would mean…?”
“They gave you something decent, but weren’t able to give you the best they could,” I rolled my eyes. “So what do you have to tell me?”
“It’s not what I have to say…” Clockwork grabbed my arm and pulled himself up. After he was up, and walked in front of me and placed his index in the air and brought it down with as much force as he had. The air began to split in two, right where his index finger had been, and it began distorting itself. The inside of it seemed… I wasn’t sure how to describe it. But, I had to admit it… it was awesome. “It’s what I have to show you.” He gestured to me to follow him into the rift. I figured if he’d leave me alone afterward, I should see what he wants me to see.
When we emerged on the other side, nothing seemed to change, but I wasn’t standing on ice anymore. Clockwork stood next to me, looking off into the horizon. He turned his head to me and gestured to look ahead. I quirked an eyebrow, but did as he said anyway. I was hoping this wouldn’t be what I thought it was, but I knew it was.
There he was. My dad, walking around, strutting his super strength. He was scaring people off at first, but he seemed to be able to retract his muscles at will, so he did so in order to make himself look human again. That did it for the ladies; they swooned over him immediately.
“Dad!” I shouted. I wasn’t sure why I was trying to get his attention, but I knew I wanted it. I might’ve just wanted it so he could see me one last time before he got killed.
“It won’t work,” Clockwork told me. “Can’t interact with anything in the past.”
“So why were you able to interact with X and I?” I questioned. “Or are you just lying to me like everyone else?”
“I was able to interact with you and X because Spencer killing you didn’t happen yet. Three seconds into the future, he was still struggling against you guys. I didn’t change a thing when I got you two from him,” he explained. He seemed sorry that I wasn’t able to interact with my dad, but I wasn’t sure if he was being genuinely sorry, or if he was just sorry so I’d rejoin the team.
I continued to look on as my dad charmed the women around him. What a womanizer. In an instant, the sky turned pitch black, and a storm began to brew. The women ran away, but my dad stood there and looked around. He seemed to know he wasn’t the only one with abilities, and he thought this was happening because of someone with abilities.
He was right.
Just as fast as the storm brewed, Spencer appeared in a flash of lightning. I didn’t know how he was able to do that, but he was, and it made him even more dangerous that I thought he’d be.
“You have something I want…” Spencer smirked, cracking his knuckles in an attempt to intimidate my dad. “Hand it over.”
“Over…” my dad hunched over and concentrated himself on… something. I think it was growing muscles, but I wasn’t sure. After a few seconds, he raised his torso and boasted off his new muscles, which were bigger than Spencer. “My dead body.”
“Yes…” Spencer cackled as loud as the thunder. “YES! THAT’S WHAT I WANT, AND THAT’S HOW I’LL TAKE IT!” He reached into his pocket and grabbed a small, egg-shaped contraption. It looked kind of like a grenade, actually. Spencer pressed a button on top, and the contraption immediately expanded itself to reveal a center that was glowing red; that wasn’t all, though. It also grew a pair of legs. My dad, though, being the brave man that he is, lunged straight for Spencer, not taking into account what he had in his hand. Spencer allowed my dad to hit him, and in the moment he did, he placed the egg on his back. Though Spencer was unconscious for the next part, I assumed it went how it wanted it to go. The egg walked around my dad’s back until it found a suitable spot where he couldn’t reach. Its legs dug into the skin and latched itself like a bomb. My dad continued to struggle to get rid of it, but it was of no use. Within seconds, the egg retracted itself, getting rid of the glowing red center, and then shot itself open to reveal the core again, now lighting up white. Claws sprouted from the top of it, and they too dug themselves into his back.
“DAD!” I shouted again. I knew he wouldn’t hear me, but I couldn’t help think there was a way to stop it. “DAD!”
“It’s over, Jet…” Clockwork looked down sullenly. “He’s going to die in three seconds.”
He was right. After three seconds were up, the egg sent a shock through the legs and claws and into my dad’s blood stream and body system. Something happened, I’m not sure what, but it completely depleted his color, and before I knew it, he fell over. Dead.
Spencer staggered to his feet victoriously and cackled as loud as the thunder. Rain trickled down on us, which just made it seem cliché. He walked over to my dad and placed his hand on his chest. A surge of power rushed through Spencer’s arm and coursed through his veins.
“Yes…” he cackled again, “YES!” He expanded his muscles and laughed again. “NO ONE CAN STOP ME NOW!” After that, he vanished.
“Jet…” Clockwork turned his head to me. I wasn’t sure what do to or how to react. I just saw my own father die at the hands of some kid still in high school. “This is what Spencer is capable of… and with super strength…”
“I know,” I said sternly. I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t. Crying never got anyone anywhere, the only thing I wanted to do, and had to do, was kill Spencer. “He’s too strong for me. I was in over my head. I thought I could take him, but I can’t. I need…”
“A team?” Clockwork grinned as he opened up another rift. Both of us jumped through and came out the same place we left. I brushed off my clothes and walked away from him, much to his shock.
“More power,” I responded.
“Jet,” he slid across the ice and tackled me to the ground. Within a few seconds, he was able to pin me down by grabbing hold of my arms and sitting on top of my chest. He really was stronger than he looked. “You’re cutting a tree down with a butter knife! No one can bat 1001!”
“What the hell’re you talking about?” I struggled to get up, but it didn’t work. I should probably start working out.
“It’s impossible to do this by yourself, and it will never happen. Use the cards your dealt with instead of trying to prove to everyone that you’re the greatest person in the world. You need people behind you if you want to beat Spencer.”
“No…” I willed my arms to shoot out ice at Clockwork, and it worked like a charm. He flinched back as icicles began to replace my arms and I was able to push him off of me and get to me feet. I turned the icicles back to my normal arms and slid off again. “I don’t. And if you follow me, I won’t hesitate to take your abilities.”
“Fine…” Clockwork sighed. I heard a wooshing sound, so I took that as him leaving. When I looked back, he was gone, and when I looked in front of me, he wasn’t there. Guess he finally got the message.

Chapter 7: BFF – Best Frenemies Forever
Stardate: …Who the hell knows.
Wandering around my town seemed surreal in a way. No one really noticed me, or that anyone had died, or that they were all asleep. It functioned normally. Gee, if they were this normal, I wonder how they acted the day after everything happened.
I walked by my school, and again, no one really noticed I was gone. Everything was normal. The teachers were teaching. The students were studenting. I didn’t go in, of course, I just walked by the windows and stared in like those killers in “The Strangers” except without a bag over my head, or a killing intent in my heart. I knew Ryan had a class on the bottom floor, so I was hoping to see him in a class… but then I remembered it was Ryan and looking for him in class was like looking in a haystack for a needle that isn’t there.
“Jet?” a voice said behind me. It wasn’t male, like I was hoping, but I knew who it was.
“Rose!” I turned around eagerly and ran over to her and gave her a big hug. “You’re alright!” She looked just like I had remembered. Straight black hair that reached the middle of her back, Converse sneakers, round glasses, and skater clothing; she always liked skater-type clothes, even though she hated skating.
“Of course I am,” she giggled. She put her hands on my arms and lowered them off of her and backed away hesitantly. “But… everyone thought you were…”
“…Dead?” I questioned. She just nodded.
“You just… disappeared one day,” she added.
“I…” I blinked. I wasn’t sure how to react to that. I disappeared? What happened to me sleeping for a month? “…Disappeared?”
“Yeah… we didn’t know where to find you. Ryan and I looked all over town…”
“JET!!!!!!!” Ryan’s voice came from behind me. I turned around, and just in time it would seem. He sprinted up to me and lifted me into the air with his hug. “WHERE THE HELL’VE YOU BEEN!?!”
“I… err… don’t really know… but can you let me down?”
“Oh, sure,” he placed me back on the ground and laughed. “So, really, where were ya? Party?”
“He was gone for a month, Ryan…” Rose chuckled.
“Oh, right,” Ryan stroked his chin in thought. “Outta town?”
“…You could say that,” I chuckled nervously. I quickly looked around me, and when I was sure no one was around, I grabbed both Rose and Ryan’s arms and dragged them to the back of the school.
“Whoa whoa…” Ryan took a breath, “I know you just got back, but isn’t a threesome a little sudden?” Rose hit Ryan over the head, which saved me the time.
“Right… over the line… sorry…” he chuckled.
“Whatever. Just watch this,” I threw my arms down and turned them into icicles. I brought them up afterward and let Rose and Ryan marvel at them, and they certainly were.
“Whoa…” Ryan ran his hand down one of the icicles, “You too?”
“Wait-“ I jerked my body and turned to Ryan, almost impaling Rose with one of my icicles. “What do you mean by that?”
“Well…” Ryan waved his hand over his face, and immediately Rose’s appeared in its place. “See?” The voice even sounded like Rose.
“That ability makes perfect sense for you,” I chuckled. “Must be fun to play practical jokes, eh?”
“Totally,” he waved his hand over his face and his normal appearance came back. “C’mon, I have something else to show you. Rose, you can come if you want.”
“No, that’s okay,” she walked away, “I have to get back to class.”
“Pfft, whatever,” Ryan and I said in unison and fist-bumped afterward. After Rose walked away, Ryan led me out of the campus and down the other side of town. I had a feeling I knew where he was going, and if I was right, which I normally am, I wasn’t going to like it.
We approached a shed that was pretty much a replica of Jimmy Neutron’s, if you’ve ever seen that show.
“If you get sucked into this thing and appear inside a lab, I’m going to go nuts,” I told Ryan while looking at the simplicity of the shed. Now why couldn’t GPA or Al or whoever made the hideout make it like this?
“Prepare to go nuts,” Ryan smirked as he punched in something in the number pad by the door. The ground below us fell away and we fell down a tube that resembled an air duct. The floor below us in the lab broke our fall, so we only got hurt… well… a lot. We got to our feet and Ryan immediately walked over to someone sitting at a giant computer.
“Masquerade,” the person said. “You’ve brought a visitor.”
“Don’t worry, he’s cool,” he chuckled, “Literally.”
“Oh?” the person turned around and looked at me. He began to examine my arms, my torso, my legs… my everything. I was getting pretty uncomfortable.
“…Can I help you?” I asked. He didn’t answer, though, he just kept examining me.
“Interesting,” he remarked. I wasn’t sure what was so “interesting”, though, since having abilities wasn’t uncommon apparently. I also wasn’t sure what he was doing, since he began to walk away from me.
“Umm… what’re you doing?” I asked. Again, no answer. He reached the back wall and spun himself around. He puckered his lips and took in a deep breath. I figured he was going to do something, so I prepared myself for the worst. I was right; he did do something. He screamed. Loudly. I turned my hands into ice and encased my ears in them and then hopped once to order my legs to create a barrier sprouting from the ground. Surprisingly, it withstood it. I lowered the barrier and took my hands off of my ears and looked at the guy like he was insane.
“Good, good...” he cleared his throat and walked back over to me. He extended his hand for a handshake, which I figured I better take, lest I be subjected to that again. “I’m Shriek.”
“I’m…” I drew a blank on what to tell him. My instinct was to go with my codename for some reason. Probably because they were using codenames as well, much to my surprise. But, then I figured that if I said my codename, it would mean I haven’t completely given up the team yet. “…Jet.”
“I always tell him it’s a really ice name,” Ryan chuckled. I elbowed him in the gut and he apologized like he always did.
“I know,” Shriek told me as he walked back to the computer. He clicked on something on his desktop and a file on me popped up.
JET ETHAN TYLER
AFFILIATION: DROPS OF FIRE
AGE: 16
ETHNICITY: CAUCASIAN/NORWEGIAN
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
ABILITIES: POSITIVE – PERFECT PERFECTION
STATUS: DEAD
Drops of Fire? THAT was the name? Well… I guess that’s kind of cool. But I’m listed as negative? Even after I stormed out, they decided to protect me… it’s getting hard to hate those guys.
“What’s ‘Drops of Fire’?” I asked, obviously knowing what that was, “And why am I listed as ‘negative’?”
“And what’s a perfect perfection?” Ryan added. I don’t think he was playing dumb.
“Drops of Fire,” Shriek explained, “Was your old team. They listed you as negative after you left because everyone with a computer can hack into their mainframe, so they didn’t want you to be in danger. If you ask me, GPA should’ve just not listed you as a perfect perfection. Which, by the way Masquerade, is someone who is perfect in every way. They’re the ones that the scientists have chosen to win, and they’re the only ones that need to fight. Sorry that I haven’t mentioned that before.”
“S’cool,” Ryan shrugged and patted me on the back, “Looks like you got your hands full with this one pal. Good luck.”
“Yeah… thanks…” I gulped. Anyone with a computer? Crap. I could be dead at any moment, then. “Wait- why the hell does that team name sound like a crappy rock band?”
“Hey, don’t ask me,” Shriek replied, “Ask GPA or someone.”
“And how do you know GPA?” I asked.
“You aren’t the sharpest icicle on the gutter, are you?” Shriek rolled his eyes, “I looked at her file. It’s pretty awesome that her name is GPA, actually.”
“And why is that?” I ground my teeth. GPA was the only person over there I could trust, and that I had an actual friendship with. Al was pretty much just a hardass, Van was a jerk, X was a co-worker who I mingled with from time to time, Clockwork was just cocky, and Shooter never talked.
“They have shots of you from every angle,” Shriek added, “After taking a look at her backside, I can safely say that GPA stands for Gorgeously Perfect Ass. Must be why she got chosen.”
After that? A complete blur.
Chapter 8: Fire and Ice
Okay, so by now, you’re probably asked “Hey, when the hell is this huge fight scene between Jet and that fire chick coming up? I’m getting pretty bored of this story right about now.” And don’t worry. I’ve almost caught you guys up. There’s just one little event that needs to happen first.
Oh, and don’t ask about what happened between Shriek and I. I told you, it was a blur; if I get the chance, I’ll ask Clockwork to let me go back to see how badly I fucked him up. Because, you know, I’m still here, telling you this story, so obviously nothing bad happens to me.
You see, while I don’t know exactly what happened between Shriek and I, I know the repercussions of that. And… well… now I’m being chased around town by this guy named Ecto. He’s pretty much just a Danny Phantom knock-off. Man, if only I had a thermos with me.
“Get back here!” Ecto shouted, firing an ectoplasm blast at me. I shot an icicle to absorb the ectoplasm, which worked like a charm, and I was able to buy myself a few seconds time with that since he had to charge up for another one. Unfortunately, he didn’t fire directly after like I was expecting him to, so I blindly fired an icicle into the air behind me, which he dodged by going intangible.
“Crap,” I turned around and now ran backwards, “Not there.”
“Nope,” Ecto said from in front of me. I turned around and bumped into his chest and fell down on my back. He cracked his knuckles and smirked at me, “Right here.” He shot an ectoplasm blast at me, which was pretty much just a green ball of goo, and I was unable to dodge it or absorb it with ice in time, so it hit me in the chest. It hurt way more than I expected it to; I jerked my head upward and coughed up a bit of blood because of it.
“The boss would like the teach you a lesson,” he grinned at me and dragged me back by the collar.
“Tell the boss…” I slashed Ecto’s arm with an icicle, making him flinch back and let go of me. “That I’ve already been taught everything I need to be taught in school.”
“Wow,” Ecto rolled his eyes, “And I thought you couldn’t get any lamer.”
“You’re the Danny Phantom knock-off dude, not me,” I shrugged and made my other arm into an icicle. I seemed to do that a lot; I should probably get a new move.
“Yeah, says the guy with one move,” Ecto chuckled as he, as Butch Hartman puts it, was going ghost, and slipped through the pavement of the ground below us.
“Oh? Then I must’ve forgot to tell you about this,” I jumped in the air as high as I could and stomped back down in the ground with all the force I had. I commanded ice pillars to sprout everywhere, above and underground, which was all I needed to do. Ecto got attached onto a pillar and came zipping out of the ground.
“Nighty-night,” I grinned and punched him in the face with an ice fist. He was unconscious for sure, but I knew he’d be up again. I created another ice path on the ground and slid across as fast as I could to the other side of town so I could find shelter. Subconsciously, I wanted to go back to the hideout, but I didn’t want to tell my conscious self that.
The townsfolk didn’t seem to notice me as I zipped by on my ice, which I didn’t really care about, since I didn’t have to work about using my abilities whenever I wanted to now.
“Jet!” I turned around expecting Ecto, but it was just Ryan. I helped him onto the ice and, while it seemed rather… not straight, I let him put his hands on my hips as I slid across.
“What’re you doing here?” I asked, “I thought you were going to stay at Shriek’s.”
“And miss my best friend kicking ass and taking powers?” he scoffed, “As if!”
“Hello Jet,” Ecto flew up from the ground in front of me and planted himself on the ice. “And Masquerade, what a nice surprise.” I threw Ryan off of me and turned my fists into ice again and started swinging. Ecto laughed as they just phased through him.
“So sad,” he shook his head, “And here I thought perfect perfections were supposed to be a challenge. Oh well.” He placed his hands together at their wrists and pointed his palms at me. An ectoplasm ball was forming inside his hands, which just looked like a rip-off of Goku’s signature move in Dragonball Z. Once it was done, he fired at me with everything he had, and I raised an ice barrier at the same time. They collided, and the barrier was destroyed with no effort at all, and I resorted to jumping out of the way.
“You’ll never outrun me, Jet!” Ecto exclaimed. I hoped I could prove him wrong. Ryan and I both started sprinting toward the other side of town, which was about 5 minutes from our current location, which was good news for us since it meant we didn’t have to put up with Ecto for much longer.
“Told ya!” Ecto grinned as he appeared in front of me, though he wasn’t expecting Ryan to flat-out clothesline him so he fell on his back and clutched his throat in pain.
“Nice one,” I fist-bumped Ryan and we kept running as fast as we could. Both of us knew that Ecto would only be down for so long, and it wasn’t going to be enough time. Sure enough, he was back again.
“Not so fa-“ Ecto fell subject to another one of Ryan’s clotheslines. It was getting pretty funny at this point.
“Not too far now, Ryan,” I told him, taking in deep breathes now. I was running out of breath, and energy, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it before Ecto reappeared and finally caught on or not.
“Good, I don’t think that will work a third time,” he responded.
“It might,” I shrugged, “It worked a second time, after all.”
“Stop!” Ecto stuck his hand in the air and tried to slow us down, but Ryan gave him another clothesline.
“WILL YOU QUIT DOING THAT?!” Ecto shouted from behind us, “IT REALLY HURTS!”
“Yeah, that’s kinda the point!” Ryan shouted back.
We finally reached the hideout; though it worried me we hadn’t seen Ecto in a while. I ran up to the number pad and hesitated for a moment. Al never told me the passcode.
“Jesus Christ Al, you expect me to get into without a passcode?!” I shouted to myself. Ryan turned his head and looked at the number pad.
“Oh, allow me,” he balled a fist and slammed it into the pad. It broke, sure, but it still opened up the scanner. I placed my hand on it and it scanned my through, opening the door. Ryan and I bolted in to try and get away from Ecto, but he reappeared behind us and was now inside the hallway.
“D’ya miss me?!” he cackled, “I betcha did!” Firing an ectoplasm blast at our feet, we had to jump out of the way. When we finally reached the door, I hesitated again. I forgot the password.
