Galen was sitting in his office, going over preparations to take Bug into custody. He felt like a wannabe inventor trying to become an actual inventor. It was one idea after another. He just couldn’t figure out a way militarily that would even work out successfully for them. It was getting to the point that he would be forced to enlist the help of military strategists and historians to aid in this endeavor. But Bug might simply be too powerful for Galen, the Agency, and the best the military had to offer. Galen was still no closer to solving the mystery behind the girl, but it was extremely obvious that Bug was no weakling. In fact, she might as well be one of the most powerful superhumans on the planet, perhaps even the most powerful. This meant that taking her down militarily like everybody wanted could be practically impossible.

A sudden knock at his door alerted him to the arrival of none other than Secretary Coleman. He came waltzing in as if this was still his office. Dropping a bunch of papers on Galen’s desk, Coleman treated himself to a drink before getting down to business. “The Virginia State Police have found Edward Watt down in Marion, Virginia.”

“That far?”

Coleman took a slip of his drink. “Yeah, that little bugger can travel. The State Troopers said that the kid was practically insane when they found him. They are taking him to the Carilion Clinic in Roanoke for evaluation. I want you to take a small team and head down to assist in gathering information about the girl.”

“Sir, I’m already planning the operation to retrieve her,” Galen countered.

Coleman just laughed at that idea. “No, Galen. You have been ordered to Roanoke, and I will oversee the retrieval personally by order of the President. She thinks that your ‘demonstration’ has compromised your ability to act rationally in this mission.” Immediately, Coleman pulled out another paper hidden in his jacket pocket. It was the orders for Coleman to take direct command, signed by the president.

Galen gripped his pencil so hard it snapped in two. “I’m going to remind you once again. It’s going to fail. She has completely immunity to the crystal.”

Coleman laughed again, which surprised Galen. “Oh Galen, you may be the director of the Agency, but you have barely any knowledge of the research. See, we have come up with a device that will nullify her powers far better than any crystal. This device can take down the powers of any superhuman, regardless of origin.” Coleman eyes flashed with an insidious desire. “The world is entering a new age, Galen. I will see to it personally, and this girl’s power will be at the forefront of the dawn of this new world.” With that, Coleman finished his drink and left, leaving Galen to comprehend everything.

It was becoming increasingly clear that Galen’s position as the Director of the Agency was purely ceremonial. He was talk, but in the end, Coleman still held the power.
Now he needed to warn Bug that they were coming. Not for her sake, but for Coleman and his men’s sake. No doubt they would have Nancy’s phone wiretapped. If he attempted to make direct contact to warn her, the connection would be cut. But if Galen couldn’t reach Nancy, there was someone who could. Her son, General Frederick E. Rodes.

-------

I walked and walked and walked. I didn't have any destination in mind. Hell, I didn’t even know where I was, but I didn’t care. I was too angry, too upset, too anything to stop and head back. Why would I even go back? That woman had tricked me. They’d all tricked me. I bet they only wanted me for my power. Such lousy assholes. Such… I don’t know. I was just so mad at everybody.

Looking at what I could see around me, I discovered that I had wandered onto an empty road. A small road in the middle of really nowhere. Trees and a few houses lined the road. It was better than nothing, so I started down it. Again, I didn’t have much of a destination in mind. I had no plan other than putting as much distance I could between the old lady and me. Maybe I would head back to Lexington, the town near where they found me. Or maybe I would walk to the beach. Who knew. I just didn’t want to go back.

“Oh, Bug, you got yourself in so much trouble.” Talking to myself was something I did often for no real reason, but now it helped. My only companionship was myself in the dark time, literally. I stopped to rest, but instead decided to verge back off the road into a field to avoid drawing attention to myself. I was certain that a girl walking on a small country road in the middle of the night would certainly attract a lot of unwanted attention, and I most definitely didn’t need that. Eventually, my wandering brought me to a large tree in the field. It provided me enough coverage that I wouldn’t be noticed. Despite my decision to put as much distance as I could between me and that lady, I did realize at that moment that I really did need to put my thoughts in order before I got going again. The last thing I needed was to make a wrong turn and end up with a one-way ticket to a police station.

