October 1, 2023

Tomorrow was my 15 birthday, so I had that going for me.

We hadn't been able to find Isabel, nor anyone else.

The state was almost abandoned.

Scattered.

Gone.

Missing.

But now, we had an idea of who they were with. Yesterday we had to go to Captain to figure out what the heck Cassie had done to Isabel.

He had told us that there were Destiny Stones, ones that had ill fate. The ones of a villain.

But Cassie had stolen Isabel's necklace.

And the heroes always win.

Cassie had the necklace and destiny of a hero, with the mind of a villain.

We didn't know why she had stolen the stone, and we assumed she had also stolen Isabel.

She had gone missing since the day we last saw her, along with Isla, Isabel, and Houston.

Luckily, we had been able to find Camden.

Camden had also lost his stone to Cassie, but she hadn't given him hers, like she apparently did to Isla, Isabel, and Houston.

She had stolen the Destinies of, at least, 3 people.

Giving her the ability to pretty much do whatever she wants.

The villain always loses, but what if the villain is a hero (x3)?

We had to do the only thing we could.

Fight back.

We couldn't let the world be absorbed by whatever Cassie was planning. If she found all of the hero Destiny stones, then she could get whatever she wanted!

And whatever she wanted, couldn't be good.

"Alright, kids!" Captain said, calling us down to the main foyer.

We all wore our usual FOF uniforms, the black skin tight sweatshirt, grey or denim shorts, and black running shoes.

"You guys are going to be using your charged forms right now. But you're going to be unrecognizable to each other." Captain said.

"Yes sir." we all said in unison.

"Alright! Go put on your jewelry, everyone except Camden!" Captain ordered.

We all ran to our rooms, and began to go through our stuff to find our jewelry.

I already had my ring on, but there was one more thing I needed.

I ran to my teal NASA sweatshirt, and found what I needed in its pocket.

My dad's lucky pen.

I smiled at it, and happily slid it into my pocket.

I swiped my ring, and my fully charged form appeared in the mirror.

I looked at myself closely.

My neon green eyes popped out through the dark shadow that covered my face. My usually dark brown hair, was now blonde. My skin was lighter than usual. But other than that, I still had the same physique. Still skinny as heck, and tall as heck too.

I jumped out of the window and out into the courtyard.

Boy did we have a battle waiting.

________________________________

I stood next to an unrecognizable girl, and two boys, who I assumed were Skye, Luke, and Parker.

"Alright guys." I said, "let's move in."

We stood alongside the Ohio River, in wait of Cassie and whoever else would challenge us.

We were atop the Roebling Bridge, waiting.

And waiting.

And waiting.

"Hey." A voice said beside me quickly.

A jumped in fear.

The shadow.

"CASSIE!" Parker screamed.

Cassie.

Cassie was the shadowy figure?

I growled, and attacked her.

Parker, Skye, and Luke came alongside me, and began to help me kick and punch at her.

Not a single thing hit her.

She dodged with ease, and spoke calmly, "So. How's your day?"

"Not exactly great, thanks to you." I said distractedly, punching and kicking at her.

"Well, that quite hurt my feelings." Cassie said.

She retorted, by slamming my body against the thin metal, that was the only thing that kept me from falling in the river.

Heights.

Heights.

Why did I have to be like my father?

I looked down in fear.

"Give me your jewel, or I'll just kick you off this bridge. And if you know anything about science, you also know that you'll die." Cassie said with a smirk.

"LET HER GO!" Luke said, ramming into Cassie and pinning her to the ground.

Cassie still held my wrist to the wall with her telekinesis, and only gave Luke the satisfaction of a smile.

"Oh, Lover Boy. You're kind of cute." Cassie said.

"Wait wha-" Luke said.

She cut him off by slamming him into the frames of the thin wall alongside me.

"Give me your jewels. Or both of you get it." Cassie repeated, "I am sorry, Cutie Pie."

I almost laughed at it, but didn't, because Parker ran up and attempted to kick her shins.

But Cassie also easily slammed him to the wall beside us.

Skye just looked at Cassie confused.

"It's an illusion guys!" Skye screamed, "It's a trap!"

Cassie smiled, and disappeared into thin air.

"Did you get her location?" I asked, walking away from the wall, with a shudder.

"Yes. I'm actually surprised that it worked." Skye said.

"Where is she?" Parker asked.

"She's close." Skye said, pointing the large building in the distance.

"Alright." Parker said, "Let's go."

"Should we really rush into this?" Luke asked, putting his hand to his forehead.

"Well, what could we do? Wait? We have to go now. We're didn't come all the way over to Ohio for nothing." I said.

"She's right." Parker said.

"Well. Let me think." Skye said, looking over to the distance.

"How many people are over there?" I asked.

"About 4 people we know." Skye said.

"And how many people we don't know?" Parker asked.

"About 50." Skye said in dejection.

"Alright." Parker said, "Let's do this."

We jumped from roof to roof, much to my displeasure.