“GPA! GPA!” I banged on the door, “OPEN UP!” Ecto fired again and missed. He was gaining on us, and we were sitting ducks at this point. “GPA!”
“In the depths and bowels of Hell,” someone on the other side of the door said.
“DAMMIT! I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS! YOU KNOW I’M NOT THERE!”
“In the depths and bowels of Hell!” the voice shouted. I racked my brain and banged my head to try and remember the password. Ecto fired yet again, but Ryan took the blast for me; he was approximately 50 feet away, and he was gaining on us fast.
“Oh!” I exclaimed. Finally, I remembered my password. “Kindred spirits are often hard to tell!”
“Um, dude,” Ryan pointed out, “We REALLY don’t have time for a collaboration poem right now!”
“Up above in the world so dark,” the voice stated.
“I spy a snake, curled and coiled,” I turned to Ryan, “It’s a password.”
“Well, we REALLY don’t have time for this,” he pointed ahead, “Ecto’s coming!”
“Take the lunge, go for the plunge, for the enemy awaits,” the voice added. Last line. Last line. Last line.
Ecto fired again, and he was approximately 10 feet from us. Ryan stood his ground and punched Ecto right in the face, sending him flying a good five feet, though it didn’t slow him down enough.
“Dammit, I can’t remember the last line!” I banged my fists against the door and Ryan pressed his back to mine.
“Don’t worry dude, you aren’t going down while I’m here!” he assured.
“Thanks,” he was surprisingly supportive and protective, which wasn’t really in his nature.
“How sweet,” Ecto mocked, “Too bad I LOOVE breaking up sweet moments,” he grinned and fired another ectoplasm blast. Ryan took it in the chest and doubled over in pain.
“C’mon last line, last line… OH!” I turned back to the door and pressed my face against it so I wouldn’t waste any time outside when it opened. “Open the foul doors of Hell, this is my fate!” I grabbed Ryan’s shirt and we both fell into the room as the door swung open faster than I’ve ever seen. Shooter stood there with a finger pointed at Ecto.
“A finger? Is that all?” he mocked.
“Jet is my friend…” Shooter scowled, “And you were hurting him!” his face was red with anger and his eyes were bulging out of his head. He grabbed his finger with his other hand and began to charge up… something. I wasn’t sure if it was energy or an actual bullet, but it looked deadly. Once it was bigger than his fist, Shooter fired at Ecto, who tried to turn intangible to dodge it, but it still hit him. Getting sent back all the way to the front door, his intangibility wore off and he was knocked unconscious, for a far greater period of time than the first time.
“Whoa…” Ryan stared at Shooter in awe, “COOOOOOOOL.”
“JET!” GPA picked me up and gave me a hug, “YOU’RE BACK!”
“It’s… good to… see you too GPA…” I gasped for air, “You’re a lot stronger than you look…”
“Thanks,” she smiled and put me down.
“Why are you so happy, anyway? I was only gone for like… a couple of hours.”
“No, you weren’t!” I hadn’t noticed it, but GPA was in her airhead-cheerleader mode. Which I preferred to her brainiac self, for some odd reason. “You were gone for a week!”
“A… what?” I turned to Ryan, expecting an answer from him, but he just shrugged. “A… week? Dude, Ryan, what the hell happened after Shriek said that thing about GPA?”
“Don’t ask me, dude,” Ryan shrugged again, “I was hiding. I mean, I remember you and him got into a huge fight, and there were sound waves and icicles flying everywhere, so I went to hide in my room, and when I came out, both of you were gone.”
“Wait-“ GPA turned to me and blushed, “You stuck up for me?”
“Well…” I rubbed my arm sheepishly and chuckled, “Kinda… this guy Shriek hacked into the mainframe of your computer and pulled up files and pictures of everyone here, and said something like… ‘after seeing the backside of her, I can safely assume that GPA stands for Gorgeously Perfect Ass’.”
“Well…” GPA chuckled, “My ass is pretty perfect.”
“You can say that again,” Ryan added, wiggling his eyebrows. I elbowed him in the stomach and he apologized again. It seemed like a repeating pattern.
“Jet!” Shooter pounced on me from behind and tackled me to the ground.
“Hehe… hey Shooter. Long time no see. How’re the blocks been going?” I liked that he was being affectionate, since he reminded me of my cousin, but I still wanted to get up.
“Great Shooter!” he smiled.
“He’s improving,” X said as he came out from the hallway. “Ever since you left.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“He’s forming sentences, he’s paying attention, he’s practicing his fighting… you really left an impact on him,” X nodded. “You left one on everyone, whether they liked it or not. I think Shooter wanted to prove to everyone that he could save you or something.”
“That right, Shooter?” I looked up at him and grinned. He nodded back and then got off of me, after seeing how much I was struggling.
“Glad to see you’re back, Jet,” X nodded and shook my hand, “And that you aren’t dead.”
“Didn’t you guys put that as a way of protecting me?” I asked, “Or was I misinformed?”
“Al and Van thought you wouldn’t be able to last on your own. After a week was up and you weren’t here, Al ordered GPA to change your status from active to dead. GPA, Shooter, Clockwork and I still had hope that you were alive, though. You’re tough; those two don’t give you enough credit.”
“Wait-“ Van practically did a spit-take, had he been drinking something. He came out from another room attached to the main one that I hadn’t been in before; I assumed it was the kitchen or game room or play area or something. “You’re alive?” he snapped his fingers in disappointment, “Damn. That means I owe Clockwork 50 bucks.”
“You guys bet on if I’d still be alive or not?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Of course newbie,” Van scoffed, “We do it to everyone. Just more fun with you.”
“Well well well,” Al strutted in with his arms crossed and head nodding, “Look who had the guts to show his face around here again.”
“I thought you wanted me gone,” I rolled my eyes.
“Not you,” Al rolled his eyes back. He pointed at Ryan and glared, “What the hell are you doing back here?”
“Ryan?” I was confused. I looked between him and Al, and wondered how they knew each other, or what Ryan was here before, or what.
“You kept him fooled for that long?” Al shook his head, “He never was bright.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I looked between the two again and still wondered what was going on.
“X, get ready to fire. GPA, get Shooter out of here. When he’s in a safe place, come back and be prepared to use telekinesis. Van, sketch out a tesla coil.”
“Ooo, fun,” Van giggled at the idea of wielding a weapon that could shoot electricity.
“Someone tell me what the hell is going on!” I demanded.
“You’re his ‘friend’,” Al nodded at Ryan, “You tell him.”
“Why tell him…” Ryan’s voice changed suddenly. Before, it was his normal voice, but now it was the voice of a female. “When I can simply show him?” The person I thought I knew as Ryan waved their hand over their whole body and instantly changed into a female in a tight leather suit. Black. With a fire design. It was awesome. She had dark red hair, which was obviously not her natural color, which went down to her back; like Rose’s. She also wore red high heels.
GPA walked Shooter back to his room and sat him down in front of his blocks.
“Stay here, no matter what,” she said sternly. Shooter nodded and went to his blocks. She nodded back and ran out, shutting the door behind her.
Though it had only been seconds, whoever the hell had disguised themselves as Ryan had completely obliterated everyone, excluding me. GPA walked into the main hall with her jaw dropped. Everyone was dead.
“Fire beats ice…” the girl who said this was floating in air. She looked down on me as I scrambled away, and laughed. Conjuring a fire ball in one hand, she condescendingly blew a kiss with her other. “Every time.” Once the ball was launched, it zipped through the air, burning up its surroundings, and was on course for my skull.
And now you’re completely caught up. Now you know everything I know, and have experienced everything I’ve experienced up until this point. Time to get on with the story.
“JET!” GPA stuck her hands out and shut her eyes, concentrating on the fireball. She was able to divert it off course, but she wasn’t able to control where it went.
“GPA!” I shouted. I quickly got to my feet and ran over to her. The fireball was on course for her now, and thanks to the massive energy drain that telekinesis gives her, she wasn’t able to do anything. I was able to get to her in time to push her out of the way, but GPA was dead weight now, and I couldn’t spend all of my time trying to protect her. The girl whizzed over our heads and landed near GPA. She looked down on her, almost apologetically, but then smirked as she placed her hand on GPA’s head and fired.
“Y…” I fell to my feet and scrambled away again as the girl absorbed GPA’s powers. “You’re a monster…”
“No…” the girl smiled and pointed her hand to me, concentrating enough to raise me off the ground and into the air. “I’m perfect.”
I closed my eyes and braced for death, but it didn’t come. I opened one eye and noticed the girl was eyeing the smoke that was now clearing from the fireball she threw earlier. It had hit Shooter’s room, and the wall was busted open.
“SHOOTER!” I shouted. He perked his head up and scowled at the girl. She just laughed, though, like he wasn’t a match for her. She sketched out a bow and arrow and fired at him. He formed a finger gun and shot at the arrow, making it burst on impact.
“Get away from Jet!” Shooter charged at the girl. He jumped at her and tackled her to the ground. Thankfully, she lost her concentration and let me down; though it was more of a fall than me getting down gently, but I didn’t complain. I looked over at the girl and Shooter fighting, and it seemed like no matter what, he wasn’t going to win. His abilities were great, sure, but hers were better, and she was just generally much stronger than he was. After a struggle, she was finally able to knock Shooter on his back and hover up above him.
“Such a pest…” she shook her head and conjured another fire ball, “Too bad. You could’ve been useful to him.”
“Shooter!” I panicked for a moment. She was going to kill Shooter, and I didn’t know what to do. If she got his abilities, I was dead for sure. But… what if I got them? I gulped nervously and took in a deep breath. I walked over to Shooter who was still cowering back and leaned over to him.
“Jet…” he sniffed, “The lady was being mean to you, Jet… I… wanted to protect you…”
“How touching,” the girl chuckled, “I hate touching!”
“It’s okay, Shooter…” my breath was as cold as ice, and it was now freezing over Shooter’s face. “I’ll protect you now…” I exhaled on him, encasing him in ice. The girl growled furiously at me and flung the fire ball toward Shooter and me, but I was too fast. I smashed the ice and placed one hand on the shards of ice and the other in the air as a finger gun. I fired at the fire ball and separated it just in time, so it hit the walls on either side of me instead.
“You killed your friend?!” the girl laughed, “How evil!”
“Shut up!” I snapped, “You’re the one going around killing everyone in sight! And now…” I glared at her, exhaling furiously, “I’m gonna kill you.”
“How laughable,” the girl rolled her eyes, “If only you became corrupt. You’d be perfect for him.”
“Corrupt?” I raised an eyebrow.
“They didn’t tell you?” the girl chuckled, “Typical. Whenever we absorb a new ability, it overwhelms us. It corrupts us. We want more.”
“Doesn’t sound so perfect to me,” I responded. I didn’t feel corrupt, but I wasn’t sure exactly. Maybe I was just always corrupt and never realized it, or maybe it hadn’t affected me yet.
“Oh but it is…” the girl shrugged, “Too bad you’ll have to die now… would’ve been fun bringing you back to the boss… he has a soft spot for you…”
“If you even make it out of here alive,” I pointed my finger at her and turned it to ice, “Tell him I don’t have a soft spot for him.” I fired a bullet of energy at her, which I intelligently fused with ice, making it even more deadly. Unfortunately, it bounced right off of her.
“I absorbed that wanna-be leader’s powers,” she gloated, “Ice doesn’t go through metal.”
“Perhaps not,” I shrugged, “But this will.” I placed my hands together and put two fingers up instead of one. The bullets of energy combined into something that was bigger than my head. She got wide eyed and sketched a shield, but it didn’t seem to help her much, since it got destroyed as fast as my ice barrier got destroyed when I fought with Ecto. The blast demolished an entire side of the hideout, and exposed it to the outside world. She crashed against a brick wall, dazed and confused. As I walked out to “greet” her, she cupped her head in pain and staggered to her feet.
“Fire may beat ice,” I told her, “But bullets beat metal. So goodb-“
“You may kill me,” she broke in, “But you’ll never kill him. He’s too strong for you. Even with all the powers you’ll gain from killing me. You won’t be able to beat him, no matter what.”
“We’ll see,” I told her. I fired a bullet straight through her head and she slumped down, dead. I put my hand on her forehead and absorbed everything that she had absorbed. My head twitched for a moment, and my heart pounded faster, but I felt fine. I had no idea what I’d get corrupted.

Chapter 9: Corruptability is Not in My Vocabulary
I walked back into the hideout and looked around. Everyone was dead. I couldn’t believe it. One person killed everyone here. No, not one person; one perfection. This is the power of a perfect perfection. The true power. Not Spencer power, or me power, this is them at their best. At least to me. For all I know, this couldn’t even be a fraction of the actual damage they could do. The only thing that was good about this was that Clockwork was still alive. If she had gotten control of Clockwork’s abilities, no one would’ve been safe. Where is he, anyway?
“GUESS WHO’S BACK?!” Ecto jumped out from behind the door and punched me in the face.
“Do you ever take a break?!” I grumbled and punched him back with an ice fist. He didn’t turn intangible, so he flew through the air at high speed and crashed into the back wall.
“So this is where you’ve been hiding out,” Clockwork appeared behind me. He looked older, now. He had chin stubble that made it look like he was either just getting a beard or he had just shaved. His height didn’t change, though. Must be a side effect or something.
“Yeah,” I looked around the destroyed hideout. The computers were melted, the monitors were broken, the walls were destroyed… everything was in complete chaos.
“She came?” he asked me.
“You know about her?”
“Yeah,” he told me, “Her name used to be 452. She founded this place. That’s why it’s called Drops of Fire. She and Al had a fight, and then she stormed out. Al became leader, and we all thought she died. Guess we were wrong.”
“She had… a lot of powers,” I explained, “She could change appearances, conjure fire, and fly.”
“Must’ve killed the others, then,” he said. “Her power originally was pyrokinesis, which, as the name suggests, allows you to control fire. We had someone who could change appearances, and one who could fly. They went looking for her one day. They didn’t come back.”
“The person who could change appearances…” I gulped and looked at him, “What was their name?”
“You mean their actual name, or their codename?”
“Actual.”
“…Ryan,” he looked at his feet apologetically. “His codename was Masquerade. After he left, we got word that he joined the enemy. We thought that just meant he joined the enemy’s side. We didn’t know it meant literally.”
“We need to go there,” I looked out the hole in the wall. It must’ve confused Clockwork, since he didn’t know what I was talking about.
“Where?”
“The enemy’s hideout,” I responded sternly. “Take me back one week. I want to know what happened between Shriek and I.”
“An entire week?” Clockwork gulped, “Are you sure? That could really mess our aging up.”
“DO IT!” I growled. Something came over me when I responded like that; I didn’t know what it was. Corruption? No, it wasn’t that. I’m too strong for corrupting. It must’ve just been a short temper or something.
Clockwork felt the need to not argue with me after that, which was frankly quite a good thing, since I wasn’t sure what my temper would do to him. He ripped open a rift and we jumped through one week, landing in Shriek’s lair.
“Hey, don’t ask me,” Shriek replied, “Ask GPA or someone.”
It looks like we came right in time. This is where my memory became a blur. Time to sit back and watch.
“And how do you know GPA?” I asked.
“You aren’t the sharpest icicle on the gutter, are you?” Shriek rolled his eyes, “I looked at her file. It’s pretty awesome that her name is GPA, actually.”
“And why is that?” I ground my teeth. GPA was the only person over there I could trust, and that I had an actual friendship with. Al was pretty much just a hardass, Van was a jerk, X was a co-worker who I mingled with from time to time, Clockwork was just cocky, and Shooter never talked.
“They have shots of you from every angle,” Shriek added, “After taking a look at her backside, I can safely say that GPA stands for Gorgeously Perfect Ass. Must be why she got chosen.”
I had no idea what the hell came over myself. It looked like I turned into an animal or something. My powers completely took over and encased me in an ice-armor that seemed to double as a giant robot suit. Shriek smirked and just let out a wail, but the ice was too sturdy and it only cracked slightly. With one punch, I knocked Shriek out cold.
“Wait- that’s all that happened?” I asked. “Man, that’s disappointing.”
“I don’t think your fight is over just yet,” Clockwork pointed to my past self picked Shriek up off the ground. “I think you should continue to watch.”
I did as he said. I watched as the ice robot let out a giant wail at Shriek. I didn’t even know why; probably to assert dominance or something. 452, who was disguised as Ryan at the time, tried to stop me by punching the robot’s legs, but it didn’t seem to have much effect, since it just kicked him- er, her, aside.
“Put the boss down,” Ecto commanded. It didn’t seem like I had heard him, and it seemed like he just came out of nowhere. He fired an ectoplasm blast at the back of the robot suit, knocking it down on its stomach. The suit shattered, and I laid there completely still. I must’ve been unconscious or something, since I wasn’t moving after that. Ecto snickered as he picked me up by the collar and tossed me against the back wall. He fired another blast to my back, causing me to wake up from the shock and cough up blood, and then go right back to being unconscious.
“These guys are…” I gulped.
“Vicious,” Clockwork agreed. “You shouldn’t have even been here.”
“It’s not my fault I wasn’t able to tell Ryan was actually a girl in disguise,” I told him.
“Still,” he grumbled, “You should’ve known it was bad news.”
“Why? This hideout is disguised like Jimmy Neutron’s lab! Anything like that is always good in my book until proven otherwise,” I retorted.
“Just be quiet and watch yourself get beat up,” Clockwork pointed to Ecto beating up my past self. Man, I really wish I could jump in there right about now.
Shriek rose to his feet and commanded Ecto to put me down. He did as he was told and walked behind his leader as he snickered at his accomplishment. Shriek took me by my collar and raised me to my feet. He wailed at me which somehow was loud enough to snap me out of my unconscious state.
“Look here,” he said, “I’m going to go through you out back, and then REM will be out soon after and put you to sleep. You’ll wake up in one week, and not remember anything that happened. You’ll be in a daze until you leave this area. After, Ecto will hunt you down. And then he’ll tire you out, bring you back here, and I’ll dispose of you myself. I always wanted ice powers. Understand?”
I must’ve been out of it, since it seemed like I actually nodded.
“Wait-“ I spoke suddenly, “Shriek’s a perfect perfection?!”
“It would seem that way,” Clockwork told me. “Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“Our present time,” he ripped open a rift and jerked his thumb toward it, “We’ve seen all we need to see. You’ll just be asleep for a week. Not that exciting.” I grumbled and reluctantly went in the rift with him.
We emerged back at the Drops of Fire hideout, and it seemed like both of us had been subjected to rapid aging, since Clockwork’s beard was growing more and mine was coming back in again.
“Hm, I think I’d look good with a beard,” Clockwork rubbed the stubble on his chin and nodded.
“Right, you keep thinking that,” I rolled my eyes.
“What? I’m Clockwork. I’m allowed to have a beard. It suits the awesome stature that is me,” he said proudly.
“Damn, I thought we were past this whole ‘I’m the greatest because I’m Clockwork’ thing,” I grumbled. “Anyway, you’ve gotta go.”
“What?!” he yelled, “Why?! Where?!”