So what did I know that could help me? Well, when I’d first woken up, not much. The only two abilities I knew about were snapping taser wires and running through doors. But now I had grown and learned a lot about what I could do. Granted, that led to even more mysteries, such as why I was immune to the crystal when everybody else wasn’t, or why I had such a wide range of powers, and I wasn’t sure where to even start to trying to figure it all out. So that was pretty much a bust.

“Wait a second!” I could not believe that I hadn’t thought about doing this. What if I used my ability to regain some of my memories? If I was powerful enough, I should be able to break through whatever was preventing me from regaining my memories. I immediately pressed my hands against my forehand in preparation. I wasn’t completely sure at this point how to activate my powers. Usually, they came when I was extremely angry, upset, or scared, and when I wasn’t any of those, it was subconsciously, as if my abilities were acting on their own accord to protect me…

Mental facepalm. I was such an idiot. Of course I was angry. I was furious at what the old lady had done to me. If I used that anger to fuel my ability, I could even find out who my family was, my real family. If that happened, I then had a destination. While a few things might be hard to explain to them, I assumed they would be happy to see me. Excitement emerged as I pressed my hands against my head and closed my eyes to focus. I willed myself to remember; I focused every ounce of my will, every ounce of anger towards the old lady and what she’d done, and just because, every ounce of that excitement that I was beginning to experience.

I felt my ability react, but I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t feel any memories suddenly stream into my head; I didn’t feel any change to my emotional state. Nothing. When I opened my eyes, though, something had changed. I was no longer in the field, and it was no longer dark. I found myself sitting in the same forest as my dream. Wonderful, just wonderful. How the hell did I manage to zap my mind here?

Standing up, I looked for the same statues that I’d seen the last time I was here. But this apparently wasn’t the same part of the forest. I recognized it as the same forest from my dream because the air felt the same way, and the sky was overcast, somewhat dark, but bright at the same time; it wasn’t the same part of it. In my dream, trees were everywhere. Here, it was rather open, and beside me was the bank of a fast-moving river. However, when I looked down the bank of the creek, I found that I wasn’t alone. Someone or something was sitting on a rock not too far away from me, looking up towards the mountains, opposite where I was. I quickly scrambled to my feet as quietly as possible, and slowly made my way to where she was sitting. As I got closer, I realized that it was a girl, based on the white dress she wore. However, she wore no shoes and the dress seemed to be school-type clothes, not the sort of thing you would wear outdoors. So already she was off-balance in this place.

I inched closer and closer as quietly as I could while trying to figure her out, when she suddenly turned around, her eyes locking with mine. I honestly don’t know who was more shocked, me or her. I found myself staring at someone who looked like me. Not 100%, but hell, it was damn close. And her, she looked… well, I don’t know. I was too busy freaking the hell out at staring at my twin… sister? I had a sister?

“Jamie?” And now I was snapped back into reality by the uttering of my supposed name. “How… how… how are you still alive?”

I took a major step back at that question. Still alive? “Wha…” Before I could complete the word, I was shot back out of the vision, hitting my head on the tree that I was leaning on. “Ouch!” I immediately yelled, rubbing the back of my head. I needed to think this out. This was getting more mysterious, and maybe even more dangerous. I’d possibly just met my sister in some unknown place that was either a dream world or something else and she was surprised that I was still alive. How was that? Why was that? Was she even alive or there in the real place? If she wasn’t real, then who or what was trying to contact me? If she was real regardless, what did she mean? That I’d been ‘killed’?

“Calm down, Bug. Calm down,” Panicking wasn’t going to solve this. It didn’t seem that my abilities were going to help me right now, and really, it was all apparent that I was wrong about how much control I had over them. I’d known that it wasn’t much, but now I realized that my control was pathetic. I ran my hand through my hair, trying to figure out what to do next. This vision scared me, more so than the others that I’d had. It brought me no closer to figuring out who or what I was, but I needed help. And I’d run away from the person who was my best chance at figuring it out. But it led back to the problems at hand. She’d tricked me, she’d manipulated me. I’d trusted her by the time this happened, only for it to be shattered. It was so stupid of her to do what she’d done, but the old lady seemed to generally think that it was worth it. She had seemed to care; well, not at first, but as time went on. She’d seemed generally worried about me. My mind wandered back to that night in the hospital after the fight with the Destructors. After what she’d told me that night, I’d felt like she really cared for me. I’d felt like I was part of a real family. Maybe what she told me early today that hurt me so much was a necessary part of being in a family. Honesty. Maybe the old lady had decided to come clean.