All the way over to an alleyway, where we saw many people.

Everyone we saw had luminescent purple rings around their eyes, that overshadowed a white blur over their faces.

There were many people guarding the small door at the back of the alley.

"I think that door's where we're headed." Parker said.

"So...." I said, "Fight or no fight?"

"Hmm." Luke said with a shrug, "S'pose there's not very many of them. Let's not cause a ruckus through."

"Did you just say 'a ruckus'?" Skye asked.

"This chick gets it." Parker said.

"It doesn't matter if she gets you, it matters that she gets what I'm saying." Luke said, "And what I'm saying, is no horse-"

"Don't even finish that thought." I said.

"I wasn't going to curse." Luke said.

"Never mind. Let's just go." I said, silently landing on the ground below.

No one noticed me for a split second, then I ran up and slammed a dude to the ground, and then the quiet party started.

I felt like a ninja.

AGAIN!

I got all of the guys knocked out, then motioned for the group to follow me.

We all silently opened the door.

"Skye?" Parker asked.

"10 people." she responded.

"Where?" I whispered.

"Down the steps." she replied.

"Alright." Luke said.

Parker ran ahead and turned the corner carefully, then sprinted down the hallway.

We all waited, and only heard the small grunts of the people around the corner.

Parker poked his head out the corner and said, "Come on! Join the party!"

We all followed him and turned the corner again.

"This place is a lot bigger on the inside." Luke mumbled.

"You're telling me." Skye said.

We walked down a row of stairs.

"Skye?"

"10." she responded.

This went on loop for about 3 more times, until we were finally where we were a few days ago.

Underground.

There was an empty stone room.

"Hey, guys." A loopy voice said.

A stumbling Isabel walked out from behind the corner.

"Isabel?" Parker said.

"hEeEeY..." Isabel responded with a giggle.

"Is she drunk or something?" Skye mumbled.

"Doubt it." Luke said.

"The Dark Destiny did... that?" Parker asked.

"Don't make your assumptions about her." A voice said, "She's powerful."

"Isla." I said knowingly.

"Hey there Lauren." Isla responded.

"Isa?" Luke said confusedly, as she run up to him and hugged him.

"Hugs!" Isabel said, lifting him off the ground.

"Ow. You're definitely not wrong about the powerful thing." Luke said in pain.

"Now's not time for hugs." Parker said, standing battle ready.

"Oh, Parkee. I wouldn't do that if I were you." Houston said l, coming around the corner.

Isabel still giggled while she hugged Luke, and Isla was still standing in line with me.

Houston now stood in front of Parker.

"Well, you've certainly changed." Parker said.

"I sure have, Parkee." Houston said, crossing his arms.

"I should call him that. It'd probably have us even." I said with a shrug.

"Why don't I have someone to one on one with?" Skye said.

"Now you do." Cassie said, revealing herself from the shadows.

We all stood in line.

"Alright. Let's dance." Parker said, putting himself in a stance.

We all began to attack each of our partners.

Parker through Houston to the ground with ease. And took the Dark Destiny ring from him.

And Houston passed out on the ground.

I was struggling with Isla, but Parker ran over to help release Luke from Isabel's grasp.

I took the fight over to the other boys, and began to help them get Isabel off of Luke.

"All you have to do is hug her back." Isla said with a laugh.

Luke looked at her dead serious, and hugged Isabel tightly.

And she fell unconscious in Luke's arms.

"Uh, what do I do with this-" Luke asked.

"Just hold her." I said.

I began to fight Isla again, which mainly consisted of the other completely dodging every single attack that one would throw.

Parker helped me, and together we pushed her to the ground and took off the poisoned earrings.

Isla dropped unconscious.

We ran over to Skye, who was doing surprisingly well against Cassie and her advanced attacks.

Parker and I ran over to help Skye, and began to fight Cassie in unison.

Until about 10 minutes of nonstop kicking and punching, we all pinned her to the ground.

"Why would you do this?" I asked her gravely.

"I don't want to be the side character. I want to be the main character, LAUREN SDARSON!" she grasped my hand and attempted to pull of my ring.

Parker slammed her hand down, and snatched Cassie's clip from her hair.

Cassie only smiled, and said, "Gotcha."

She disappeared.

...

We ended up freeing the rest of the state, (which took quite some time, I may mention) and everyone was safe.

We retracted the poison from everyone's Destiny Stone, and everybody was now under the control of their own.

We didn't know where Cassie was.

But all we knew, was that she was up to no good.

But that didn't matter now.

We had succeeded at our mission, and everyone was safe.

We knew she wouldn't be coming back anytime soon, because we had taken most of her Dark Destiny.

The state just thought that there had been a kidnapper who had mysteriously given everyone back, thanks to some anonymous heroes.

Of course, keeping reality from the Destinies is hard, but I enjoy it with my friends.

Of course everyone was hurt, but we would be alright.

I'm happy.

For real happy.

And nothing can change that.