“Shriek’s place,” I looked over to Ecto, who was groggily waking up, “Tell him we’ve got a hostage.”
“And what will that solve?” Clockwork asked, “He already hates you. Not like it’ll have much impact on what he does.”
“It’ll get him on our turf,” I told him, “Just do it.”
“No sense in arguing with you, since you’re likely to snap and kill me…” he sighed and walked out of the hideout, “I’ll be back.”
After he left, I focused my attention on Shriek. He glared at me as he got up, but he didn’t move or do anything. I glared right back, not saying anything; this went on for around 30 seconds, believe it or not. When he finally got the message, he sat down and sulked.
“I’m not a hostage…” he muttered.
“Yes you are,” I grinned wickedly, “And you’re going to help me kill Shriek.”
“Kill Shriek?!” he burst out in laughter, “Aw man! That’s great! You really do have a sense of humor!”
“I’m not trying to be funny.” I wore a serious face and glared at him again. He got the message pretty quickly this time.
“W-wait,” he stammered, “You’re being serious? You’re actually going to try and kill that guy?!”
“Not now, of course,” I paced around the room, not taking my eyes off of Ecto. “But in time. I just need him to come here so I can use something of his.”
“What?” Ecto asked, tilting his head.
“His computer,” I said nonchalantly.
“That all?” he chuckled, “What’re ya gonna do with that thing?”
“It’s a secret,” I smiled at Ecto, “I’m not an idiot villain you see on movies and TV shows. I’m not going to tell you everything, because then you’ll just tell Shriek what I told you, and that’s no fun.”
“So you’re a villain?” Ecto raised an eyebrow, “Weird. Pegged ya for a hero-type role.”
“Whichever,” I shrugged, “Doesn’t matter, really. In the end, I’ll be the one on top. I’ll be crowned the perfect perfection; I’ll be the model for future generations.”
“Gee,” Ecto rolled his eyes, “What a big ego you have grandma.”
“All the better the kill you with,” I smirked. He didn’t say anything after that, and neither did I. We just waited for Clockwork to come back with Shriek.
When he finally did come back, Shriek was trailing right behind him, glaring at me the entire time.
“Oh, you,” he scoffed, “Shoulda figured.”
“You shoulda,” I shrugged, “But’cha didn’t, now didja?”
“Ecto?” Shriek asked.
“Over there,” I jerked my thumb toward Ecto, who was sitting up against a wall. Shriek shook his head and walked over to him. He grabbed him by the collar and lifted him to his feet.
“Teleport to Shriek’s place,” I whispered to Clockwork, “Now.” Clockwork did as he was told and ripped open a rift that both he and I jumped through. Shriek must’ve noticed, but he did too late, since we were already gone.
I fell out of the rift right onto Shriek’s chair, facing the computer, while Clockwork fell on his face next to me.
“Oh how I love karma,” I chuckled.
“Ugh,” he rubbed the back of his head, “What’re you doing?”
“Since I have GPA’s intelligence now…” I explained, “I figure it’ll be easy to pull up what I need.”
“And what’s that?” Clockwork placed his arm over the head of the chair and stared at the computer screen.
“Just some information on the perfections. Keep watch,” I jerked my head toward the door. He grumbled, but reluctantly walked over to it and stood watch.
“I don’t even know why I’m taking orders from you,” he grumbled.
“Because you know I can kill you whenever I want,” I told him, “And absorb your abilities. And you know that will spell disaster for everyone, since what 452 told me is true.”
“And what’d she tell you?” Clockwork asked. I forgot that he wasn’t there at the time, so I just had to lie. Easy.
“Oh nothing,” I shrugged, “Just stuff.” There was a silence after that. He probably figured I wasn’t telling him everything, which was true, of course. I didn’t really care, though; I just wanted the information on where the other perfections were.
“Aha,” I clicked on a file and brought up several pictures, all of the perfections.
“Why’d you even know he had these?” Clockwork asked.
“He seems like the type of guy who’d want to keep tabs on everyone. Including the perfections,” I explained. “Now, let’s see… what do we have here….”
SPENCER AMILIO RODRIGUEZ
AFFILIATION: ENEMY
AGE: 18
ETHNICITY: SPANISH
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: SPAIN
ABILITIES: POSITIVE – PERFECT PERFECTION
STATUS: ACTIVE
CLYDE HOPEWELL DIGGORY
AFFILIATION: ENEMY
AGE: 21
ETHNICITY: AUSTRALIAN
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: AUSTRALIA
ABILITIES: POSITIVE – PERFECT PERFECTION
STATUS: ACTIVE
JET ETHAN TYLER
AFFILIATION: DROPS OF FIRE
AGE: 16
ETHNICITY: CAUCASIAN/NORWEGIAN
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
ABILITIES: POSITIVE – PERFECT PERFECTION
STATUS: ACTIVE
THERESA SARAH BAKER
AFFILIATION: DROPS OF FIRE – LEFT
AGE: 17
ETHNICITY: BRAZILIAN
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: BRAZIL
ABILITIES: POSTIVE – PERFECT PERFECTION
STATUS: ALIVE
DANIEL ABUU BUHARI
AFFILIATION: ENEMY
AGE: 8
ETHNICITY: KENYAN
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: KENYA
ABILITIES: POSITVE – PERFECT PERFECTION
STATUS: ALIVE
He didn’t include himself, for obvious reasons I’d imagine, but I decided to change Theresa from active to dead, just to give him a little shock if he ever decides to look through these. I was taken aback by the 8 year old, I have to admit. I didn’t think a kid would be involved in this, but I guess the fog chooses anyone. Oh well, too bad.
A click went off in the front of the room and Clockwork immediately jumped from his post.
“The almighty Clockwork,” I rolled my eyes as I jotted down locations of the perfections, “Scared of a click.”
“HEY! That could’ve very well been Ecto and Shriek!” he protested.
“Or the click of my pen,” I chuckled, “I am in the front of the room after all. You know, where the click came from.”
“Oh…” I couldn’t see him, but I assumed he was red in the face. Serves him right.
“Okay, done,” I shut the computer off and swung out of the chair and walked toward Clockwork. “First stop,” I pointed to the first location I wrote down. His looked at me like I was crazy, but I just looked back with a straight face.
“Las Vegas?” he asked, “Really? You want to gamble at a time like this?”
“Just go to the location,” I told him. He shrugged, but figured it’d be easier to just go along with it all. He gulped nervously as he pointed to the rift for a strange reason, but I figured it was just his worry about me having the ability to kill him at any moment.
Chapter 10: Cheating the House
Clockwork and I appeared in front of the Las Vegas town line. We walked forward and I hoped I could find my target soon. Clockwork, on the other hand, was still rather nervous about something.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, not taking my eyes off of the streets and house numbers.
“Oh i-it’s nothing…” he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and chuckled nervously. I quirked an eyebrow, but thought nothing of it and just shrugged it off.
“Where’re we headed?” Clockwork asked, trying to take a peek at the locations on my paper.
“A casino,” I responded, looking around the streets for the correct one.
“Oh wow, really?” Clockwork rolled his eyes, “Never woulda guessed.”
“No one likes sarcasm,” I told him sternly. There was a rather awkward silence after that, but I don’t think either of us cared much.
I stopped in front of that giant casino with the Sphinx replica on it. I didn’t have where to go on my paper, but part of me just knew that the person I was looking for was in there. Clockwork followed me in, rather confused as to why we didn’t get carded by security or someone; I was confused as well, but I didn’t really care, it was easier than going through a whole debacle with security to let us in. We walked down the line and toward the poker tables. I saw someone in a cowboy hat lined with shark’s teeth sitting by himself, shuffling a deck of cards vigorously. As Clockwork and I approached him, he grinned wickedly and slammed the cards on the table. He got up from his chair and walked over toward us. Obviously, he was expecting us. Or me, at least.
“G’day!” he smiled at me and spoke in a heavy Australian accent, “Name’s Clyde Diggory, but ‘chu guys can just call me Bandit!”
“I’m Jet,” I said and jerked my thumb toward Clockwork, “He’s Clockwork.”
“Wicked names, dudes,” Clyde walked back to his table and fanned out the cards, “I deal?”
“Err…” Clockwork and I exchanged looks of confusion. He looked at us and laughed wildly.
“GOTCHA!” he banged on the table with an open palm, “I know why you two’re here! Jet over there wants-ta take my powers, ain’t that right?”
“I… guess?” I really wasn’t sure what was going through this guy’s head, and I wasn’t sure if I liked it much or not.
“Well…” he smirked and banged on the table again, “You’ll have-ta win ‘em.”
“In poker?” Clockwork asked.
“Whatever game you guys want. Best 3 outta 5 sound fair?” Bandit asked.
“Fine by me,” I nodded and looked at Clockwork, “Work for you?”
“I… think I should sit this one out,” Clockwork chuckled and backed away.
“If ya wanna, dude, that’s up-ta you!” Bandit gave me a wicked grin and banged on the table again, “Guess it’s between the two of us.”
“Like it should be,” I looked at him with a straight face. He looked exactly like he did in his picture. Scraggily blond hair, cowboy hat lined with shark’s teeth, opened tan vest to show off his 6-pack, and khaki pants. Looked like a regular Australian. Or, at least the ones I’ve seen portrayed in movies and TV shows, anyway.
Bandit banged on the table once more, and this time it caused the place to shake to its core. The poker tables and slot machines all shot straight into the air and the ceiling looked like it was going to collapse. But it didn’t. It shot up with the tables and slot machines. The lighting dimmed and the people remained unchanged; it was like they were fake or something.
“Cool,” Clockwork poked one of the people. It was a mannequin. Guess I hit the nail on the head with that one.
“Welcome,” Bandit said. A spotlight shone on him brightly and he tipped his hat to me. “To Bandit’s Corner.”
“How creative,” I rolled my eyes.
“How’s poker treatin’ ya tonight?” he asked. He didn’t care if I said no, it seemed, since he was shuffling the cards already.
“I don’t suppose I want to know why you live in a casino and your name is Bandit, do I?” I quirked an eyebrow as he dealt me two cards.
“Probably not,” he chuckled as he looked at his cards. “’member, 3 outta 5. Change games whenever ya want. I ain’t such a bad guy; it’s just that the house always wins.”
“And since when are you the house?” I asked, not looking up from my cards.
“You wanna bet I’m not?”
“Why do I have a feeling that’ll be a bad idea?” I placed my cards back on the table face down and crossed my arms.
“’Cause it would be,” he told me as he flipped over the first card in the row he placed. 6 of clubs.
“In,” I chucked in one $5 chip into the middle of the table.
“Of course y’are,” Bandit chuckled and shook his head, “It’s the first card. You’d have-ta be a dunce to not be in,” he chucked in two $5 chips and crossed his arms as if he knew he had this in the bag already.
“Deal,” I told him. He flipped the second card. 8 of diamonds.
“Fold,” I said.
“Damn,” Bandit flipped over his cards in anger, “I woulda won that hand, too.”
“Yeah, ya woulda,” I chuckled, “If I didn’t have super intelligence.”
“Oh-ho!” Bandit laughed, “Super intelligence, you say? Well, what a coincidence; I just happen-ta possess a lil’ somethin’ called super luck!”
“This’ll be fun,” I grinned.
“That it will,” Bandit agreed, “That it will.”
“Roulette,” I ordered a game change. The table in front of us dropped to the floor with the roulette replacing it.
“$50 onbagel,” Bandit smirked.
“The probability of that is extremely low,” I told him, “But if you insist. $50 on red.”
“$50 on 0! $50 on red!” a voice from above us announced. It didn’t seem to be coming from anywhere, though.
The roulette magically spun itself and the ball flew in afterward. The roulette began to slow down, and the ball began to hop chambers. Once the roulette stopped, the ball hopped over a few reds and a few blacks until it finally landed.
“BLACK!” the voice above us shouted.
“How unfortunate,” I smirked, “Looks like a tie.”
“1-1,” Bandit informed. “Keep spinnin’?”
“Of course,” I chucked in a $100 chip, “On 12 red.”
“Oh-ho,” Bandit chucked in $100 chip, “On black.”
“$100 on 12 red! $100 on black!” the voice announced. The roulette spun once again, and the ball flew in afterward. After a minute or two, the roulette finally stopped.
“BLACK!” the voice announced. “WINNER!” Two $100 chips flew themselves toward Bandit, which he caught in his hand.
“Looks like you’re losin’,” he told me, “Keep spinnin’?”
“Slots,” I commanded. The roulette dropped down in the same manner the poker table did and two slot machines facing back-to-back sprouted in its place.
“Put in 2,” Bandit told me, “Works like a charm.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I slid in one quarter.
“Thought you’d keep in mind,” he slid in two quarters.
“Never said I’d do it,” I smirked and pulled the lever. He did the same. After the slots stopped, Bandit’s side rung out and a plethora of quarters filled up the tray.
“Told ya it works like a charm,” he grinned. “You gotta win next game, otherwise it’s game over for you.”
“Yeah yeah,” I rolled my eyes. “I’ll keep that in mind as well. Blackjack.” The slots dropped down and were replaced by the poker table that had first appeared in front of us. Bandit reached for the deck, but I stopped him by placing my hand on his arm.
“You wanna deal?” he quirked an eyebrow at me.
“You have super luck anyway, you’ll win; what’s the harm?” I shrugged.
“Go ahead,” he dropped the deck and retracted his arms. As I shuffled the deck, I pushed my thumb in toward the middle when I was cutting it and slide in a card up my sleeve fast enough so he couldn’t see me do it. I was gonna win this one for sure. I put the deck down and began to deal. I dealt one to me, one to him, one to me, and then one to me.
“20,” I boasted. “Stay or hit?”
“I have a 7,” he looked at me like I was crazy, “Why the hell would-“
“Would you what?” I interrupted.
“I stay?” he asked.
“Oh, you stay?” I chuckled. “If that’s what you want.”
“What?! I never said anything of th-“
“STAY!” the voice above us shouted. “DEALER WINS!” he announced.
“Oops,” I smiled condescendingly at him, “Did I do that?”
“You got lucky,” he grumbled.
“Ironic,” I retorted, “Since you’re the one with that ability.”
“Yeah yeah, just deal.” I did as he said. Dealt one to me, one to him, one to me, one to him.
“17,” I announced. “Stay or hit?”
“Hit,” he said, making sure he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
I flipped over the card and placed it on his side. “4,” I told him, “You’re at 17.”
“Hit, of course.” I smirked and quickly slid the card I had hid under my sleeve onto the top of the deck. I flipped it over and placed it on his side.
“Oooo, so close,” I shook my head, “But so not. 27.”
“DEALER WINS!” the voice shouted.
“Tied up,” I smiled, “Next one decides it.”
“Looks like it…” he banged on the table. In an instant, the table sunk into the ground and he was raised up so high he could’ve touched the ceiling. The deck shot out at me and the cards began to grow large. Dice clicked in the background, and they too grew in size.
“What the-“ I looked around me. It looked like one of the final boss fights in Kingdom Hearts 2. I was always awful at that one.
“Time for the fun to begin!” Bandit cackled, “You gotta make the die land on a combined total of 13 in only two hits to each of them, as well as pick out the aces on the cards!” I spun myself around and saw the cards twirl around, making their backs face me. The dice were in front of me, and I knew I had to hit them to get them to roll. I shot out two icicles at the dice, causing them to explode into pieces.
“My bad,” I apologized, “I got’cha covered, though.” I took my left index finger and sketched out two more dice of the same size. I hit both of them once each and they revealed two 4s as the top numbers. I hit them both again and they revealed a 3 and a 2 as the top numbers. The numbers that were revealed lit up and the two dice vanished into thin air.
“Unlucky 13 has been achieved!” the voice announced, “Find the aces!”
I hopped down to the floor below and approached the cards that were floating above me. As soon as I tried to look under one, it immediately flipped over. Figured.
“No cheating, Jet!” Bandit shouted, “Or you’ll be in trouble!”
“Yeah yeah…” I rubbed my chin in thought and tried to think of a logical way out. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any. It was all luck from here on out. Luck. I turned my head and looked at Bandit, who was still high up on his chair. He gave me a puzzled look, and I knew that now was my chance. I rocketed myself toward him, threw my arms back, and turned them into flames. I brought them forward with everything I had, demolishing the chair Bandit was sitting on. He toppled over and fell down to the ground below, but I figured it was more humane to kill him in the air, so I just shot an icicle through his chest. As I approached him, he twitched a few times and looked at me with a pale face.
“H-how…” he breathed deeply, “How were you beating me…”
“I was…” I leaned over and pressed my nose against his, “Cheating…” I whispered. I fired an energy bullet through his head, killing him with ease. I got up to my feet and placed my palm on his head, absorbing his abilities. I turned back toward the cards and pointed at four random ones. They turned over to reveal the four aces.
“Find the aces has been achieved!” the voice announced. The cards sunk back down to their normal size and the entire casino returned to its previous stature. Clockwork gave me a look from the distance that was neither a congratulatory one nor a disgusted one. He just shook his head slowly with that face and walked out of the casino. I looked back at Bandit, who lost all of his color, and just scoffed. I walked out of the casino shortly after, quite pleased with myself for cheating the house.

Chapter 11: Confessions of a Teenage Time Traveler
“Where to, now, master?” Clockwork sighed. I could tell he was in no mood to take orders from me, but I didn’t really care. It was fun having him listen to my every command.
“According to the list…” I looked at the list and scanned through the locations. I figured I should probably knock Daniel off as soon as possible, since he could become more powerful in time and at the moment, I doubt he could do much to me. “Houston.” Never figured Daniel would be in Texas, but made it easier for me.
“If you say so,” Clockwork rolled his eyes and ripped open a rift. He gulped nervously again, which was happening too often for it be related to me.
“Talk,” I commanded.
“Nothing-“
“I’m not buying it,” I scowled, “Tell me.”
“Well…” Clockwork gulped, “Shriek came back to his hideout.”
“Why didn’t I see him? Why didn’t you warn me?” I glared. “Stand watch my ass.”
“He grabbed me by the throat and told me to hide him. I wasn’t sure what he meant, but he explained it to me shortly after. He wanted me to take him 1 second into the past and leave him there.”
“So what’s with you gulping nervously every time you open a rift?” I gritted my teeth.
“Well… there could be some… complications with his plan, and should it ever arise… the space-time continuum could get all out of whack. And we could end up getting killed.”
“You’re telling me all this now?!” my eyes were red with anger. Betrayed by my own “teammate”. Great.
“Yeah…” Clockwork gestured toward the rift, “But that has a low chance of happening.”
“Whatever,” I rolled my eyes. “Let’s just get on with it. If that should happen, then you should probably know that I’ll more than likely end up killing you and just getting on with it myself.”
“Figured…” Clockwork sighed.
We landed on the outskirts of Houston, and unfortunately, I didn’t know where to look. There wasn’t a definite location of his profile; it just said “Houston”. Clockwork and I wandered around the desert outside of Houston.
“Any clue of where we go?” Clockwork asked.
“Nope,” I figured being blunt would be the best way to deal with him.
“Great. This will be fun,” he rolled his eyes.
“Let’s split up,” I suggested, “Cover more ground. Kid’s only 8, he can’t do much.”