All of this was giving me a headache, but I did realize that walking out on her may not have been the best idea. Still, though, I was unsure if I could go back and fix everything. How could I still trust her after this? “Oh, what do I do?” I muttered, leaning back on the tree.

“Perhaps I can help you,” someone replied. I recognized the voice instantly. It wasn’t something that you forget, especially after they try to personally kill you. I shot up, bolting around the tree, coming face to face with Greg. He was sporting some sort of weapon this time around. Man, does this guy ever quit?

I clenched my fists; the memory of the attack burned into my head. I stood mere feet away from the guy who’d tried to kill me and Lacey, just because I showed him up. “What is your PROBLEM!?”

“Everything,” Greg replied.

This was unbelievable. Was this how people kept grudges? Going after them over and over and over again? This was insane. Greg was insane. Everything about this was insane, “Okay, Greg, you need to back off. Right now.”
Greg didn’t back off. Instead, he brought his weapon up and pointed it at me. I readied myself as well. I didn’t know what that weapon was, but I wasn’t taking any chances. I had beaten him several times before; I probably could do it again. Although I didn’t understand why Greg was so interested in attacking me over and over again, even though I had won most of our fights. Maybe he wanted a beatdown, but it was likely that it had to do with Lhasa. Everything that happened to me in that school and at that party was because of Lhasa.

As so I brought my hand up to block it. I was going beat this guy to next week and then put as much distance between me and this asshole as possible. Greg pulled the trigger as I readied. The weapon charged for a brief moment before firing a powerful beam of energy at me, something that I was not prepared for. Bullets were one thing, but this was completely different. As if time slowed down at that brief moment, I scrambled out of the way, tripping and falling flat on my butt as the beam shot past me and struck the tree, blowing it to nothing, “What the hell is that?” I yelled as I jumped to my feet. Could my abilities even protect me from something like that?

Greg aimed at me again, smiling. “You like it? Its name isn’t important. All you need to know is that it’s a level 4 killer and it’s the very same weapon that killed Lhasa. Nothing to date has ever stopped it.” He pulled the trigger again, and once again time slowed down. I was facing death. This thing had blown a massive tree to dust, so what could it do to me? I just had to trust in myself and my abilities. I held my hands up together as a shield just as the beam reached me. I felt its heat, I felt its energy, and I felt my ability holding it back. I twisted my hand just a bit, reflecting the beam away from me, causing it to safely strike a fence post. A moment of pure excitement filled me. I had done something awesome. Quickly checking my hands, finding no sign of injury, I stuck out my tongue at Greg. I was feeling petty, but right now I didn’t care. I was happy.

Greg, on the other hand, didn’t even flinch. He reloaded the gun with a large black canister, and fired again. I raised one hand and reflected it away. I was on a roll. “Give it up Greg. The same thing is going to happen every time.”

Greg’s smile never left him, which was beginning to creep me out, “Is that so? Aren’t you forgetting something. Like what happens if you overuse your powers?” He hinted. Oh crap, I’ll fall asleep, I immediately remembered. The excitement, the joy of beating Greg, all that disappeared and Greg knew it. “With all this energy I’m firing at you, your powers are going to give out soon; then you will be at my mercy.”

Greg was right. If I used my abilities too long, I would wear down my energy reserves, sending me into an oversleep. Shit. I needed to get out of here. So I did the best thing I could think of. I gave Greg a nervous smile and waved, then ran for my life in the opposite direction. Greg ran after me. God this guy never gave up. But this was also a problem. If I used too much energy just running away from him, I would burn through it all, leaving me defenseless. I needed to hide from him, just like I did at the farm.

The woods I was running towards offered me the best chance at this. I hated when people made fun or pointed out my small size, but now, my tininess would work to my advantage. I just needed to get far enough away from Greg to bury myself under snow and leaves. But before I could do anything, I heard the click. The weapon fired, hitting me in the back. My ability absorbed it, but that didn’t stop it from knocking me off my feet. “No matter what you do, you will always fall, Bug. And when you fall for the last time, you will join the Forgotten.”

Greg raised his weapon to fire at me one more time when someone jumped out from the bushes and held a gun up at his head. “Put down your weapon and surrender,” the person ordered. Immediately several others came out of the bushes, all with weapons raised at Greg, who slowly put down the weapon and raised his hands. Once he was secured, the guy who I assumed was the leader turned towards me and helped me up on my feet. “It’s so good to see you again, Jamie,” he said.

The world came crashing down at that moment. He knew my name. How did he know my name?! “Ho… ho…” I stuttered.

“How do I know that is your name?” he finished. Taking off his mask, I came face to face with the third person that had confronted me on that farm. It was Frank’s son and Greg’s father. “I know your name because I helped create you.”

Well, that was the surprise of the century. “You helped create me? You know who I am?”

“Well, yes. But more on that later. My name is Cane. I’m with the Agency, and I’m so sorry about my son here. He will be dealt with soon enough.” There was so much that I wanted to ask, about myself, about Greg, about everything, but it was too soon and I didn’t know if I could even begin to trust him. Cane smiled at my uneasiness. “I see you have trust issues. I would be the same way if I was in your position. That Nancy had no idea how to care for you.” He reached into a pocket, pulled something out and handed it to me, “Here, something for you.”

It was a picture. I studied it and quickly realized that it was me in the photo. Except it was me with long hair and normal girl clothes. I was smiling. It was me before everything. It was another life, one that I still didn’t remember. “This is me?” I had ask, even though I knew the answer.

Cane gave me a sad smile. “Yes. Taken days before you disappeared.”

I hugged the photograph, now a prized possession. “Who am I?” I asked, truly desperate to know.

Cane sighed, “It’s not who you are. It’s what you are. I’m sorry if you thought… you know…” I shrugged, having expected something like this. “You know what, let’s talk as we walk. If you haven’t noticed, it’s quite cold out here and walking is a good way to stay warm.” Seemed simple enough. I gathered myself, still holding the picture, and followed Cane. Greg and the other soldiers were behind me. “It’s actually kind of complicated to describe what you are. The short answer is, you are the result of Project Savior, the child of decades of work to save the world.”

“To save the world?” I asked.

Cane rubbed the back of his head, “Yeah… that’s the long answer. You see, Jamie, the world before the war was an era of superheroes. It was referred to as the Great Golden Era, except there was a dark secret unknown to everybody but a select few. Those select few resolved to stop the secret from emerging from the shadows. In that resolve, Project Savior was born. Those behind it, including me, worked behind the scenes; not even the Agency knew of our project to create a new superhuman. One powerful enough to stop the Secret.” Cane briefly stopped to look at me, then resumed walking. “However, we were plagued with failure after failure. Every child died… until… well, you, Jamie.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you. You were our success. You were supposed to be the Savior. Everything was going great for us, at least until it happened.” Cane grew silent, seemingly recalling something.

I knew immediately that something bad had happened, most likely the reason that I was on that farm. “What happened?” I inquired.

Cane stopped and looked down at me. “Everything was going according to plan, until something went wrong. We don’t know what happened, but the resulting blast destroyed the facility and you were presumed dead.”

That seemed depressing, but I immediately thought back to the vision I’d had back in the house. A part of it was of an explosion. I wonder if that was the explosion Cane was referring to. “Ah… I guess you recognized me on the farm?” I asked sheepishly, recalling what I had done to their door.

Cane shook his head. “Not at first. But when I heard that you weren’t affected by the crystal in a trap my son laid for you, I immediately knew that you had returned, after all this time. You have no idea how much I was overcome with relief when I realized it was you.”