“Sounds good to me,” Clockwork eagerly ripped open a rift and hopped through, leaving me in the dust. Literally.
I walked around the desert, though I had no luck with finding the person I was looking for. Then again, I had no clue who I was looking for anyway. Apparently he was able to morph, so I had no clue what he looked like. For all I knew, he was a bird or something.
“Where to look…” I pursed my lips and rubbed my chin in thought, “Where to look…” A rift opened up behind me and a hand grabbed me and dragged me through.
I fell down on my back in the front of a bar. Clockwork was standing next to me, gesturing his head toward the door of the bar I got to my feet and walked to the back room cautiously.
“What am I looking for?” I asked, trying to keep my voice as low as possible.
“You’ll know it when you see it,” Clockwork assured me. I figured he would have no reason to lie to me, so I walked in cautiously.
I pushed the door open and saw an African American kid that couldn’t be more than 8 years old get into bar fight after bar fight. He looked normal… aside from his crab claw for a right hand.
“Yeah!” he exclaimed, slamming his claw down on the table, “Who wants to take me on next?!”
“Bring it on, kid!” some random drunk shouted. He sprinted up to him and attempted to tackle him to the floor, but the kid was too fast, and he was able to knock the drunk onto his back with no effort at all. The kid opened his claw and jabbed it into the ground around the drunk’s head, and almost snapped it shut. However, he morphed his claw back into a human hand and the drunk scurried away.
“Yeah!” the kid pumped his fist in the air, “Another victory!”
“My my…” I walked into the bar, shaking my head. “What have we here? Aren’t you a bit young to be involved in these kinds of fights?”
“Hush up, grandpa” the kid scoffed, “You wanna fight or not?”
“FIGHT!FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!” the drinkers cheered. They seemed to really want to see this kid beat me up.
“You scared?” the kid smirked confidently.
“Of what? A crab claw? I eat those things for dinner.,” I rolled my eyes. “Who do I have the pleasure of meeting?”
“Daniel!” he said proudly, sticking out his chest. “You can just call me Morph!”
“Well Morph…” I shot out an icicle arm and held it up to his neck, “I’m Jet.”
“FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!” the drinkers cheered again. I don’t even think they were paying attention, they just loved chanting that word.
Morph shoved my arm out of his face and transformed his claw into a lion paw. He swung at me and a ripped my shirt open, revealing the slash marks he just made. Blood dripped down onto the floor. My blood.
I was going to enjoy this fight.
He morphed his arm back into his normal one and began to develop kangaroo legs. I gulped and braced for impact as he hopped up and kicked me in the chest, sending me flying out of the bar. My metal skin made a loud *CLANG* sound as I hit the brick wall, also causing unsightly scratches and dents. I shook the pain off and switched from silver to a bronze to get rid of the dents and scratches. I fired an energy bullet, though he dodged it without much effort.
“That the best you got?!” he spat, “You gotta do better than that, grandpa!” I didn’t say anything to him; I just pointed to the bar. I had hit the support beam clean through, and it was coming down fast. Morph ran out in a flash, and the drunks shortly followed. Clockwork, on the other hand, held his hands up high and concentrated on the bar. It became encased inside of a bubble and was now falling slower than it was before. He casually walked out of the bar, whistling of course, and then snapped his fingers, breaking the bubble and causing the bar to collapse at normal speed.
“Pretty neat, eh?” he bragged.
“I suppose,” I shrugged, “Glad you’re finally expanding on your powers. I was beginning to wonder if you were just bluffing with the whole ‘control time’ thing.”
“Coming from Mr. ‘The Only Thing I Can Do Is Make Icicle Arms’,” Clockwork rolled his eyes.
“Don’t make me go after you next,” I hopped off the ground and propelled myself through the air straight for Morph. He was quick, though. Instantaneously, he switched from kangaroo legs to jaguar ones, and sprinted out of there, leaving me to crash into the rubble of the bar.
“Just give up, grandpa,” Morph scoffed, “No one’ll ever beat me!”
“Oh-ho-ho…” I got up and grinned, “I doubt that.” I sketched out a lasso and tossed it across the area, attempting to hook onto Morph’s legs. He dodged out of the way and laughed. Predictable. I dropped the rope immediately and shot myself toward him bearing two ice fists and giant ice feet. With the fists I swung one at a time, and though I missed Morph, I managed to destroy the buildings behind him. I dropped my ice feet down to the ground, trying to stomp on Morph instead, though that didn’t seem to work either. This kid was working my last nerve that was for sure.
“If that’s the best you have,” Morph changed his legs back to human legs and just shrugged at me, “Then what’s the point in fighting? I’ll beat you, obviously.”
“I’d like to see you try,” I bared my teeth. I couldn’t believe a kid was beating me in a fight; I must’ve been weaker than I thought.
“If you say so.” Morph’s arms changed once again. Not to a crab claw, though, and not only one; he changed both into gorilla arms that were so big he wasn’t able to touch the ground if he was holding them down. He jumped down and placed his arms outward by his side and grinned at me, as if to say ‘bring it on, bucko’. I gritted my teeth and flew up in the air so he couldn’t follow me. I sketched out an anvil right above him and let it drop down.
“For your sake, you better know your old school cartoons!” I called down.
“What’s so old school about this?” he swung at the anvil with one of his mighty fists, completely shattering it upon impact. I gritted my teeth again and kept sketching out anvils. He’d have to get hit sooner or later. Apparently, I was wrong. He kept batting them away without breaking a sweat, and I was getting more and more aggravated by the minute. I figured there was one last thing I could do before I had to take my leave, though. Letting my fists get encased in ice blocks, I soared downward to Morph, heading for him straight-on. He grinned again, cockily of course, and swung at me with one of his gorilla fists. I countered with one of my ice fists, and they seemed to be evenly matched. He took another swing at me, with I blocked with relative ease. As I held off his fists, I knew this was my chance. Ice sprouted from my feet and encased them yet again in ice blocks that were the same size as the ones on my fist. Breaking the guard between our fists, I shot myself down and stomped on the ground around him, propelling him up through the air. I knew I had it in the bag now.
Unfortunately, I didn’t count on one thing: Eagle wings. Sprouting out from his back, eagle wings let him fly freely through the air and protected him from the nasty fall that would’ve happened had he not had them. The wing span seemed longer than he was tall, and I questioned to myself how he was able to control those wings. I shrugged it off, though, once I noticed his arms became connected to them, meaning he had no use of his arms now.
“Why do you only partly transform?” I asked, just noticing it now. It seemed like an obvious weak point, but he was clearly making up for it.
“Abilities haven’t fully developed,” he responded. “Plus, I’m not strong enough to withstand a full transformation.”
“Gotcha,” I nodded. That was my ticket to winning. Now that he had eagle wings, he couldn’t do anything else unless he wanted to get down from the sky, and if he got down, then I would take the opportunity and give it all I had. He knew that we were both evenly matched in terms of strength, but the fact that I had more abilities at my disposal, combined with my overall ruthlessness; it would spell disaster for him if we connected on the ground again. Fine by me, I always wanted to participate in a dog fight. Though, with his obvious disadvantage, I couldn’t help but feel he had something up his sleeve.
I shot myself up into the air and met him face to face with about a 100 foot gap between the two of us. I quirked an eyebrow, thinking he wasn’t able to do anything in the air, but I figured the faster I get this over with the better. Taking in a huge breath, I exhaled and let the ice breath waft toward him, and hope it’d hit his wings. After it cleared, Morph was still flying normally, and he just smirked at my naivety.
“Please,” he rolled his eyes and chuckled, “Of course I have other things up my sleeve.” He detached his arms from the wings behind him and stuck them out toward and narrowed his eyes in concentration toward me. He seemed to be strong enough to keep himself aflutter with his wings. Uh-oh.
In an instant, his eyes shot open and a jolt of electricity shot out from his palm and straight toward me. My eyes widened as I couldn’t believe I was going to get electrocuted by an 8 year old. Quickly, I sketched out a rubber square and stuck it up in front of me to deflect the blow. It worked, luckily, so I decided to sketch out rubber gloves for my ice fists and hands. After I had finished, I sprung myself through the air toward Morph with my fists flying behind me. When I was right in front of him, I brought my fists forward and slammed them into his chest. At first, it seemed like it did something, but after a second or two of him not moving, I began to worry. He glanced at me and grabbed onto my arms, which I had stupidly not protected.
“Woops,” Morph shrugged and sent jolts of electricity from his palms through my arms. My entire body began to insanely twitch, and for a moment, I thought I would actually die. Luckily, I didn’t, but I did end up emitting smoke and falling through the air.
I thought I would meet an untimely death at the hands of an 8 year old by plummeting to my death from the air, but luckily, Clockwork rushed beneath me and slowed down time until my feet touched the ground. He broke off the bubble and shook his head in an ‘I can’t believe you’ manner.
“Yeah yeah…” my head twitched as a shock of electricity jumped out of my ear. After a moment of feeling great, I suddenly collapsed to my knees. I was going to be beat. By this… kid. I tried to get to my feet, but whenever I tried, I fell back down. My eyes shot daggers at Morph as he descended down in front of me, like the Angel of Death coming down from Heaven to claim my soul once and for all.
“Lookie here,” he poked my head, much to my annoyance, “Looks like gramps is outta steam.”
“Yeah…” I looked at him with a broken stare, “I guess I am.”
“Too bad,” a voice growled, “I wanted to be the one who killed you.”
“S…” I looked up in the distant and saw a blurry outline of a Hulk-like figure, “Spencer?”
“Looks like you aren’t as strong as I thought!” he cackled. “Worthless. Weak. Just like your father!”
“Don’t talk about my damn father!” I growled. Fire consumed my eyes and a burst of energy filled my veins. I shot up from the ground and flew toward Spencer with an icy fist. He yawned out of boredom and simply stuck out his palm toward where I was headed. My head slammed into the middle of it and in one motion, he dropped his hand to the ground, with me in it. When he picked up his hand, the ground around me had broke, and I was hardly able to stay conscious.
“Jet!” Clockwork shouted. He ran toward me and began to slow down time in order to prevent my pain as much as he could. Spencer just looked at him and scoffed, figuring he wasn’t worth his time. Instead, he turned his attention to Morph, who gulped nervously and was shaken to his core.
“I-I’ll fight you…” Morph stuttered, putting his fists up, “A-and win!”
“If you say so,” Spencer grinned. Morph gulped and transformed his hands into gorilla ones and put them up to match Spencer’s fists. After taking one look at them, Spencer let out a hearty laugh and approached him.
“That all?” Spencer questioned, sounding disappointed. “Oh well,” he shrugged. With one flick of his fingers, he sent Morph flying into the rubble of the bar. He staggered to his feet, but it didn’t seem like he was going to end up winning this fight. Spencer shot out the same egg bomb he used to kill my dad, only this time it seemed much quicker and less painful. In only a matter of seconds, the bomb went off, sending Morph’s lifeless body flying toward Spencer in the aftermath of the explosion. Spencer caught Morph’s body in his hand and stared at his vapid face, disappointed that there wasn’t anything else to him. He touched his forehead and once the abilities were absorbed, he simply dropped Morph to the ground and turned his attention back to me and Clockwork.
“Fools,” he barked, “You won’t be able to handle me! I’m more powerful than him! I can use his TRUE STRENGTH!” As he let out a mighty roar, Spencer’s body gradually began to morph. His back arched over and fur sprouted from it; and a mane sprouted from his neck. The moment he got on all fours, his feet and arms became paws, equipped with claws sharper than anything at Sharper Image. He showed his teeth, which had doubled in size, and blood thirst was in his eyes. The tail behind him wagged viciously and he let out yet another mighty roar.
“Um… Clockwork…” I staggered to my feet, “We should probably…”
“Yeah, way ahead of ya,” Clockwork ripped open a rift and pushed me in. He wasn’t so lucky, though. Spencer had pounced as I entered the rift and grabbed Clockwork’s shirt, dragging him away from it and toward the rubble of the bar.
“CLOCKWORK!” I shouted. The last thing I remember seeing was Spencer’s jaw opening wide and Clockwork shutting his eyes as tight as he could.
Chapter 12: The Space – Time Continundrum
After losing Clockwork, I had no idea what to do. I floated around the rift aimlessly, not knowing where to go. I don’t even know if Clockwork knew, he probably just wanted to get out of there. If he died, then Spencer would control my fate now. If he got his hands on the ability to control time and space, I wouldn’t stand a chance; even more so than now. He’d either just not bother to come in here, leaving me to float around here until I die, or wander around in the past with nowhere to go until I die there. Or, if he felt particularly evil, he would just come in here and beat the crap out of me until I either died or escaped. After that, he’d either follow me, or just leave. I wouldn’t stand a chance; I’m dead no matter what. Of course, there is always the possibility that, because the time here runs concurrent to the actual time line, he would go to the rift in his own time and not mine, meaning he wouldn’t be able to end up in the rift at a different time period than he left. But I suppose if that happened, I’d just stay here forever. Great. Lose-lose either way. Just my luck.
Figuring that if I was to spend my life in this place, I decided to look around, just to see where I could go. It wasn’t really a rift, though. Well, not in the technical sense. Clockwork and I always traveled so fast through here, I never looked around to notice what it actually was. A library.
The shelves were filled to the brim with books; they looked like encyclopedias. But they were all of time. Each encyclopedia was labeled with a number, going from the beginning of time up until 2010; those were the years, I assumed. None of them looked big, though, they were the same size as any ordinary encyclopedia. Out of curiosity, I took one of them off the shelf and thumbed through the pages. They were all blank. I looked at the year I had picked out: 2001. The only historical event that happened that day was 9/11, so I was hoping to at least get something for that. Immediately when I thought of 9/11, a picture appeared on the page; a moving picture. It showed the events that happened that day on a repeat cycle. Looks like the books react to thought and concentration. Just like everything else nowadays.
I placed the book back on the shelf and looked for another one. I looked at the book labeled “1” and couldn’t help myself. Quickly grabbed it off the shelf, I opened it up and immediately thought of Jesus. Unfortunately, the only thing that came up was him on the cross. Oh well. I shrugged and put the book back, and decided to look through some other ones. I saw flashes of the Civil War, World War 1, Napoleon taking on Russia, Hitler rising to power, a couple battles in World War 2, America bomb Japan... Man, history was depressingly maniacal. It was all about battles and wars and death. I personally liked it.
I had no idea what to do now. I could either stay here and watch flashes of history, or go back in time to some place helpful. I opened up the 2010 book, but didn’t think of any particular event. I just knew that this was the book I wanted to jump into. I could go back to before I had abilities… but then I’d just get them again and I’d have to watch myself get pummeled. I figured there was only one thing to do at this point: Find Shriek. I concentrated on going back one second from my pervious time, and sure enough, an image popped up. I hopped through without thinking of any consequences that might ensue and just hoped for the best.
I landed in the pile of rubble that used to be the Drops of Fire’s hideout. I looked around and noticed everything was gone now; Shriek and Ecto must’ve just destroyed the rest for good measure. Everyone and everything was gone. They seemed to be my only friends and family for the past few weeks, but I just turned my back on them. And what happened? I got them all killed. I couldn’t believe that everything was my fault. Perfect my ass; I’m far from it. A perfect person wouldn’t have left his friends out of a stubborn attitude. A perfect person wouldn’t have been the reason his friends were killed. A perfect person wouldn’t be me.
I decided to just debate about my perfect status later and attempted to come up with a plan. I had GPA’s brain, which was helpful at this time, because I knew a few things that would be able to save me and aide me. Shriek didn’t know outsiders from his time stream couldn’t interact with him, meaning I’m the only person who can because I’m currently in his time line. And, Shriek would obviously know Clockwork would tell me about this, so he hid in the place I would go to first: His hideout. Luckily, that was also the most obvious location, so I didn’t really have to think too much on that one. Villains are never as smart as they appear to be. Aside from me, of course. If you can even call me a villain.
I figured that disguising myself would be the best way to get near Shriek, since there was no way he would allow me to live if he knew I was here. I swapped my appearance with that of Ecto, and hoped for the best. I walked through town and toward the hideout, trying to come up with an attack plan. I could go head on, but he was probably expecting that. I could back stab, but he probably had a counter plan for that. Guess GPA’s brain wasn’t as helpful as I originally thought. Oh well, it will still help me sooner or later. I guess.
When I finally arrived at his hideout, I realized that I had no clue on how to get in. Sure, I saw “Ryan” do it, but it’s not like I actually paid attention to that. I wondered for a moment on how to get in without Shriek noticing, and how a convenient way for Ecto to get in would be. Could I phase through? I mean, it’s not like the hideout is in my time line; it’s one second ahead of me. I shouldn’t be able to interact with it, so I could just pass through it like a ghost. Like Ecto. I figured it was at least worth a shot, and sure enough, it worked like a charm. I hopped down through the floor and landed in the main room; the one where I entered the first time. The computer chair was swung around to face me, in order to show that Shriek wasn’t there. The computer itself was turned off, which was obviously an attempt to throw my off the trail. Luckily, I was smarter than that. I knew he was here; there was no place else he’d be. The only problem was that I didn’t know where in here he was.
“Hey boss!” I called out. Immediately, I cupped my mouth with my hands and almost flinched at the sound of my voice. It sounded exactly like Ecto’s. Guess I just wasn’t prepared for that.
Shriek didn’t answer me, from wherever in here he was. I looked around the room again to verify he wasn’t here, and he wasn’t. I didn’t want to barge into the rooms on either side of the hallway that ran through here, since it seemed like something Ecto wouldn’t do. Or maybe he would; who knows. At any rate, I wasn’t going to do that.
“Boss! Where’re ya at?”
Silence again. He was good at this.
“I heard that that Jet kid kicked the ol’ bucket!” I shouted. I figured that would grab his attention, if he was in the building.
Fortunately, and unfortunately, it did. A large sound wave soared through the air, shattering everything in its path. I cupped my ears to prevent it from hurting me any more than it was already doing. Out of the rubble of a destroyed wall, Shriek stood and glared at my angrily.
“WHAT?!” he shouted. Another sound wave traveled through the air, causing me to wince out of sheer pain.
“I told you to bring him back here!” he shouted, panting in frustration. “ALIVE!”
“I-I know ya did, boss, but ya see-“
“NO I DON’T SEE!” he snarled. He leapt from the rubble of the wall and sprinted straight toward me. He grabbed me by the collar and pinned me down on the computer keyboard, pushing my chest with all his strength. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to snap my ribs or just make me cry in pain, but it still felt like it was working, even though I had a metal body. I looked into his eyes and saw extreme anger and frustration. If he had fire powers, they’d be literally engulfed in flames of fiery anger right about now.
“S-sorry boss,” I tried to pull off a smile, but I was unable to. His facial expression was petrifying; it was like staring into Medusa’s eyes or something.
“You’re always sorry!” he shoved me off the keyboard and flung me to the ground in the middle of the room. He walked over to me as I clutched my chest, wheezing for air and wincing in pain. Though, I felt like I gave myself away. He kicked me in the chest to try and teach me a lesson, but the kick connecting with my metal body produced a very audible *CLANG* sound.