Taking in all this information about what I was, I too felt a great relief wash over me. The secrets of my mind were finally being revealed to me. Not in the way I was expecting, but hey, it worked. I was less than thrilled to find out that I was some experiment cooked up in some lab, but at least I finally knew. “What will happen to me now?” A question that still remained on my mind.

“Well, since your current guardian is dying and will be dead very soon, I’m planning on taking you straight to one of the facilities the Agency operates, just to make sure your abilities are working correctly.” I stopped in my tracks at the realization that the old lady was dying. “Oh, you didn’t know, did you?” Cane said, noting my sudden stop, “It’s a shame. The cancer has been eating at her for years. The survival mechanism of an ability is the only thing that has allowed her to survive this long. Too bad it’s completely burned out. Nancy only has maybe a few hours, a day at most to live.”

I felt sick to my stomach hearing this. The old lady, who’d taken me in, had probably only told me what she did because she wasn’t going to survive another day and felt that I deserved to know. And I’d responded by walking out on her. What have I done? I walked out, ignored someone who… “loved me,” I whispered, realizing finally, after all this time, that the old lady had grown to love me. She truly was my family, even if she’d made mistakes. I needed to get back somehow.

Cane put his hand on my shoulder, “It’s nothing to worry about. She held you back and I’m going to make sure that you will reach your greatest potential.” Cane started walking once again. It was strange that we were heading deeper into the woods. I figured that he must have had a car waiting on the other side, as his team had appeared out of nowhere, but sudden thought made me question. How did Cane and his team know where Greg would be? And speaking of Greg, why did he choose to confront me alone? “Oh, Jamie, I’m sorry about my son. I wasn’t the best dad for him and you suffered for it.”

Dad… dad.... DAD! My mind raced back to my first day at Providence Meadows, my memory flashing with my first encounter with Greg that morning. After he showed the scars that were on my arms to his friends, he said that he wasn’t done with me and neither was his dad. I always thought that he meant Frank, but what if he didn’t? It was clear that Frank wasn’t Greg’s father, so why did Greg say that? If Cane was sooo relieved at my appearance, then why did Greg even bother to mention his dad? I’d thought Frank was the bad guy. I also remembered what Greg did that day, showing the scars that littered my arm. If I was such a creation, then why did I have so many scars and bruises when I first woke up at that farm? Looking down at the photo that Cane had given me, I realized something was very much off about the photo. I recalled the girl in the river and realized I was mistaken about her appearance. The girl’s hair was pure black, not brown, and I distinctly remembered before the pinkness took over most of my hair, the color of it was very much brown. The face, while very similar to my own, wasn’t exact. The girl in this photo wasn’t me. It was the girl that I’d seen in the forest in my vision. Cane was lying to me.

This explained everything. Greg and Cane were working together, Greg attacking me so Cane could come in and ‘rescue’ me in order to gain my trust. Frank was never my enemy. He was just an asshole. It was Cane that was the mastermind behind the events the school and at the party. He was the true villain. Stopping, I took a defensive stance. “Who are you really?” I demanded, prepared to fight once again.

Cane stopped, turned to face me, his face overcome with insanity and started laughing. “Well… well… well… nothing can escape from your sight. You are just as stubborn as the day we captured you.” By that one sentence, I knew immediately that Cane was lying about everything. Cane snapped his fingers; the guards who had been following close behind us and who were holding Greg down let go of him, and they all stood with their weapons pointed at me. “Some of it was true. You were there when it happened, we both were. For years, we looked for you, and imagine my surprise when you turn up at my farm. But I had to be sure. That’s why I arranged for the Destructors to set that little trap. What I didn’t expect was your immunity to the crystal and you inadvertently causing the vast majority of the gang to be captured.”

I pointed to the others that had come with him. “Then what are these guys? Some asshats you picked out of the trash can?” All the others removed their masks, revealing themselves to be teenagers, just like Greg. I recognized them from Providence Meadows. Immediately, I knew they were Destructors, even if they were never at the party. It was trap from the beginning. Cane must’ve kept these Destructors away from the party to ensure that whatever outcome I caused, he would still have enough to draw me away from everybody and trap me when my powers gave out. All he had to do was wait and my anger at the old lady allowed me to walk right to him.

“I’m judging by the look on your face, you have figured it out. Kumiko must be so proud.” Kumiko? “It doesn’t matter, though,” Cane continued; “they want their weapon back, so I’m taking you back.” So many questions, like who was Kumiko and who were they, but they are for later. Right now, I needed to get away as quickly as I could. Before I could move, Greg took aim at me with his weapon and fired, barely giving me any time to move my hand to block.

When the energy hit my hand, something strange happened. The energy, instead of being reflected like before, was absorbed into my body through my hands. I could feel the surge of power, my energy reserves being restored by the power, buying me even more time to fight off Cane and his Destructors. All the Destructors took a step back, except Cane. It was all I could do to give them a petty smile in return, knowing exactly what to do. Concentrating, I let a good chunk of the energy I’d absorbed flow back into my hands and with the biggest “fuck you” smile I could muster, I slammed my hands together as hard as I could. It stung like hell, but the energy blasted out of my hands, knocking everybody but me on their butts, stunning them, giving me the opportunity to run away.

I didn’t have an exact goal in mind, but I couldn’t lead them back to the old lady. I needed to get rid of them in such a way that they couldn’t follow me back to the old lady’s house. But that did make me think. What would I even do when I got back? I knew the old lady was sick, but I didn’t realize that she was that sick. Strange that I knew what cancer was, but regardless, what exactly could I do to help her? I mean, sure I was powerful, but curing cancer seemed a little beyond my abilities.

Running as I thought over this, I came to a screeching halt when a sudden memory flooded my mind. The cat, Woodsy. I thought I’d shocked it back into consciousness, but if I didn’t? Was I really that powerful that I could heal or even bring the cat back to life?

A hand over my mouth brought me to full attention and I started to fight whoever it was. “Quiet, I’m on your side, Bug.” I immediately recognized the voice. I quickly broke free and turned around to come face to face with Frank and two others. All three were carrying military rifles and were dressed in all black, explaining why I hadn’t noticed them sneaking up on me.

“Like hell you are, Frank.” I spat, albeit quietly to keep Cane from hearing me, who by now had no doubt recovered from my attack.

Frank raised his hands up in defense. “Look, I know, but right now, we have bigger problems. I only found out about Cane’s plan hours ago and we need to hurry if we are to save Wren and take down the Destructors once and for all.”

“Take down the Destructors? Dude, you practically helped them back at the gym,” I countered.

“Yes, but we can discuss this later. Right now, I need your help to rescue Wren and stop my son and grandson,” Frank replied.

I crossed my arms and stayed back away from him. “What makes you think after all you have done, after all that you have said, hell, after what happened in the gym that I would trust anything that you would say?”

Frank sighed. “Nancy Rodes is your guardian. Her youngest son is General Frederick E. Rodes, Commanding Officer of the Third United States Army. I served directly under him for sixteen years, fighting every battle. Frederick trusted me with his life.”

I had heard only small bits from conversations I overheard, but it seemed like Frederick was a legend in the world. If Nancy’s son trusted this asshole… “Sooo?”

“So now I need your help to save my granddaughter, Wren. Cane brought her along as a backup and I need to get her to safety. Bug, I can’t do it without you.” I steamed. I sooo wanted to ditch this guy. “Bug, look, what happened at the gym, the ball, the things I said, it wasn’t an attack against you, at least not on my end. I had to play along, to keep Cane and the Agency from growing suspicious. I just didn’t realize how deep it went. Look, I will explain everything later. I promise, but right now I need your help. Once we save Wren and stop Cane and Greg, you can get back and help Nancy. Please, Bug. I know you don’t want to trust me, but Wren needs your help and plus, if we stop Cane and Greg, you can get back to Nancy and help her.”

I so wanted not to believe him. I so wanted to hate his ass and punch him all the way to next Thursday. It took every ounce of being not to do that right now. But I did have a thought. Cane had clearly set the trap for me. I didn’t want to believe Frank, but my gut told me that Frank was telling the truth, meaning he wasn’t a part of the plans to capture me. And Wren, she didn’t deserve this. “UGH… fine!”