“Oh?” he quirked his eyebrow in intrigument and chuckled. He kicked my chest again for good measure, and yet again, the very audible *CLANG* emitted from it.
“Jet!” he grabbed my collar and lifted me to my feet. “What a surprise!” he said with a wicked grin on his face. He was going to enjoy this, I could tell. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for me, unless I somehow pulled off a miracle. Even with all my powers, I couldn’t even kill an 8 year old kid. What hope do I have to kill Shriek? I was out of my mind when I came here. As a last resort, I figured the only thing to do would be to lie my way out. Maybe he was gullible. With my luck, though, he wouldn’t be.
“What?” I questioned. “It’s me boss! It’s Ecto!”
“Ha!” he laughed loudly. I had just noticed this now, but the acoustics in this place were amazing. Must be why he’s so strong; the sound waves travel magnificently in this place. Must make them stronger as well, or something.
“Don’t make me laugh! You think Jet could’ve died at the hands of Ecto?!” he mocked. Well, at least I was stronger than someone still alive.
“You don’t give me enough credit, boss!” I exclaimed. Even if I was going to be found out, this was better than me putting up a fight at the moment. I had to stall until Clockwork showed up. Well, until Clockwork hopefully showed up, that is.
“Fine, I’ll play along,” he shrugged. “You don’t deserve enough credit, peon!”
“Yeah I do!” I protested. “I can do lots of stuff!”
“Oh?” Shriek questioned. “Hypothetically speaking… if you were to have killed Jet, then how did you gain his abilities?”
“I’m a perfection!” I announced proudly.
“Is that so?” Shriek asked with a sly grin on his face. “And where do you hail from, Ecto?”
“I… er….” I scratched my head and tried to think where he could’ve been from. I came up short, though. “Forgot?”
“As usual…” Shriek sighed, “You, Ecto, hail from Europe. And both you and I know that there was already a European perfection.”
“Spencer?” I asked. I hoped Ecto didn’t know Spencer’s name, otherwise the jig would be up and I’d be down. Down in the ground, that is.
“Yes, it seems you can remember some things…” Shriek nodded. “There cannot be two perfections in the world from the same place. So, you could not have absorbed Jet’s abilities, that he himself absorbed from Theresa.”
“Yeah, b-“
“Check and mate,” Shriek leaned in toward me and gave me a straight face. He was too close for comfort that was for sure. “Jet,” he whispered, curling his lip and bearing his teeth.
“Fine,” I shrugged. I backed away from him and replaced Ecto’s image with my own. No use staying in that form anymore, even though he always knew I wasn’t Ecto. I took a fighting stance and waited for his move.
“You want to fight?” he chuckled. “You do have a sense of humor!”
“Why the hell does everyone keep saying that?” I asked, rather annoyed. “I know I have a sense of humor! I’m hilarious!”
“Of course you are!” he agreed, “You want to challenge me to a fight! That’s hilarious!”
“Oh can it,” I scoffed. “I can take you any day. Like today.”
“Oh?” he raised an eyebrow curiously. “Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure!” I pounded my chest proudly.
“You’re too weak,” he said rather nonchalantly. “You aren’t a challenge for me. You aren’t a challenge for anybody. The only reason you were able to kill Theresa was by dumb luck.”
“Or maybe you’re just chicken,” I taunted. I can’t believe I even said that. That insult is so… 2005.
“I’m a lot of things, boy,” Shriek took a fighting stance as well, “But chicken isn’t one of them.” Him taking a fighting stance caught me off guard. He fought with sound waves, so I had no clue why he wanted to fight hand-to-hand. I don’t even think he’d argue that I would win in that situation, unless he had some secret abilities that allowed him to decimate ice at close range. He clenched his fists tight and closed his eyes. A strange red aura cloaked his fists, and then soon, his entire body was outlined in red. Crouching down, he opened his eyes and exhaled deeply. He twirled his wrists around and then sprang himself back up. The entire ground began to rumble below us, though the building remained unaffected, shockingly. Pieces of the earth began to shoot up and revolve around him like he was a planet and they were little moons. I counted 16 pieces, but there could’ve been more.
“Even though my name is Shriek…” he said. “Terrakinesis is my main power.” He extended his arms outward and pointed them at me. The pieces of earth began to fly through the air, headed straight for their target: My body. I brought up an ice shield and held it for as long as I was able to, though I was only able to protect myself from a couple pieces of earth before I finally gave way and the shield shattered, letting dozens of pieces of earth the size of my head beat down on me. I know I say this rather often, but this time, I think I mean it: I may actually die here. I have no way to protect myself from his terrakinesis, and he was obviously stronger. My only hope would be to engage in hand-to-hand combat, but even then it could be dangerous, seeing as how he could always just attach earth to his hands to make them the size of my ice fists and completely decimate them.
“Pity,” he shrugged. He made the red aura around him vanish, and he stood over me, much in the same manner Spencer previously did back in Houston. “Seems like you’re still breathing.” He kicked me just to check. I wheezed for air and coughed up some blood, but I was still alive.
“Y-yeah…” I trembled, “Guess I am…”
“Well, you’ll be able to see my finest trick in action,” he smirked. He took a fighting stance again, and I staggered to my feet, letting my arms dangle beside me. I was still going to put up a fight, even if I was going to die. I willed my arms to lift up and take a guard stance, though I could only hold it for so long before I gave way. I gulped nervously and waited for what he was about to do.

Chapter 13: Once a Newbie, Always a Newbie
Shriek drew his fist back, like he was going for a punch, though nothing was in front of him so I couldn’t imagine what he was doing.
“Before you die…” he said abruptly, “I should probably explain why you will.”
“Fine by me…” I gasped for air. I lowered my guard and let my arms dangle by my side again. Hopefully I’d have the strength to fight after he was done talking.
“You see…” he explained, “My vocal powers aren’t really vocal at all. They come from sound waves. Everything makes sound, obviously. If I were to concentrate hard enough, I could amplify the sound from anywhere. Including the air surrounding my fists when I punch something. Like so.” He didn’t give me any time to recover my guard. Typical. I didn’t think he would. He threw his punch in the air and just as he said, the sound waves from the punch emitted from his fists and traveled through the air, hitting me dead-on. I flew into a wall behind me and let my head spin around as I sat there, dazed and confused. I swore I saw birds. But that was probably because the ceiling was blown open thanks to a previous engagement with a certain giant ice robot and the birds were flying in and out of the hideout freely.
“See?” he bragged. If he could do that with anything he wanted to, then I may already be stating the obvious here, but I’m in trouble.
As he walked over to me, about to deliver the final blow to kill me, I began to remember everything that happened over the last month or so. I wanted to know why my life was like this; why everything happened the way it did. What I could’ve done to prevent it. No matter what, I wasn’t going to be able to change it, since Clockwork was stuck with Spencer in the future, and I had no strength to carry on.
The images of fallen allies fluttered about the sky, though it was just my imagination, of course. GPA, Al, X, Shooter, Ryan, my dad, and even Van. Sure, I didn’t like the guy, but I didn’t want him to die. At least not the way he did, anyway; I wanted to be the one to kill him. Would’ve been nice to prove him wrong about me being a newbie. Funny thing, though, he was always right. I was always getting in over my head about everything. Even before this all started. I mean, I dated Cassie. A popular girl. If that wasn’t going in over my head, I didn’t know what was. Oh yeah, Cassie’s image appeared too, oddly enough. Sure, I was the one to break up with her, but she was just awful to me afterward. I don’t know if she even liked me the way I liked her; she probably only wanted a way to torture me for the rest of my school life. Mission accomplished, Cassie. Thanks to you, I am now going to die.
“Don’t give up,” a voice called out. It didn’t sound like anyone I recognized. It was a girl’s voice, I could tell that much, but it didn’t sound like GPA, Cassie, or Rose. What other females in my life were there? I mean, Theresa, for about five seconds, but there was no reason I would imagine her saying that to me.
Oh yeah. My mom. The reason why I have ice powers. It’s been so long, I almost forgot what she sounded like. “Don’t give up,” her voice echoed. I think those were the last words she said to me before she left, I’m not sure. I just may not want to give up and my subconscious just stuck her voice with the sentence because it figured I’d listen. Well played subconscious, well played indeed. Speaking of my subconscious, I began to have one of those weird, cliché, fantasy day-dreams where the images of all your friends and family that died came back and are now speaking to you as if they were right there by your side. It was touching, I guess.
“Yeah!” Ryan added. “What your mom said! You can’t give up now, dude! You’re so close!”
“Even though you aren’t close to accomplishing anything at all…” Al grumbled, “I agree with Mr. ADHD. You can’t give up. You owe it to us.”
“Not just us,” X added, “You owe it to yourself.”
“PROVE YOUR WORTH, BOY!” my dad shouted. “I DIDN’T RAISE NO SISSY!”
“Jet!” GPA exclaimed. “You have to!” Without her powers, she just sounded like a cheerleader again; what she sounded like when her powers were ‘off’, you could say.
“I can’t…” I sighed, “He’s… he’s too strong.”
“No he ain’t!” Ryan protested. “I almost took ‘im down myself! And you’re ten times stronger than I am!”
“Jet…” Cassie looked down on me solemnly. “I… never tricked you. I never deceived you. I wanted to be with you. When you broke my heart… I couldn’t take it. I’m usually the dumper, because the guys I go out with are pigs, so I just torture them to teach them a lesson. You… you were different. You treated me like a princess. When you stopped… I wanted you to pay. I caused you this grief…” she sniffed, “You’re about to die because of me! If I could go back, trust me, I would!”
“Damn newbie,” Van interrupted. He purred as he checked out Cassie’s body. “This your ex?”
“Shut it!” Cassie slapped Van over the head.
“Ow! I may be a figment of this kid’s imagination, but that still hurt!” he shouted. He turned to me and sighed deeply. “Seriously, dude, you gotta do this. You can’t die now.”
“Really?” I asked, “You’re encouraging me?”
“Yeah,” he turned around to face away from me, as if he was embarrassed. “But once a newbie, always a newbie!”
“Jet…” Shooter broke in, “I… want to protect Jet! Jet is my friend!”
“Yeah…” I smiled, “I am.”
After that, they all vanished. I didn’t see an image of my mom, though, which I found strange. She was always supportive of me; more so than my dad. Though, come to think of it, that’s not saying much at all. I just wished I could see her one last time before I kicked the bucket.
Hey, who knows? Maybe dad was right. Maybe she did die. If she did, then maybe I could see her up in Heaven, even if I don’t believe it in fully.
“Did you have fun?” Shriek’s voice snapped me out of my self induced trance. “I may be evil, and ruthless, but I’d never interrupt a cliché moment. They always get me.”
“Come on, Jet!” everyone’s voices shouted at me. “Get up!”
“But since it’s over…” Shriek drew his fist back and got ready to punch, “I guess there’s no shame in killing you now.”
“Get up, newbie! Or I’ll kick your ass in the afterlife!” Van shouted. His voice seemed to send a burst of energy, equivalent to what you get when you drink a Red Bull, coursing through my body. I barrel rolled out of the way just in time, allowing Shriek’s punch to miss me and hit the wall behind me. He shook off the pain in his knuckles and glared at me intently as I got to my feet and struck a fighting pose.
“Seems you have some energy left,” he commented, “How fun.”
“Just shut up and fight,” I commanded. He found no problem in doing so, so he struck a fighting pose as well and allowed the red aura to take over his body once more. This time, he sent pieces of the earth flying at me more rapidly. Acting quickly, I stuck my palms out and stopped them in mid-air. Thanks to GPA’s telekinesis, I was able to send them right back to Shriek, knocking him down out of the pure shock that I was able to do that.
“Looks like you’ve got more tricks up your sleeve,” he spat out a bit of blood and wiped his mouth. “This’ll be more fun than I thought.” As the red aura continued to surround him, he continued throwing pieces of the earth at me. I fired my energy bullets, courtesy of Shooter, and broke them up before they hit me. Using my non-active hand, I clamped onto my arm and mimed cocking a gun. This proved to be more useful than I thought, as the bullet that fired out was the equivalent to a shotgun shell. It rained down over Shriek, causing him to send up a rock for cover, though it did little use. The rock broke apart, and he became showered in energy bullets.
The red aura around his disappeared and he rose to his feet. He looked down at his shirt and noticed the blood that covered it, and the holes in it from my attack, and decided it’d just get in his way now. He ripped it off and fired several amplified sound wave attacks from his fist. With help from Al’s metal body, I was able to change to steel, and simply repel the sound waves around me as I vibrated in my place as an after effect.
“You’re running out of tricks!” I shouted, feeling confident that I could take this fight easily now. “Just give up!”
“Oh, not yet…” he turned intangible and flew straight for me. Without gathering the red aura around him, he propelled pieces of the ground at me, denting my steel skin. He fired an ectoplasm blast at me, hitting me square in the chest. I fell down on my back, but quickly raised my torso and hopped to my feet.
“You killed Ecto?” I questioned rhetorically. “How cruel.”
“Just shut up and fight,” Shriek mimicked me. I smirked, semi-amused, and began firing energy bullets rapidly. I knew Ecto never kept his intangible form up long, so I just had to wade out Shriek until he turned tangible again, allowing the bullets to hit him fully.
Unfortunately, he remained intangible. For some reason, he wasn’t turning back to his normal self, and he just kept firing ectoplasm blasts at me. I was in trouble now. I conjured up fire balls in an attempt to counter his blasts, but they had little effect aside from stopping a few of them. I needed Clockwork here, badly.
“It’s a shame you don’t know how to kill a ghost,” Shriek commented. “This would’ve been more fun. I congratulate you on the effort, though.”
As I stood there, stiff as stone, I couldn’t help but feel regret and guilt, knowing I let my friends and family down. I’m sorry, GPA, I didn’t have to do it. I’m sorry, Al, I couldn’t avenge you guys. I’m sorry, X, I couldn’t do it for myself. Van, it looks like you’ll be able to kick my ass in the afterlife after all. I’m sorry, Ryan, I am weak. I’m sorry, Shooter, you weren’t able to protect me. I’m sorry, dad, you did raise a sissy. I’m sorry, Cassie, for… everything.
I shut my eyes and prepared for the worst. I could hear the ectoplasm forming in his hand. I think the most annoying part about knowing you’ll die, is the waiting. You don’t know when it’ll come, you just know it will. Until then, you just have to keep waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Until finally, Death appears in front of you and hands you a candy bar, and remarks, “It’s called Sweet Relief. I’m giving it to you.”
Through this entire thing, I just couldn’t help but think… I’m not perfect. I didn’t get good grades, I wasn’t talented, I wasn’t good looking, I wasn’t helpful, I wasn’t… anything. I was average. Completely, and totally, average.
Wait- why am I explaining this to you again? I forgot the reason. Am I supposed to teach you a lesson or something? You want a lesson? Stop trying to be perfect. It gets you nowhere. Or if it will get you somewhere, it’ll only lead to your demise.
I heard the ectoplasm leave Shriek’s hand. This was it. Finally, death.
A whoosing noise came in from the background, and a hand grabbed me by the collar and yanked me with it. I fell back into what I suppose should be named The Library of Time.
Damn. Death was so close.
Chapter 14: Killing Sprees Are Better Than Shopping Sprees
“JET!” Clockwork exclaimed. “You were going to die! Why the hell were you just standing there?!”
“Why the hell did you save me?!” I shouted. I should’ve been happy to see Clockwork alive, but I wasn’t. “I’m not going to be able to beat anyone! I’m going to lose eventually! I’m not the perfect being! I never will be! Spencer and Shriek are stronger than I could ever dream of becoming!”
“SHUT IT!” Clockwork hit me over the head. “Stop talking crazy! You’re going to do this! You’re going to be the winner when all this is over! Now stop acting like you love death and start kissing my rings for saving your sorry ass! AGAIN!”
“I can’t believe this…” I grumbled. “How do you propose I beat them? Hm? You’ve seen what happens when I face Spencer! The power gap is too big! I can’t do anything about it! And Shriek has Ecto’s powers, now! He can turn intangible! How am I supposed to beat him now?!” I wasn’t asking rhetorically this time. I seriously wanted to know. And if anyone knew, it was the ‘almighty’ Clockwork.
“Because you’re Jet!” he protested. If he knew that you guys, the people this is directed to, existed, then he’d’ve probably said ‘Because this is your story! Main characters don’t die!’
Oh well. If he did say that, I’d just tell him to go watch Death Note.
“You are destined to win this thing, Jet! You’re destined to become the perfect perfection! Future generations will be modeled after you!”
“I don’t want that!” I protested. “Sure, winning is great, but I don’t want generations to be modeled after me! I’m not perfect! I’m AVERAGE!”
“Exactly!” Clockwork said. “You’re perfectly average!” I hadn’t thought about that before. Perfectly average? Was that why I was chosen? Average in every way? I guess it makes sense. Perfection would be too boring for people anyway. Still, I didn’t want people to be modeled after my genetic make-up. That’s not right. It’s not how life works.
“Fine,” I said. “I’ll win.”
“Of course you wi-“
“But I’m not letting people be modeled after me,” I cut Clockwork off. He looked at me with a strange face, like he wasn’t sure I was the real Jet or not.
“How?” he tilted his head.
“Kill the scientists,” I said with a straight face. Clockwork tried to look at me and attempt to make me crack a smile, to prove that I was just kidding, but I wasn’t. I was dead serious. I wanted those guys to die. And I didn’t even know who they are. I couldn’t stand that they did this to me. To everyone who got these curses. And then they just sit back and enjoy the show as everyone with these things kills each other? No. That’s not gonna fly with me. They will pay. And they will pay dearly.
“How do you propose to do that?” Clockwork asked.
“Just listen to everything I tell you, without questions. If I tell you to do something, you do it.”
“Like what Dumbledore did when he and Harry went to find that Horcrux in The Half-Blood Prince?” Clockwork asked.
“…Sure, like that,” I rolled my eyes. Of course that’s what he’d relate it to.
“So where do we go now?”
“To right before this happened,” I told him. He looked at me like I was crazy; like I was being an idiot or something. But I had a plan, and I knew what I had to do.
“Why?” he asked confused.
“I need to make adjustments to your powers,” I told him. I grabbed the 2010 book off the shelf and thought of the morning after the fog was released. When the image appeared, Clockwork and I jumped through it.
We landed in the exact location the hideout was built. And it was already built. Looks like these guys don’t mess around when it comes to building hideouts.
“Already built?” I asked Clockwork.
“We’ve known about the fog for months. We had the basic design of it; GPA, Al, 452 and Grim were able to set everything up pretty quickly.”
“I keep hearing that,” I broke in. “Why was 452 awake so early?”
“GPA did a scan on her, and apparently a chemical defect in her system allowed her to wake up with the rest of us. It pretty much tricked the fog into thinking she was just a perfect, when she was actually a perfection.”
“Damn,” I looked at the hideout, but quickly turned my head back to Clockwork. “Wait- Grim?”
“He was one of the ones that left to find 452. He’s the only one we don’t have confirmation on being alive or not.”
“He can control the dead, right?” I asked, rolling my eyes.
“Of course,” Clockwork responded. “Now why are we here?”
“To make adjustments to your abilities,” I repeated.
“But we can’t-“
“I beg to differ,” I smirked. “We may not be able to interact with anything, but telekinesis can.”
“I… guess…” Clockwork rubbed the back of his head. When we were both in agreement, we headed inside the hideout and went straight for GPA’s room.
We were just in time. She was making the final adjustments to switch off that section of his abilities. I concentrated on the lever on her control panel, causing it to move down silently. She didn’t notice it, and she let Clockwork walk off, assuming it was done.
“That was… really easy,” Clockwork remarked. “Shocking.”
“I suppose,” I shrugged. “Take us back.” Clockwork ripped open a rift, allowing us to jump back to The Library of Time. I picked up the 2010 book again and concentrated on the day the fog was released. When the image appeared, Clockwork and I hopped through, and we appeared outside of my school.
“I should probably mention that my powers cause black outs,” Clockwork told me. “Just thought you should know, if you ever want to consider what people are doing before you tell me to use them aimlessly.”
“So that’s what the blackout at school was,” I commented, hardly paying attention to his second comment. I walked out behind the school and waited for the buses to pull up. When Cassie stepped off the bus, I ran over and grabbed her by the arm and yanked her to where I originally was.
“I have mace!” she threatened as she took out a tiny bottle of mace. “Don’t make me use it!”
“Jesus Cassie…” I chuckled, “Do you ever give it a rest with that thing?”
“Wait-“ she studied me for a moment, “Jet?”
“Yes?”
“Jet…” Clockwork whispered, “This isn’t a good idea…”
“I just saw you on the bus,” Cassie said, looking back at the bus to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. “Besides, why are you even talking to me?! UGH!”
“How charming…” I rolled my eyes. “Look, I’m sorry for breaking up with you, okay?”
“Bull shit,” Cassie remarked. Yeah, she wasn’t really sophisticated in the language department. Oh well, never bothered me.
“Really, I am,” I looked into her eyes and stared at her apologetically. “I didn’t want to hurt you, and I just thought you were toying with me or something. My self esteem is already low, and if you crushed me, and then tortured me, it’d be even lower. I didn’t want to break up with you, but I just… had to.”
“Jet, seriously! We need to get out of here!” Clockwork demanded. “This isn’t safe!”
“Who’s he?” Cassie pointed to Clockwork.
“Eeep!” he jumped behind me and hid. “I’ve been compromised! Let’s get outta here!”
“Sorry Cassie…” I apologized, “For everything.” I picked Clockwork up and shoved him in order to get him moving. He and I both ran out for the field behind the school, while Cassie just looked confused on this whole thing. Well, that explains why I didn’t see her when I went into school. And the kiss, I guess. But nothing else.
Of course… if the power outage happened twice… Nah. Couldn’t be. That was just a coincidence, and Cassie decided to just not believe me. Yeah, that’s what happened.
Clockwork and I reappeared in The Library of Time and decided to take a break for a moment.
“Are you crazy Jet?!” Clockwork shouted. “We could’ve disrupted the fabric of time and space!”
“But we didn’t,” I rolled my eyes. “Besides, you’re ‘the almighty Clockwork’, don’t you like taking risks? Or are you just all bark and no bite?”
“Oh!” Clockwork exclaimed. “Speaking of that, Spencer followed me.”
“WHAT?!” I ran around the library frantically with my ice fists out. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?! Where is he?!”
“Gone, now,” Clockwork confessed. “He left when I picked you up.”
“So now he’s with Shriek?” I talked through my teeth out of anger. My two worst enemies are now together. Fantastic. That’ll end up just dandy for me.
“Sorry,” Clockwork shrugged, “It was the only way for him to not kill me.”
“Whatever,” I grumbled. “We aren’t going back to that time for a while, anyway.”
“So where are we going now?”
“Day I left the hideout,” I told him. I concentrated on the day I left the Drops of Fire. When the image appeared, both of us jumped through, and I was hoping the pieces would fall into place.
“C’mon,” I said. “We don’t have much time.”
“Where’re we going?” Clockwork asked.
“School.” I ran as fast as I could to my school, and Clockwork tried to catch up. On our way there, no one seemed to notice us, even though were completely tangible to them now. They should be able to see us.
“Clockwork,” I started, “Why can’t they see us?”
“Because,” he explained, “Only perfects can see perfects.”
“But Cassie saw me,” I commented. “She didn’t have abilities.”
“No,” he retorted, “But you saw her before the you of that timeline got them. Now, you have abilities, so no one else can see us aside from other perfects.”
“Makes sense,” I sighed, “I guess.” This worked out just fine. Now I just need to protect Rose even more now. Not like I wasn’t planning on doing that anyway; I live for the cliché damsel in distress stuff, but now that she has abilities, she’ll be sought after every second. Can’t wait.
Clockwork and I arrived at the school, and while he began to tremble again, I spotted Rose coming out of the front door.
“Rose!” I exclaimed.
“Jet!” She wrapped my arms around me and gave me a hug. I returned the hug and smiled a bit. “Ryan and I thought you were dead!”
“No no, I’m alive and well,” I chuckled as I pushed her away. “Look, Rose, when you see me again, it won’t be me. Well, it will, but it won’t be the me you see now. Actually… okay, I’m horrible at explaining this. The next time you see me, just go along with everything I say and do, okay? And when Ryan and I start to leave, make up an excuse as to why you can’t go. Do homework, watch TV, go on a date, do something. I don’t care. Just don’t follow me and Ryan, or you’ll die. Okay?”
“Umm…” she stammered. It was obviously too much for her to take on at once, but I didn’t care. The me of this time would be here soon, and if he saw me, then I’d be in trouble.
“Okay,” she nodded her head.
“Good girl,” I smiled and ran back with Clockwork. “Sorry! Gotta go!” Clockwork ripped open a rift and in one motion, both of us jumped through it with ease.
“So now you’ve kept Rose out of trouble, and told Cassie what you needed to say,” Clockwork caught his breath. “Now what? You want to save JFK from being assassinated?”
“Back to our current time,” I told him, opening up the 2010 book. “I need to find Rose.”
“You sure?” he huffed. “That could be dangerous.”
“Of course I’m sure,” the image of the current timeline flashed on the page. “It’s not vital to my plan, but I want to keep her here for safety.”
“You sure?” he huffed again. “It’s risky business trying to get here from the present if you want to come here in the past.”
“I figured as much,” I placed the book on the table and looked at him. “It’s the perfect hiding spot.”

Chapter 15: Every Rose Has Her Thorns
“If I were Rose…” I tapped my chin as I walked around town, “Where would I go?”
“Your house?” Clockwork asked sarcastically.
“Nah. No one can see her. Her house wouldn’t do much good,” I told him. “Somewhere… not as obvious, but still obvious.”
“The library?” Clockwork asked, still sarcastically.
“Makes sense,” I agreed. “To the library!”
“Yuck,” Clockwork mimed gagging, “The library.”
“Says one of the smartest people I know,” I rolled my eyes. “And that’s coming from someone with GPA’s brain.” After that compliment, silence fell on us and we walked to the library without speaking. Must’ve been a library spell or something; silence before we even get there. Spooky.
The library was as decrepit as always. The grass on the front lawn was dead, the branches on the trees sagged sadly, though strangely, the flowers remained intact. The building itself was horrendous. It suited the grass and trees, to be honest. It was painted a disgusting puke green for whatever reason, and was made out of cement and wood. Graffiti was all over it, all having non-readable tags that were probably just someone’s name or saying something crude. Rats scurried by the steps as Clockwork and I approached the front door.
Upon entering, we noticed that no one was at the library. Well, almost no one. There was a stack of books piled to the ceiling on a table, with another stack on to other side of the table just as high. We cautiously walked over to the table, but didn’t see anyone sitting there.
“Damn,” I snapped my fingers, “Thought this’d be the place.”
“Oh well,” Clockwork shrugged, “Let’s g-“
“Jet?” Rose asked. I turned around and sure enough, there she was. She looked the same as the day I was reunited with her and ‘Ryan’, aside from the books she was carrying, of course.
“Rose!” I exclaimed, running up to give her a hug. She returned it and placed her head on my chest as she wept softly.
“I… I… I…” she sniffed, “I’ve been forgotten…”
“No you haven’t,” I smiled. “No one could forget you.”
“Then why does no one know me?! Why does no one see me!?!” she demanded to know.
“Because of your abilities,” I explained. “No one without them can see you. It just means you’re… well… perfect.”
“I don’t feel perfect,” she walked away from me and pouted. “I feel like a nobody.”
“Rose, the flowers outside…” I felt like I needed to know why they weren’t wilted. With ‘Rose’ being her name, I figured it had something to do with her.
“Yes, it was me,” she confessed, “Apparently, I am able to control flowers.”
“Of course,” I chuckled. “Come on, I want to protect you,” I gestured to the door, but she didn’t seem to want to leave.
“Why?” she asked. “No one comes in here. No one notices me. I am safe here, Jet. Protection is something I don’t need.”
“Rose, there are dangerous people out there,” I told her. “You’ll be killed if you stay here.”
“I don’t care,” she protested. “I want to stay.”
“Even if I told you’d be in a library?” I bribed her. I knew it wouldn’t be a good idea, but I had to at least try.
“Wel-“
“FOUND YOU!” Spencer exclaimed as he broke through the ceiling of the library.
“Gizmo!” I jokingly shouted. “I was beginning to think you forgot about me!”
“Don’t call me GIZMO!” he shouted as he transformed himself into a lion yet again. He lacked originality, that’s for sure.
“Clockwork,” I said, “Take Rose and get out of here. I’ll hold him off.”
“Are you insane?!” he choked. He couldn’t believe I just suggested that. “No way! You’ll get slaughtered!”
“CLOCKWORK!” I snapped, “I told you to listen to everything I told you without question! Get out of here and save Rose! Come back for me when she’s safe!”
“If you say so…” Clockwork grabbed Rose’s arm and dragged her out of the library, though she was being extremely resistant. I didn’t care if she didn’t want to go, I wanted her safe. If that meant my life, then fine. I can’t wait till Death and I meet face to face, anyway. Maybe then he can finally beat me in this staring contest we’ve been having since the day I woke up with this curse.
Spencer paid no attention to Clockwork escaping with Rose, as I was clearly his main target. He pounced down off of a bookshelf and swung his paw at me, trying to claw me to bits. I brought up an ice shield and dodged the slash just in time. This game of cat and mouse kept up for quite some time, as he was obviously stronger than me, but I was as fast as he was strong. This could go on for hours if it wasn’t broken.
Spoke too soon. Shriek came up from the ground and gave me a dead-on uppercut. I flew back into a bookcase, knocking it and all the books on it over and onto the ground, creating a domino effect. I laid there as I heard shelf after shelf fall behind me, and I just wondered what I could do. I wasn’t strong, and I was only one person. I was smart, sure, but that wasn’t going to help me win this.
Shriek launched himself toward me and I flew up high to dodge the blow, but Spencer was right there to knock my back down on my ass. Luckily, he claws missed, though it still hurt when my back crashed down onto a shelf of the bookcase. Shriek came up from the ground and fired an ectoplasm blast at the back of my head, propelling me forward toward Spencer, who successfully clawed me in the chest. I fell over, almost unconscious, and just lied in a pool of my own blood. I could hear the pitter patter of rain start outside, and it began to drip down on me from the hole that Spencer made in the ceiling. I feel like a broken record when I say this, but this is it. I’m going to die here, and then Shriek and Spencer will compete for the ultimate being. I had no conceivable way of getting out of this now. I would either die by their hands, or by blood loss.
“Too bad,” Shriek scoffed, “I thought you’d actually be a challenge.”
“STOP!” Rose shouted. She ran back into the library, with Clockwork chasing after her, gasping for air.
“J…J…JET!” he called out. With his remaining energy, he created a time bubble around me and slowed down time inside it considerably, in order to help me stay alive longer. Rose, on the other hand, dove straight into the battle field.
Vines appeared out of nowhere as she extended her arms out toward Shriek and Spencer. Catching them off guard, both of them got entangled in them and hung from the ceiling like meat in a meat locker. Thorns protruded out of them and sunk into their skin, causing them to cry out in pain. Even someone as tough as Spencer could succumb to thorns in an instant.
“Jet!” Rose knelt down beside me and looked into my eyes. “Are you okay?!”
“Y…yeah…” I exhaled deeply. I could feel myself losing it. This time, it was for real. Not like the other times, where I had just barely managed to escape because of Clockwork, or because of dumb luck. None of us had medical experience, and no one without powers could see me. I wouldn’t be able to get bandaged in time, and I would die of blood loss, even though Spencer and Shriek were apprehended.
“Jet…” Clockwork swallowed nervously. I could almost hear it hit the bottom of his stomach; it sounded like he swallowed a rock. He was definitely not ready to lose me. Rose wasn’t, either. I doubt Spencer and Shriek were thrilled about it, either, since neither of them would gain my abilities.
No, you know what? These aren’t abilities. I’m not referring to them anymore. They’re nothing but curses. Al was right. This isn’t a game; this is real life. These aren’t something that should be toyed with. These are curses bestowed upon us by a higher power, because being perfect is the greatest and cruelest form of torture ever invented. No one can see you. No one can hear you. No one wants you. No matter what, you think you’re better than everyone. And what does it get you? Nothing. Well, that’s not true. It gets you death. If you’re perfect, what do you have to live for? Nothing. You’re everything you always wanted. You’re perfect in every way possible. What else is there in life? No one can ever meet you on the winner’s podium. You’re 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Always. You’ll be utterly disappointed in everything you attempt to do, because nothing is a challenge. And when a challenge does come along, it’s by another perfect person. When you feel like your abilities are being tested to the limit; that is the only challenge someone can provide someone who is perfect. But no one can do that, can they? They all disappoint you and fall short of what you would expect of them. You can’t get married, because no one is good enough for you. You can’t have kids, because they won’t be good enough either. Friends? Who needs friends. You’re perfect. Family? They raised you to be perfect; what else is there to them? They themselves aren’t perfect. Sure, they may think they are, but they aren’t, and everyone knows it. Even them. In the end, what does perfection provide but a means to a crappier life?
The bubble around me began to disintegrate, and someone appeared over me. I looked up, and there he was: Death. He reached down to pick me up and dragged me to my feet. He took one look at me and scoffed.
“Not worth my time,” he told me. “Your job isn’t finished quite yet. Next time, though,” he promised. “Next time will be the last. You’ve had three chances; that’s all you need in a lifetime. Your fourth chance will be the time I claim you. Will you be happy then?”
“Yes…” I nodded lackadaisically and dazed. He waved his hand over my chest, scarring up the slash marks Spencer caused me. He put his finger to the floor and soaked up the blood with it, and then inserted it back into me by poking my arm with it like an IV drip. After that, he was gone. I shook my head to snap myself out of it, but I still wasn’t sure if that was a dream or not.
“Did that…?”
“Actually happen?” Clockwork responded. “Yes,” he nodded. “That was Grim.”
“He can heal people as well?” I quirked an eyebrow. “I only thought he had control of the dead.”
“He does,” Clockwork commented. “You died. He brought you back. You’re the puppet and he’s the puppeteer. Once the string breaks, it’s game over.”
“Then I might as well make it last,” I glanced up at Spencer and Shriek, who were still struggling inside the vines. Rose was next to me on her knees, crying out of happiness.
“Rose,” I told her, “You need to be strong. I need your help.”
“And mine to?” Clockwork asked hopefully. “Aw who am I kidding? You always need my help.”
“Thank you for that, Clockwork…” I sighed. “But yes, I need your help as well.”
“Of course,” he smirked conceitedly, “Everyone does.”
“Never thought I’d see the cocky side of you again,” I commented. “I missed it.”
“Yeah, it missed me, too,” he glared up at Spencer and Shriek. “And it couldn’t have come back at a better time.”
“Couldn’t agree more,” I grinned. I turned to Rose and whispered in her ear, telling her to do exactly as I say when I say it. She agreed, thinking there was nothing else she could do, and took a fighting stance. I threw my arm down and let ice encase it. But it didn’t turn into an icicle this time. It turned into a giant robot hand. Perfect.
Clockwork shot a time bubble over toward Spencer and Shriek, making their pain happen faster. Rose clutched her fists, ordering the thorns to dig even deeper than they already were. Me? I was in my giant ice robot battle suit. I looked at Shriek with a wild smirk, taunting him about how I figured out about what happened back on our first encounter. He scowled at me and tried to shout something, but Rose had a vine cover his mouth up. I looked over to her and gave her a thumbs up, to which she just blushed and continued on doing what she was doing. Clockwork looked up to me and gave me a facial expression that expressed worry, but I knew what I was doing, so I gave him a thumbs up as well. He just rolled his eyes and kept his focus on the time bubble that was encasing Spencer and Shriek at the moment. As Rose raised the vines so I could reach them, I rocketed toward them at full speed with my fists behind me. I brought them forward and hit both of them in one punch, and then both in the other as well. They dropped to the floor with their whole bodies shaking. They tried to get up, but their arms wouldn’t allow them, so they just fell down again. Unfortunately, what I wasn’t counting on was Clockwork breaking his concentration out of shock of my hit. Shriek was able to turn intangible and sink into the ground, escaping me yet again, while Spencer was able to almost instantaneously recover. I hit them hard, I knew that, but they were just too strong. They kept getting up and getting up no matter how many times I hit them down. I wish I was like that. Clockwork was able to recover and grabbed Spencer in another time bubble, though. He looked around the area for Shriek, but he couldn’t seem to find him. I looked around as well, but I saw him. Him and Rose. I melted the battle suit and ran over to where Shriek was. He and Rose were battling, and I knew Rose would die almost instantly.
“Keep Spencer under wraps!” I shouted to Clockwork. “I have to go save Rose!” He gave me a thumbs up, and I ran over to confront Shriek and save Rose
Chapter 16: Wilted Flowers and Unheard Sound Waves
“Rose!” I shouted as she got knocked back into a bookcase. My eyes shot daggers at Shriek, who just yawned.
“My my,” he said boredly, “This is hardly any fun at all.”
“What happened to the insane Shriek back when I was Ecto?” I asked. “I liked him better than not caring Shriek. He was fun.”
“He left when I decided killing you wouldn’t be that big of a challenge,” he yawned again. “Until you can disprove that theory, it looks like you won’t see him again.” Fire engulfed my arms and ice engulfed my legs. I was ready to pounce and burn. Shriek didn’t deserve to be alive, and Rose had to be kept safe. I couldn’t lose her too. Not now. Not ever. She’s the only person I have left in the world now.
I launched myself toward Shriek, and though he attempted to side-step me, I swung my arm around and caught his neck in my forearm and flung him toward the back wall. His neck was scorched and smoke was wafting off of it. His shirt, which he had put on since our last fight, had scorched at the neck hole and was now as black as night. He twitched his head and cracked his neck, cackling wildly. Rose backed away from him and got behind me, which was the smartest thing she could’ve done. I extinguished one fire arm and fired an energy bullet at Shriek, but he just punched a sound wave and sent it off course.
“HERE I AM!” He cackled. “INSANE SHRIEK IN THE HOUSE!”