The sounds of voices and footsteps suddenly grew louder. Cane and his team had recovered from my attack. Frank looked over his shoulder, then jogged up, grabbing my hand and running in the opposite direction. “Soooo, while we are running for our lives, can you explain something? Why now chose to turn against the Destructors? Why not before so you could’ve avoided putting Wren in danger?”

“Actually, I never was part of that gang. The long story I’ll explain later, but the short answer is I only got back to the States a few days before you showed up on the farm, the first time in sixteen years. I’ve been in East and Southern Asia fighting a war, spending my leaves in Singapore, planning military operations to for Chinese Liberation Army,” Frank briefly explained.

“Uh… what?” I was confused now.

“See, the government always wanted to stop the Destructors. The story I heard from Singapore was that the police in the Valley was a bit underpowered. The Destructors provided a sense of order in the areas that the local police don’t have the manpower to patrol, at least until you inadvertently caused their downfall. As for my grandson, I knew he was a member of the gang; I didn’t approve of it, but there was nothing I could do. I was more concerned with helping in the Asian Theater than being a grandfather to my grandson. However, I had no idea that he was the leader of it, nor did I know that my son Cane was deeply involved in it,” Frank explained.

Oh man, this was giving me a headache and Frank said this was the short version. “This is just so nuts.” I rubbed my forehead as I ran. “Okay… what do I need to do?”

“You need to get Wren away from Cane and take her far away, maybe even to Nancy’s house,” Frank replied.

Uh… there was a big problem with that. “And leave you and your buddies to face Cane and his Destructors alone? Wouldn’t it be better that I face Cane while you took Wren away?”

“Don’t worry about Cane, Bug. This is technically my fault anyways. I wasn’t home when I should’ve been,” Frank said, his eyes now full of sorrow. Perhaps Frank wasn’t the monster that I’d thought. His actions seemed to have caused his granddaughter to get caught in the crossfire.

Resolved, I skidded to a halt. “Alright, look, you owe me an explanation after this, especially after all that you did. But for now, I… I can’t leave you three alone to face Cane, Greg, and the Destructors. Greg alone has a weapon that I barely blocked. It would kill all of you in one shot.”

The three looked at each other, then laughed at each other, “Oh Bug,” Frank started, shaking his head in amusement, “There is a lot that you don’t know yet. You may have indirectly taken down the core of the Destructors, but before you showed up, there was a group that arose a few years ago to fight and overthrow the Destructors. I’m surprised you haven’t heard of them yet.”

“Uh… seeing that you didn’t know about your grandson and son being part of the Destructors, I’m surprised you’ve heard of them.” I pointed out.

Frank smirked, but his eyes had changed. Something wasn’t right. “Of course I’ve heard of them. The whole world has. You see, before the war, there were hundreds, maybe even thousands of superhero teams out there all across the world. Now, fourteen years after the war started, there are only six teams remaining. It so happens that one is based in this area due to Providence Meadows, and I have called them for backup.”

Two Destructors appeared from behind two trees, aiming their weapons at us. “Put your hands up,” one of them demanded. Somehow they’d managed to sneak up on us, but Frank didn’t flinch. He didn’t move, he didn’t even blink. Neither did his two companions. They just stood there. “Do you want to die? Put you damn hands up!” the Destructor demanded again.

Suddenly and without warning, something dropped down from the trees above right behind the two Destructors. It grabbed their heads and slammed them together, knocking them out cold. Taking the weapons the two Destructors had, it balled them like paper before throwing them away.

More figures appeared, riding on... what’s their name?... horses! In total, ten people had gathered next to Frank and his two buddies, all looking at me. One of them got down from the horse and took off their hoodie. “Sybil?” I found myself staring at my friend from the school.

She smiled and gave me a thumbs up. “Hey Claire, how’s it hanging?”

Frank held up his hands, introducing the group, “Bug, let me introduce you to one of the six superhero teams left in the world. The team that will help me take the Destructors down once and for all. The Creators.”