“I was getting worried there for a minute,” I told him. “Thought I’d have to kill you with you still thinking I’m worthless.” I jumped up and flew through the air, finger gun a-blazing and my fire-engulfed arm ready to burn.
The fire became extinguished, though I didn’t do it. It did it on its own. I tried to turn it back on, but it was no use. Shriek looked at me wildly and punched a sound wave straight into my face, sending me flying back into the opposite wall. Something dripped on my face, and I assumed it was just rain. It wasn’t.
Blood.
I looked at my skin, which was actually there now. My metal skin was fading away. I tried to fly in the air, but nothing happened. I just looked like an idiot who thought he could fly. GPA’s brain still worked, and for a moment, I knew what was happening.
“ROSE!” I shouted to her. “Go to Clockwork. Tell him to go back to the day I talked to Cassie. Tell him to tell her I was lying.”
“B-“
“DO IT!” I commanded. “Just have him go. Got it?” She nodded obediently and hurried off to tell Clockwork my orders. I, however, was focused on Shriek. My powers were disappearing, and it was because I talked to Cassie. Spencer never would’ve caused me problems if I did that, meaning he wouldn’t have killed my dad, meaning I wouldn’t have gone back to see him kill him, meaning I wouldn’t have been stubborn and left Drops of Fire, meaning I wouldn’t have seen Shriek in the first place, meaning Theresa never would’ve killed the team, meaning I never would’ve killed her, meaning I never would’ve killed Shooter, meaning I never would’ve had any of the their curses. As much as I love the team, and as much as I want them back, I need their curses. I can’t do this on my own, but that’s not on my own. I’m having help. I need help. But to get help, I need them to be dead.
“Well well…” Shriek licked his lips and cackled like a hyena. “Looks like you’re running outta luck!”
That was also something I didn’t have any more. I never would’ve killed Bandit, because I never would’ve found out about him had I not known about Shriek’s place in the first place. Man, Clockwork was right; the butterfly effect sucks.
I sent out my icicle arms again, since those were the only things I had at the moment. Shriek, on the other hand, had much, much more. He lifted up a piece of earth and flung it toward me, completely shattering my icicle arm. It immediately grew back, but he just kept firing. I had no room to breathe. Rose had to come back as soon as possible.
“Oh no you don’t!” Rose shouted. A vine shot up from underground and caught Shriek’s arm. He tried to turn intangible, but he was unable to. I guess something good came from the butterfly effect.
“Rose, stay here! Keep him busy,” I told her. I ran over toward Spencer, thinking that this would finally be my chance.
However, Spencer wasn’t there. No one was. Did he go with Clockwork? No. He couldn’t have. Rose was here, she would’ve held him off. Where did he go? Ugh. I wish I had GPA’s brain right about now.
“Looking for me?” Spencer asked. I couldn’t see him, but his voice was around, so he obviously was as well.
“Come out, you coward!” I taunted. Without my dad’s super strength, or Dan’s transformation powers and lightning powers, he was nothing. He had technokinesis. That was it. I could deal with that.
“Nah, I’ll stay hidden,” he told me. I felt something strap onto my pant leg quickly, and then immediately after, something was placed on the other as well. I looked down and saw two egg-bombs. I immediately tossed them off of me and threw them in opposite directions of the library. They detonated as soon as they hit the ground. The explosion surrounded Spencer and I, and thanks to the fire, he was clearly visible now. I jabbed him with an icicle and gave him an uppercut to the jaw with my ice fist. I was winning, finally. Of course this is when my stupidity comes back to haunt me.
I threw a bomb toward Rose.
I ran as fast as I could through the fire created by the explosion and raced toward Rose, as I knew Shriek would be trying to get to her as well. She was lying on the floor, gasping for air. I looked over at Shriek, who looked back at me, but didn’t spend any time to sprint toward her. I ran toward Shriek with all my speed and stuck my hand out to his forehead. Placing my palm on his head, I recreated what I did to GPA’s tube. He became encased in ice as he was inches away from Rose’s forehead. He dropped out of the air and shattered on the floor around Rose and I.
“Rose…” I looked down as she gasped for air. “I’m so sorry…”
“Don’t be…” she smiled, “It’s okay. You… finally beat Shriek.” As she closed her eyes, I placed my palm on her forehead and felt her curse surge through me. I turned my heard and focused on Spencer now. If I could beat him, then maybe the past wouldn’t matter. Maybe I would automatically be transported to… wherever the winner goes. It was worth a try, anyway.
Of course with my luck, Clockwork appeared right as I got near Spencer.
“Did what’cha wanted,” he announced.
“Dammit!” I shouted. Rose’s curse flew out of me and back toward her lifeless body, though it wasn’t lifeless anymore. She got to her feet and assumed a fighting stance as Shriek’s pieces on the ground reassembled themselves and he returned to his normal self. I looked back at Spencer and saw him grow to immense proportions.
“Oh… crap,” Clockwork gulped.
“Crap is right,” I turned my attention to Shriek and Rose. “Keep him busy again.” I ran back toward Shriek and Rose to try and beat Shriek again, though I doubt I could. But now I knew what to do. If I can touch his forehead, I can win.
As Shriek became entangled in Rose’s vines yet again, I ran over and tried to freeze him again. As soon as I did, however, he turned intangible and sunk through the vines and dodged my strike.
“How wonderful!” he exclaimed. “Powers back! I feel all powerful, now!”
“Rose…” I backed away, “Keep him busy if you can. I want to try something.”
“Okay,” she agreed and sent vines flying out of the ground, trying to hit Shriek in mid-air. His intangibility proved to be a nuisance, however, as he was able to dodge the attacks with no effort at all. I turned to Clockwork, who clearly had his hands full with Spencer. He was able to trap him in a few time bubbles, it seemed, but his shirt was already torn up and he was panting and sweating like crazy. Spencer shot out a lightning bolt to try and take Clockwork out, but I shot an energy bullet to counter. Clockwork nodded in thanks and got back to slowing Spencer down, while Spencer just gave me a face of disgust.
Rose and Shriek were fighting, but it seemed extremely one sided. Shriek didn’t want to turn tangible again, so he just let the attacks from Rose phase right through him. There had to be a weakness in him. He wasn’t invincible, that’s for sure. I realized that I had never seen him fire an attack other than an ectoplasm blast at anyone, which was a huge green light to his weakness. He couldn’t use his other powers while intangible. If I could get him to have to use his earth powers or his sound wave powers, I could beat him. I knew it. And I knew how to do it. I remembered fire counteracted the ectoplasm blasts, and I figured if I can make a suit out of ice, and I can do the same for fire.
I concentrated as hard as I could and felt my body zip upward in the air. I could feel heat surround my entire body; it was working like a charm. When I stopped, I looked down and noticed that I was inside of a fire titan. It was just what I needed. Shriek didn’t seem to remember our previous encounter, so he fired ectoplasm blasts aimlessly at me, only for them to be absorbed by the fire. He got annoyed and switched to a tangible form in order to pelt me with pieces of the earth. Now was my only chance. I swung my fist down rapidly. Thanks to Bandit’s powers, I got a jolt of luck and I became faster than Shriek for the instant before I connected with him. He was unable to turn intangible, and he was engulfed by the fire titan’s fist. As I slowly lifted it up, I noticed that Shriek was finally down for the count, but I had done more damage than I intended. It seems Bandit’s powers work more like karma than luck, since Rose was caught in the crossfire between Shriek and I.
I immediately extinguished the fire titan and ran over to Rose. She looked the same only a few minutes ago before Clockwork returned. She was gasping for air, barely able to speak or breath or move. And it was my fault.
“Rose…” I looked down as she gasped for air. “I’m so sorry…”
“Don’t be…” she smiled, “It’s okay. You… finally beat Shriek.” As she closed her eyes, I placed my palm on her forehead and felt her curse surge through me. I turned my heard and focused on Spencer now. The butterfly effect didn’t seem to be in effect now, because the exact same thing had happened the first time. I just wanted this to be done and over with. I looked over at Shriek’s lifeless body and pressed my palm against his forehead. As the curses surged through me, my head twitched rapidly until it finally bent back. It stayed there for a moment until I finally brought it forward. I couldn’t see it, but I knew I had a wicked look in my eyes and my teeth began to jag. I was becoming just what I said I wouldn’t be.
I was corrupt.

Chapter 17: And Then There Was One
I staggered over to Spencer and Clockwork’s fight, which was more of a game of cat and mouse than it was a fight. I turned invisible before they could see me, and I just stood there, watching the fight.
Spencer finally got fed up with Clockwork freezing time around him so he shot out as many egg-bombs as he could. Clockwork caught them in the air and froze them. Just what Spencer wanted. He transformed back into a lion and quickly slashed over Clockwork’s chest. He didn’t stand a chance after that. After turning back into human form, Spencer struck Clockwork with lightning as fast as he could, ensuring that he wouldn’t get up. When he was sure he had done enough damage, Spencer placed an egg-bomb on Clockwork’s chest and backed away. This explosion was much more contained, as it only harmed Clockwork instead of everything around him. When the smoke of the explosion cleared, Clockwork was left not breathing, and Spencer walked over victoriously to claim his reward. In an instant, I sprung myself through the air toward Clockwork and placed my palm on his forehead before Spencer could, and turned myself visible in the process.
“Miss me?” I spoke in a broken voice. Was this really what scientists wanted for perfection? It was a sick and twisted definition that was for sure.
“Looks like it’s just us…” Spencer noted. “I’m going to win this thing.”
“I doubt it,” I told him. I didn’t speak after that, I just attacked. I knew my friends and family wouldn’t approve of me doing this, but I didn’t care; I wanted to win. I wanted to finally win.
I shot a fireball toward Spencer, though he casually deflected it with a lightning strike. He swung his fist down toward me, trying to finish me quickly, but I turned intangible and let the strike phase through me. His eyes got angry and his facial expression became annoyed. He was being bested by me. He couldn’t believe it. I could, though. He was no match for me now. He swapped appearances and turned into a vicious bloodhound. He flinched away when rain got onto his snout, though, but that didn’t stop him from looking vicious. I exchanged my hand for a fist made of ice and swung at him with all my might, but he was too fast for me. He jumped onto my arm and bit down as hard as he could, sinking his teeth in as much as possible. I couldn’t believe that he was actually biting through metal. His super strength must carry over in his other powers. I felt the teeth on my bone and veins. They were definitely going to give sooner or later. I swatted at Spencer with my other hand, but he jumped out of the way and I just ended up hitting myself in the arm. I cried out in pain as blood spurted from the holes his dug in my skin. I wasn’t going to give up, though. Not now. I wasn’t going to die like this. I utilized Shriek’s terrakinesis powers to the best of my abilities and let dozens of pieces of earth fly toward Spencer. I wasn’t going to give up easily; he should’ve known that by now. He transformed back to his normal self and flew away on his jetpack. That old pack. The one that surged energy through his veins. The one that made him invincible. I had the power to destroy that pack.
“You should remember this,” I closed my eyes tightly and shot them open a second later. Lasers flew out of my eyes and hit Spencer’s pack dead on. It malfunctioned and fell off of him, causing him to fall to the floor.
“You can thank X for that,” I spat. I walked over to him and grinned as he groggily got to his feet. Without his pack, he was worthless. I could beat him with one hand behind my back now.
He jumped toward me, but I caught him in a time bubble and froze time around him. With Rose’s powers, I let vines shoot up from underground and grab him. They flew him up and down, pinning him to the floor. He flexed his muscles and tried to break them, but I wouldn’t give in. He tried to lift his arms, but I wouldn’t let him. I tightened the grip even more, tying him down completely. When thorns shot out of the vines, he winced in pain as they dug deeper than he dug into me. I walked over to him, proud that I was able to best him. As I walked over, I fired energy bullets at his body, to make sure he’d stay down.
Not giving in just yet, he transformed into a snake and slithered out of the vines, but I didn’t care. When he snapped at me, I used telekinesis to let him wave around in the air under my control. I bashed him against the wall a couple of times and finally dropped him. He went back to his normal self and shivered. Either in fear, or in pain. Didn’t matter to me. I was going to win. He looked at me with a dead stare, but I shrugged it off. I sketched out a bottle of Chlorophorm and a rag. Placing the Chlorophorm onto the rag, I put it up on Spencer’s mouth. He resisted at first, but eventually stopped trying and was knocked unconscious. I won. I finally did it. I finally beat Spencer.
I turned my arm into an icicle and stabbed him through the chest. I made it go as deep as I was able to make it. When I could go any further, I pulled it out and let the blood drip down on him. He deserved it. I retracted the icicle and placed my hand on his forehead. As his curses surged through me, I felt… fine. I didn’t feel corrupt at all. It was like I went back to my normal self with just more power.
As soon as I took my hand off of his forehead, I became frozen in time. I figured this is what happened when you win. No big. I’d go meet the scientists and kill them. Right? That’s how it’d end. It’d have a perfect ending.

Chapter 18: The Perfect Almost Ending
When I became unfrozen, I was in a different building. It was completely white. Well, the room I was in was, anyway. There was only one window and one door. I was strapped in a chair and was hooked up to some machine behind me. I wasn’t sure what it was, though; my head was locked into place. I could only face the window, but I knew there was something behind me. I heard the whirring of a machine and the clinging and clanging of cogs and gears.
Two men and one woman were standing outside in white lab coats and wearing goggles. They all were holding clipboards, and were comparing notes, it seemed. About what? Don’t ask me. I had no clue what was going on. Was this the place I desired so greatly? It was no better than back home.
The people began talking about something; I couldn’t hear them through the thick glass, and I wasn’t fortunate enough to be able to read lips, so I had no clue what they were talking about. My guess would be something to do with me and my powers and my perfection. I tried to shoot out a beam from my eyes, but it seemed my curses were being blocked by something. It was probably this machine. Nothing else in the room could do that.
The people walked away shortly after they finished talking, leaving me by myself. Well, I was always by myself, but you get the idea. This was the perfect ending, I thought. What I desired so greatly. What I strived for. What I killed for. This… this place. Being hooked up to a machine, being isolated from everyone, being constantly studied… this is what being perfect got me. Great. What a disappointment; don’t I at least get a trophy or something? I’m the perfect human. I should deserve something.
The door slowly opened and the woman who was outside before walked in quietly and closed the door behind her. She walked up to me, but didn’t say anything. She just knelt down and looked at me with a smile.
“May I help you?” I asked.
“You, son, are perfect,” the woman kept smiling. “He knew you would be.”
“I keep hearing a ‘he’. Who is that?” I didn’t expect an answer, but it was worth trying. She pointed to the door, and one more person walked through. It looked like the person back at the library. Grim.
“Grim?” I asked. “You’re the ‘he’ I’ve heard so much about?”
“I am,” he spoke calmly. “You are… perfect. I knew it… that’s why you’re alive.”
“You kept my alive all this time because you knew I’d be the one?”
“Of course…” he nodded. “There was no other reason to do so, was there?”
“What do you mean?” I quirked an eyebrow.
“I mean…” he sighed, “You lost your family. You lost your friends. You hated being perfect. You hated not being able to die. Why keep you alive any longer?”
“Because… well…”
“Exactly,” he told me. “The only reason was because I believed in you. I helped set up the Drops of Fire. I sent Al to you. Everything up until now was because of… me.”
“Everything?” I asked. That couldn’t be true. Not everything was because of him.
“You are alive because of me…” he said, “That is everything, as far as I am concerned.”
“Wait- I have a question,” I just remembered something I heard when I saw what happened between Shriek and I the first time. “Who is ‘REM’?”
“I am known by many names…” Grim replied. “I am he.”
“Why didn’t Shriek call you Grim, then?”
“Because he did not know my true identity at the time… I spend my time at The Library of Time… I knew what would happen.”
“So you can go forward in time in that place?” I asked. I figured it’d be fun to finally know the answer, even if it was worthless now.
“Yes… but Clockwork could now… I did not allow him to… had he been a perfection, then yes…”
“So there are limits to curses?” At least I was finally getting answers, I thought. Better late than never, I guess. Even if they are worthless to me now.
“Yes… had you not been a perfection, you would not have a body made of ice… perfections get enhanced abilities, or curses, as you call them, of the ones they would normally get…”
“And how did the fog decide curses?”
“Tracing back dormant genes within you…” he answered. “I am tired… I must sleep. Goodnight, Jet. I knew third time would be the charm.” After he was done, he walked back to the door and opened it slowly and exited, closing the door behind him. The woman was still here, though. She was still smiling.
“Son!” she clapped her hands together and gave me a big smile.
“As in the greeting kind of ‘son’ or an actual son?” I asked. I didn’t remember my mom being a scientist, so I didn’t believe her when she said that.
“Actual, of course!” she wrapped her arms around me to give me a hug to the best of her abilities. “I just knew you would be the one! Grim and I were the only ones who believed you! You would think people would believe Grim, right? I mean, he’s the God of Death after all!”
“Why are you… here?” I figured that was the best word for the question. I couldn’t think of anything else that seemed to fit correctly.
“I’m sorry, Jet! I truly am! I didn’t want to take part in this… but I had to.”
“And that’s why you left dad and I alone, right?” I looked at her with a scowl. I couldn’t believe her. She just up and left without giving me a good bye or anything.
“I’m sorry… I had to. My last words to you were supposed to help you during this whole thing. I was instructed not to do anything else.”
“Why?” I had conflicted emotions. Should I be sad? Should I be angry? Should I be happy? I don’t know. I just felt… nothing.
“I… don’t know, son, I really don’t. I woke up one morning, and was just angry at your father for no reason. It was like I was being controlled. I had to leave. I didn’t even know where this place was, but I had to come here. That’s all I knew. I’m really sorry, Jet,” she looked at me apologetically. She seemed to mean it, too. Not that I cared. She caused all this. If she just stayed, then maybe I wouldn’t have been chosen as a perfection. Maybe I wouldn’t have had to go through all this. Maybe I could’ve led a normal life.
“Un-strap me…” I told her. “If you’re actually sorry… then un-strap me.”
“J-Jet, I can’t do that…” she backed away. “I’ve been given instructions to not let you out.”
“Then leave,” I glared at her. “I don’t want to see you. I don’t care if you were doing what you were ‘ordered’ or whatever. You left dad and I alone. If you can’t apologize for it, then I don’t want to see you. I rather not have a family.” My mom was speechless. She couldn’t believe that I was actually talking to her like this. Tears rolled down her cheeks and hit the floor; it sounded like the pitter patter of the rain back at the library. She sniffed and wiped the tears off of her, and decided to do what was best. She un-strapped me from the chair. When I was free, I could feel the curses surge back to me. They took over my body, but I wasn’t turning corrupt. My mom didn’t say anything after. She ran out of the room. I didn’t care where. I didn’t need her anymore. I just wanted to kill everyone here. If she got in the crossfire, so be it.
I blew the door open and stormed out of the white room and looked around. I had no clue where to go. There were hallways to either side of me, each with rooms jutting out from them. I took the left hallway first, for no real reason; I just had a feeling that it’d be more beneficial to go down left than right.
I stormed through the first door and was confronted by a startled scientist. He swung around at the sound of the door breaking in and held a beaker and test tube to try and intimidate me. I scoffed at him and sent a bolt of lightning through his body. One down.
Next room was bigger than the last one and mine put together. The scientists seemed to have gotten wind of my escape and were wielding some type of makeshift weapons. They pelted me with the weapons that looked like tiny bouncy balls, but they hurt much more. After exploding on contact, the chemical reactions began to corrode my metal skin. I looked at them furiously, but they just kept firing. I sent bolts of lightning through their bodies as well, but my gold skin was completely ruined, so I swapped to a silver one.
As soon as I exited the room, a siren rang out and iron gates shut down on the doors, which were apparently an attempt to keep me out. Scientists with the same types of weapons ran down the right side of the hallway and began opening fire on me. I brought up an ice shield and pushed it toward them at full force, attempting to crush them on the back door. The chemicals broke through the ice, though, so I had to do it the hard way. I fired several energy bullets toward them, hitting them each in their chests. Luckily, only a couple chemical bombs hit me this time, so I was still good with my silver skin.
“Test subject: BJAIUTJFA 1629SHB – 5 has escaped. Proceed with caution,” a voice said over the PA system. It was obviously referring to me. Test subject: BJAIUTJFA 1629SHB – 5? They could’ve just called me Jet or something. Didn’t have to be that obnoxious name.
Scientists began surrounding me at every corner. All of them armed with those chemical bombs. Smart thinking on their part, I’ll give them that. I summoned up my fire titan and began going to town on the lab. I destroyed everything in sight, without even breaking a sweat. I looked out in the distance and noticed that this was only one of many buildings in the complex. Great. More killing. I stomped out of the lab and headed for the next one. I decided to have fun, so I extinguished the fire titan and proceeded through normally. My silver skin had begun to get destroyed, though in the process, I killed many other scientists. I transformed into an eagle and flew up and out of the lab to see where the main one was. When I finally caught sight of it, I flew over there at top speed. This was it. This was where I would have my revenge.
“Don’t do it,” Ryan’s voice said. I stopped in mid-air and watched as the figures of my dead friends appeared in front of my, surrounding me in a circle.
“It’s not worth it,” Al told me. “You got our vengeance. Do not do more than required of you, Jet.”
“Seriously,” Van scoffed, “Newbie mistake.”
“You’re only thinking of yourself, Jet,” X said sternly. “This won’t do any good in the long run. You’ll still have those curses.”
“You’ll still be shunned by society,” Al added.
“You’ll still be perfect,” Ryan said. “We were all perfect. We know what it feels like. Dude, let me be blunt: Being perfect sucks.”
“Seriously,” my dad chuckled. “What’s so great about perfection?”
“No one will meet your expectations,” X said.
“You’ll be constantly disappointed,” Ryan told me.
“Nothing will be the same,” Van added, “You may like it now, but you’ll hate it later. There’s nothing beneficial about it. If you go ahead and do this, then I will kick your ass when you get here, newbie!”
“Jet…” Rose gulped nervously, “Please. Don’t do this. They had awful intentions, obviously, but…”
“Just don’t, dude,” Ryan cut-in. “Seriously. You’ll be no better than them. You’ll be proving Theresa right. You aren’t corrupt, and you know it. The power is getting to your noggin; it’s messing with ya!”
“As much as I hate to agree with this kid…” Al sighed, “Ryan has a point. It’s pointless to do this. Just accept your fate. You wanted it.”
“Please, Jet!” GPA called out. “Let them take you back! It won’t be so bad! You’ll have us to talk to!”
“We’re in his subconscious, genius,” Van rolled his eyes.
“Awww… I wanted to have fun, too!” GPA stomped her foot in anger. “Oh well! We’ll be like… imaginary friends! Whenever you need us, you can talk to us!”
“Our memory won’t die as long as you’re alive, Jet,” X told me. “If you die, so do we. Don’t be selfish. You won’t win against them. You’ll be rusted shut, and Grim will come back and take you to the afterlife, just like he said.”
“This is your last chance,” Clockwork told me. “Make it a good one.”
“Aren’t you going to tell him not to go?!” Ryan shouted.
“I’ve been with him throughout this entire thing,” Clockwork sighed, “Arguing and debating isn’t practical. When his mind is set on something, he’ll do it.”
“Jet…” Shooter spoke up. He gulped nervously and began to quiver. “Please Jet… please don’t… you shouldn’t die now…”
“Don’t even bother, Shooter,” Al looked at me, disgusted. “He has that look in his eyes.”
“The look of stubbornness,” Ryan spat.
“The look of anger,” Cassie added.
“Of frustration,” X said.
“When he gets that look,” GPA sighed.
“He’s already lost,” my dad shook his head.
“See ya in the afterlife, newbie,” Van grinned. “I’ll be waiting for our fight. You better go down swinging.” After Van’s line, they all vanished once again. They were right. I shouldn’t be doing this. But what did I care? It was my choice, not theirs. I was going to do this, and I was going to do it right. I was going to kill everyone here, find a way to reverse these curses, command Grim to bring everyone back, and then it’d be all alright.
Right?
I landed at the front of the lab. I looked up at the sign that read “PERFECTION SCIENCE LABS” in big, black letters. Figures that’s what they’d be called. I walked up to the doors, but I didn’t go in. I just stared at them. They were made of glass, with gilded handle-style door knobs. The entire place was made out of marble with an opening in the roof for their telescope that I had saw on my way over here. What was there to observe? Space is space. It’s not going to change that fast. I took in a deep breath and headed inside the doors. This was it. This was my final chance at life. Live or die. Win or lose. Life or death. Revenge or stupidity. It would be decided right here, right now.

Chapter 19: The Final Chance at Life
Scientists stormed at me from left and right, all wielding chemical bombs. I brought about eagle wings and let them shield me from the barrage of attacks, as bronze was the last choice in my arsenal of armor, and once this was gone, I’d be finished. I spread my wings out and shook off the chemicals from the bombs and retracted them into my back and turned intangible. I flew around the room, blasting every scientist in my reach. When everyone was down, I took the easy way out and flew up through the floors until I reached the final one. I placed my feet on the ground and looked around frantically for the correct door. I ran down the hallway, looking for an out of the ordinary door, but I couldn’t find one. Instead, I stopped in the middle of the hallway and closed my eyes. If Bandit’s curse was going to help me at all, it’d be now. I opened the first door in my reach and looked inside.
“Hello….” Grim sat on a chair, facing the window in the room. He watched as the rain bounced off the glass and trickle down to the windowsill. “Why did you come here?”
“Revenge,” I growled. “Where is everyone else?!”
“I told them… to run.” He rose to his feet and walked over toward me slowly. “I knew you would come here… I knew what you would be after… I told them to get out…”
“Of course you did,” I spat. “You’re Grim. You know everything, don’t you?”
“I told you… one last chance at life. Is this how you wish to use it up?”
“I’m not using up anything,” I said triumphantly. “I’m getting out alive. And you’re going to bring my friends back.”
“Is that what you want?” he asked blankly.
“Yes,” I said, as if it was a hard question. “Of course.”
“As you wish…” Grim sighed and turned around. He sat down cross legged and began to hum to himself. I couldn’t make out what he was saying, but it was probably something cryptic, I guess. The ground began to shake, and hands began to spring up from it. After a few moments, my friends appeared in front of me. But they didn’t seem like my friends. They were undead. All of them. Their skin was a sickly green color that had multiple scrapes and scratches on it. Their clothes were tattered and ripped completely. These weren’t my friends. They didn’t look like them. They didn’t seem like them.
“Your friends…” Grim said softly. “I hope you like them…”
“This isn’t want I wanted,” I protested. “I wanted them back completely!”
“Is any of this what you wanted?” he asked calmly. “Nothing about this… you didn’t want anything about this. Why should this be any different?” he sighed.
“Because I’m the perfect perfection! I deserve some happiness! I deserve my friends and family back!”
“No…” Grim turned his head and looked at me with a dead stare, “You don’t. You’ve been bad. You do not deserve happiness…”
“YES I DO!” I shouted.
“NO YOU DO NOT,” Grim’s voice suddenly became borderline demonic. His eyes turned to flames and his shadow on the wall grew larger and larger. “YOU DESERVE PUNISHMENT!”
“We told you,” Al said. “You shouldn’t have done this.” Their voices were still the same, but they didn’t seem the same. Nothing about them did.
“We didn’t want you to do this to us,” X told me. “You should’ve just stayed put.”
“Your friends know what’s best for you…” Grim said, back in his calm voice. “Why didn’t you?”
“Because I put them before me!” I shouted abruptly. “I wanted them to be happy, and then me! I don’t care if I didn’t like them; I don’t care if they lied to me! I wanted to prove I’m not corrupt!”
“But you are…” Grim told me, “You did this. Only a corrupt person would.”
“No,” I shook my head, “Only a perfect person would! A perfect person has no flaws! Putting themselves before others is a flaw! I don’t have it!”
“Are you really perfect?” Van asked.
“What? Of course I am!” What did he mean by that? Am I really perfect?
“Perfect people have no flaws, yes…” Grim told me, “And putting yourself before others is a flaw… if you do it all the time.”
“He’s right,” Ryan said. “We didn’t want you to do this. You didn’t listen. You aren’t perfect. You don’t deserve to be called the perfect perfection.”
“Yes I do!” I protested. “I was the last one standing!”
“Just stop protesting, Jet…” Rose sighed. “Please.”
“B-“
“Listen to your friends, Jet…” Grim sighed. “Please.” I wasn’t sure what to say now. I wanted to help them, but I didn’t want to just leave them now. I’d go back worthless. Being an experimentation subject… it’s demoralizing. I don’t want to go back to that room. I want to stop this madness once and for all. I’m the only one who can do it. I’m the only person with enough power.
“Power…” I muttered under my breath. “So… good…”
“He’s corrupt,” Al whispered to GPA.
“So he is…” Grim added. “So sad… I liked him.”
“What do you think caused it?” Al asked Grim.
“A combination of too much power and seeing his friends look like this… let me guess, he wanted to be noticed in school?”
“Yeah, you could say that,” Ryan told him.
“Probably why he dated Cassie,” Rose added. “Dating a popular girl always gets you noticed.”
“He just wanted to help, it would seem…” Grim sighed. “Too bad… he didn’t put up much of a fight…”
“Newbie’s always like that,” Van rolled his eyes.
“I see…” Grim nodded. “His corruption is a combination of power… friends and family… the strive to be the best… his will to help you no matter what… this was his plan all along. He didn’t want to be the perfect perfection for the title… he wanted to get close to us so he could stop us.”
“Newbie’s got guts, gotta give him that,” Van said.
“Power…” I muttered again, “So… good… need… power…”
“He seems to be turning… corrupt,” Grim examined me. “So sad…”
“Jet…” Shooter looked at me with an apologetic facial expression.
“Shooter…” I muttered. “Need to save… Shooter…”
“Mrs. Tyler…” Grim said aloud, “Your son is not cooperating as planned… we intend to… dispose of him. We will run the test again…” There was silence for a moment. He was calling to my mom, but in such a calm voice. Would she really answer? And would she really agree to this?
“Okay…” my mom’s voice said softly. “We will rerun the test next year. Perhaps then we will have…. a sufficient winner.”
“Of course…” Grim agreed. “Friends of Jet… scientists…” I looked behind me and noticed scientists swarming the entrance to the room. They had bags of the chemical bombs. This was it. For real. I had nowhere to run. I had nowhere to hide.
“Friends… hold him…” Grim commanded. My friends swarmed me as fast as they could and pinned me to the ground. I tried to turn intangible, but it didn’t work.
“My power…” Grim sighed, “Is absolute… you may not use your… curses, while held down by me.” I stared into the eyes of the scientists and saw a look of… nothingness. They had no facial expression. No emotions. They were as heartless as I thought they were.
A barrage of chemical bombs rained down on me. I was trapped in my own skin. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t talk… I couldn’t do anything. The bronze began to rapidly rust, and soon, my friends got off me and watch as I writhed in pain. As the rusting took place, I used all my strength to get to my feet and walk toward Grim.
“Grim…” I said softly. “Grim…”
“Yes?” he tilted his head. “What would you like?”
“Another…” my legs rusted, dropping me to the floor. “C...chan…” the bombs began to rust my arms shut. The only thing that was working now was my head, and even that was beginning to go.
“Chance?” Grim walked over to me and knelt down. “Whatever for? I gave you all you needed.”
“M…mor…more…” I was able to manage. “O-one… m-m-morre…”
“No,” Grim smiled as my head began to rust over. He reached into my armor and pulled out… me. I think. I don’t know. I think it was my soul. It must’ve been; he had nothing else to grab.
Epilogue: The Year After in the Afterlife
Everything went back to normal. Well, mostly, anyway. As normal as the afterlife could be, anyway. Don’t worry, you aren’t the only one who thought my life ending was the worst death ever. I mean, I rusted? Really? I should’ve at least gone out by being stabbed by like… a narwhal or something. You know, a cool death.
The afterlife was pretty fun, actually. It wasn’t a normal afterlife. It wasn’t like Heaven or Hell, or even Purgatory. It was just… life. Van made good on his promise and kicked my ass the minute I arrived, though. I met up with the rest of my dead friends as well; they were all waiting for me at the welcome gate. I still lived with my dad, since I had nowhere else to go; aside from reuniting with the Drops of Fire, but I didn’t feel like living an afterlife with them. I wanted to live at least part of it normally. Or at least however normal it is when you live with my dad, that is. I was able to patch things up with Cassie, and she broke things off with Spencer. I wasn’t sure what he did when she did that; I think he just stormed off. Luckily, no one has seen him since that day. Though it may seem odd, Ryan and Rose also got together. I really didn’t see any chemistry between the two, but hey; if they’re happy, they’re happy. Albeit, I went out with Rose for a short period of time before Cassie accepted my apology. She took it well, though, since Ryan was able to get her on the rebound.
I know you probably don’t care about any of this, though, and I don’t blame you; I’ve never been a fan of epilogues myself. The main story ended, so what else do you need to know? I doubt you cared about who I’d end up with, what would happen to Spencer, what would happen to the girls I didn’t get with (by the way, GPA is still single, so don’t ask about her)… I don’t even care about any of this! If I don’t, why should you? But you’re reading anyway, and you’re continuing the story, just because you want to. Sure, this whole “afterlife” schtick is pretty unbelievable, but just look at Lost. Yeah. I just insulted Lost. Wanna fight about it?
Something you guys probably are wondering about is the new “winner” of the test. It hasn’t happened yet, so don’t ask. I don’t even think we’ll find out who “wins” anyway; I mean, why would we? We’re dead. Why should we care? Just to make a “well there goes the neighborhood!” joke when all the perfect people die? Well… that’s actually a pretty good reason to find out. But still, the scientists don’t care about comedy. I don’t, either.
Oh, right. You see, Grim alternates. When I got here, he told me that the scientists have tried this test multiple times, and all have been failures because the person who wins becomes so corrupt that they have to kill him. But, the perfection won, so they should get something, right? That’s where Grim comes in. The original Grim appeared back in the 20th century, when this first started. He gets relieved of his position when the new “winner” goes to the afterlife, and he pretty much… looks over the whole test for the scientists. They make sure nothing bad happens. Obviously, that’s never happened. And believe me, I don’t plan on stopping anyone either.
Well, that’s really all I have to say. I’m not sure what else there is to tell in this story, since it seems I’m just about wrapped up here. I should probably answer some questions you have, though. Seems like the right thing to do, if you ask me.
Theresa had the ability to fly; it was a separate ability from her pyrokinesis. I don’t know who she killed to get it, so don’t ask. And aside from those two powers, and Ryan’s, she didn’t have anything when she killed the Drops of Fire.
Spencer was able to make the false town with his energy pack on his chest. He placed it in front of the park and turned it on simulate a false background. Clockwork had been dabbling around there with his space control, which is why it looked the way it did when the background gave way. The platform was Spencer’s creation, of course; don’t ask how he made it. I don’t know.
Perfect perfections are asleep for one month because we entered a dream-like state that simulated reality. In this simulation of reality, we trained our abilities, or curses, I should say, in random training exercises. Because Theresa had a defect, she was unable to complete this training, and was on the same power level as the other perfects, which is why it didn’t much to kill her.
I didn’t spend much time in The Library of Time because Clockwork knew exactly where to go and how to get there; and plus, he had the power. He was able to choose a destination at any point in time and just teleport there instantly, which is why I didn’t know what was in it when I went in alone.
Clockwork escaped Spencer because he slowed down time and then created a rift in time. His concentration broke, so Spencer got freed from the bubble and he was moving around at normal speed, which is why he was able to go through the rift as well. He was the reason why Shriek didn’t kill me when he had the chance; the rift opened and Spencer stepped out, Shriek stopped, and then Clockwork rescued me.
Bandit didn’t really have the power of luck. As I mentioned, it was more like the power of karma. Something extremely good would happen to him, and then something equally awful would happen later on. That’s the reason why I was able to kill Shriek and Rose in one attack, and why he wasn’t able to beat me in the fight.
The reason I didn’t kill Bandit right away was because I’m not a dick.
Morph, while he had to month of dream-state training, was unable to function fully because he was too young. He didn’t have enough power to generate the entire effect of what he would get from his curse, so he was only able to turn part of his body into an animal body part, or he was only able to turn into part of the animal (like the eagle).
Morph was able to fly because he had a month of dream-state training. He may not have enough power to generate the full effect of his curse; he was strong enough to do what he wanted.
Dormant genes determine your curse, or, in my case, the meaning of a name. While my name doesn’t mean “ice”, my mom’s name is Crystal, which does mean ice, so that’s why I referred to her as “the reason for my powers” or whatever I said. GPA, for example, had a line of brilliant minds in her family, but the gene remained dormant in her. When the fog went in, it turned it on, and she became intelligent; also giving her the side-effect of telekinesis.
However, in a case like X’s, he had no dormant genes or anything like that; he was just getting laser eye surgery done at the time the fog was released.
So, that appears to be everything you need to know. I have no clue what else to tell you, so if you have any more questions, just wait for the sequel (maybe). Or the movie (probably not). I hope you weren’t as disappointed as I was when I died, because really, that just sucked. I know I said this before, but if you couldn’t already tell, I love to repeat things; but really? I die by RUSTING? Frickin’ Al. He haunted me even in the afterlife. He was always jealous that I was a perfection and he wasn’t. Or maybe it was just Bandit’s curse at work. Either way, I so didn’t deserve that. But, what’s done is done, and there’s no use crying about it now. I’m living a perfectly fine life in the afterlife (and if you really need a physical description, it’s different for every person; it’s the place you lived in as you were growing up). Oh, that reminds me, if you even cared about the afterlife, which I know you don’t, we can’t leave it. Well, obviously, but what I mean by that is that we can’t go anywhere aside from this town. However, if you get invited, then you can leave and live in the town you were invited to.
Well, that is finally everything I have to say. I hope you enjoyed me rambling on about nothing and answering pointless questions for this section, because honestly, I didn’t feel it was needed at all. Oh well; that’s business for ya. Always trying to get you to do everything you don’t want to do. Glad I’m dead; I’d hate living in a world where… ugh… business men became the perfect perfection, and they were the perfect generation. How awful would that be?